Immediate Help

Imagine for a moment that you’re getting dressed for work one morning and when you put your foot into your shoe, you instantly feel a stabbing pain in your toe. You recoil and have a look: there’s a tiny scorpion cowering in the edge of your boot, pincers out and tail hovering overhead. You’ve never been so petrified in all your life. Your toe is stinging and starts to rapidly swell up as the venom enters your system.

What Do You Do?

Do you grit your teeth, take a breath and put your foot back into the shoe?

Of course not! You get rid of the scorpion as quickly as possible and then tend to your poor toe next. Seems obvious. When something threatens to disrupt the wellbeing and integrity of your body, well, you usually know exactly what to do: get away from the danger, and then turn to yourself to put thing straight again, i.e. heal.

What Is Happening Right Now? 

If your sexual assault is very recent, we need to take a second to get the metaphorical scorpion out of your shoe. You would never dream of putting that shoe back on and walking all the way to your counsellor’s office to have a casual chat about how you felt about the scorpion.

Are you safe right now? Are you in any danger? You cannot heal properly if there’s still a scorpion lingering around, so the first step to healing is making sure you have a safe space to do it in.

Remove Yourself from Danger 

If this applies to you, don’t worry about anything else for a moment. Your safety comes first. Don’t be afraid to call off sick at work or ask a friend if you can spend a few nights at their home. It can be difficult, but you need to make sure that the person who assaulted you is out of the picture, as far as is possible. 

This can be difficult if you live with them or are forced to work or study with them. Nevertheless, if you have any reason to suspect the assault can occur again, do not put your foot back in the shoe. You may have to go out without shoes, but your health and wellbeing is worth the temporary disruption.

First Steps

If your assault happened very recently, you’ll need to do a few things before you can get to the business of healing:

• Find a safe place

• It will be hard – but don’t take a shower, wash or change your clothes. If you have bruising, scratches etc., you might like to take dated pictures of these. You may never use them, but take them just in case.

• Your next step is to head to a clinic for a full examination as soon as you can. This is so your doctor can appraise your risk for infection with STDs and give you the right medication to prevent pregnancy. You may need to set up a further appointment for testing later on. The doctor will also examine any other injuries and recommend treatment.

• Ask for referrals to a rape counsellor or women’s center that can provide legal advice. You’ll be in too much shock in the moment to really process this information, but save the information as you might need it later.

• If you feel strong enough and want to, go to the police immediately to report the assault. Your clothes may be kept as evidence, so take along some extra clothes with something to freshen up. Making a report at a police station can be quite a harrowing experience, but if you go you should do it as soon as possible – take a supportive friend with you if you can. In some countries, you can claim victim’s compensation only if the crime was reported timeously.

• If your assault was recent, use the adrenaline that your body is providing to take the practical steps you need to. You can take stock and process later on.

Exercise

If relevant, visit a clinic and Police station to report the incident and get immediate medical attention. Consider bringing a close friend or a family member to help you.