Warrior Sister, Cut Yourself Free From Your Assault

You’re More Than a Statistic More than 37% of adolescents in the United States are physically assaulted each year, and 9% of them are injured during their assault (CBS News). Roughly 1.8 million minors in the United States have experienced sexual assault. 82% of these victims are female. One in five high school girls report a dating partner has physically and/or sexually assaulted them. Girls between the ages of sixteen and nineteen are three and a half times more likely to fall victim to sexual assault than any other demographic (U.S. Department of Justice). By eighteen, one in four girls will experience sexual assault, and 23.1% of female college undergrads can expect to experience sexual assault initiated by violence, physical force, or while incapacitated (RAINN). These statistics are alarming and show how widespread and mainstream assault against our nation’s female youth and new adults is. Worse, these figures only account for reported instances and don’t even tap into one of our emergent epidemics: sex trafficking and forced exploitation.

Don’t give up all hope for humanity yet. I didn’t bring you through all those stats just to devastate you and leave you there. I open with these facts for a few important reasons. First, we should all be aware of the magnitude of physical violence young adults endure. Second, if these statistics match your own experience, you should know you’re not alone—not by a longshot. For these reasons, there should be a safe place for assault survivors to seek support, knowledge, and recovery strategies.

Views on speaking up about assault have changed in the last few years. More survivors are breaking their silence about assaults they’ve endured, which is revealing a much larger community of traumatized girls and young women. Whether you’ve been physically or sexually assaulted, one detail is constant: you suffered an unlawful bodily attack. Your trauma isn’t dictated by the so-called severity or type of your assault. Trauma from an assault is influenced by your emotional response to it, which often can’t be controlled. How you process this trauma and recover from it depend on your ability to cope and function while you restore your emotional stability and health.

You are worthy of being 100% emotionally well. If you’ve experienced an assault and still have some emotional trauma 7