Our Wave Home
Menu

Answering your questions.

Here are some answers to questions we have received in the past from our survivor community. We hope these answers can help survivors, advocates, and the general public learn more about trauma and survivor healing.

Submit a Question

Filter Questions

Understanding Trauma & Violence
Managing Trauma Impact
Meaning Making
Seeking Help After Trauma
Supporting Survivors
Sharing Your Story
Healing Week
Understanding Trauma & Violence

Child-on-child sexual abuse (COCSA): Can a victim be older than their perpetrator?

Read Answer
Sharing Your Story

Why can sharing your trauma story be therapeutic?

Read Answer
Sharing Your Story

How can I explain to my Mom that I mentally blocked out my sexual assault for two years?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

How do I continue to heal while attempting to build a new relationship? How do I break old habits of dependency or fear of my partner?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

If somebody perpetrates sexual assault as a young teenager, what are the odds they will they do it again?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

Discuss how cyberbullying of members of LGBTQ+ community could cause psychological harm.

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

I was sexually coerced by a friend of mine. I feel so guilty for avoiding him and feel as though I am doing the wrong thing, but I oscillate between hating him and not wanting him to feel bad/excluded. I hate feeling this way. Is this normal after assault by a friend?

Read Answer
Seeking Help After Trauma

How do I tell my parents I was raped as a teenager?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

Is it normal for me to begin to forget my assault? I feel as though I am making progress and now I am forgetting what it was like to be assaulted and the memories are fading. Does this mean I overplayed the event or is this normal?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

Is it normal for me to miss the person who assaulted me? I even feel jealous when I learn other people get their attention positively or even negatively.

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

Why do I get sexually aroused when thinking about my childhood sexual assault?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

Is it considered sexual abuse if the age difference is 6 1/2 years, and the abuser is over 18 years old?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence
Seeking Help After Trauma

Can there be medical evidence 10 years later after experiencing sodomy, rape or sexual assault?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

Is grooming always between a grown adult and a child?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

I think I might've been groomed and sexually abused as a child, but my memory feels very scrambled. I feel guilty for thinking I might've been assaulted, what do I do?

Read Answer
Meaning Making

Can I even call myself a survivor if it only happened a week ago? I'm not even over it.

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

How can I move from a victim to a survivor mentality?

Read Answer
Seeking Help After Trauma

How do I recover from my rapist getting his charges expunged?

Read Answer
Seeking Help After Trauma

Do you have legal advice for victims who are experiencing violence?

Read Answer
Seeking Help After Trauma
Supporting Survivors

What advice do you have for the victims who are currently experiencing violence?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence
Meaning Making

Am I still allowed to call what happened sexual assault when it wasn't penetrative?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence
Healing Week

Is it possible to get flashbacks despite being healed? Does feeling nothing mean I've healed?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence
Managing Trauma Impact

How do I understand why something triggers me?

Read Answer
Meaning Making

How do I deal with family members who do not take my traumatic history seriously?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

What should I do if my partner pushes my boundaries in a way that makes me uncomfortable?

Read Answer
Meaning Making

How does forgiveness play into trauma recovery?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

What is the rape kit backlog and what are my evidence collecting options?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

How can I deal with the mental and cognitive impacts of my trauma?

Read Answer
Healing Week

How can I celebrate the small ways I am healing from trauma?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

What is self-blame and how can I manage it?

Read Answer
Seeking Help After Trauma

What should I do if I am unable to leave an unhealthy environment?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

How can I deal with “bad days” when I am healing from trauma?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

Since my attack, I’ve had sex. However, I can’t seem to feel…connected. It’s like I’m just going through the motions. I’m afraid to open up emotionally to anyone, and I’m not sure how to get past that.

Read Answer
Supporting Survivors

I know someone who is physically abused by her husband, but she won't ask for help or file a complaint. She is scared because she has 2 small children and is also not independent financially. How can I help her?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

What is the cycle of abuse and how can this cycle be broken?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

I was sexually harmed by someone of my own gender and now I identify as LGBTQ+, does this mean my experience made me gay?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

How do I make this discomfort and confusion to go away?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact

Every year on the anniversary of my trauma, I feel a fresh pain deep down. I’m even triggered by holiday preparations, certain drinks, and other things that remind me of the season. How can I best support myself on an anniversary I don’t want to remember?

Read Answer
Understanding Trauma & Violence

I don't want to believe I was assaulted as a young child because I know this person very well and can't see it in them to act this way but I can recall details and have vivid flashbacks. What should I do? How do I seek help for this?

Read Answer
Managing Trauma Impact
Seeking Help After Trauma

How can I be in a functional relationship after experiencing trauma? Why do I feel so ashamed? Will I always feel this way?

Read Answer

Safety Exit

Resources