there are people experiencing sexual abuse who are unable to speak out or defend themselves.
00:10
Rape victims were 5.5 times more likely to have current PTSD than
those who had never been victims of crime.
00:10
Rape victims were 6.2 times more likely to develop PTSD than women
who had never been victims of crime.
00:10
PTSD(Post Traumatic-Stress Disorder)
00:10
Almost one-third of all raped victims develop PTSD
during there timelifes; and more then one in ten
rape victims still has PTSD today.
00:13
A new study that warns that sexual assault and harassment often take
a significant long-term toll on a victim's mental and physical health,
increasing the risk not only for depression,
anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but
also high blood pressure and sleep loss.
00:13
Women who had been sexually harassed tended to be college-educated,
though they were also more likely to struggle financially.
00:18
"This study is evidence that this kind of trauma has a
real and measurable physical impact, which needs to be considered."
said study author Karestan Koenen
00:22
The study found that sexual harassment was linked to significantly
higher blood pressure -- and a 20 percent increase
in heart disease risk -- among those not already taking blood pressure drugs.
Higher blood fat levels also were observed,
as was poor sleep quality that equated to a doubling of insomnia risk.
00:22
"Not everyone will experience persistent and long-term effects following
assault or harassment. Some people are helped by being surrounded by
a lot of good social support," said study author Karestan Koenen
00:26
So this is what i'm thinking-
00:26
IF someone has been raped,
00:26
THEN their mental health is negatively impacted,
00:26
BECAUSE they have experienced a traumatic event where they did not have control.
00:33
According to the graphs above, the charts show the percentage of people with
PTSD and raped/ non-raped victims and\or violent crimes. It has a comparison
so others can better understand. The first graph shows that women who have
been raped are more likely to have PTSD in comparison to women who haven’t.
00:33
Data analysis
00:33
The second graph shows how women who are rape victims tend to turn to
substance abuse after being sexually abused. Additionally, the article by
Dr. Kilpatrick research shares, “The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there
are approximately 96.3 million adult women in the United States ages 18 or older.
00:33
If 13% of American women have been raped and 31% of rape victims have developed PTSD,
then 3.8 million adult American women have had rape-related PTSD (RR-PTSD).
” This means that a majority of women who have been raped end up experiencing mental health
disorders. This is a very large number of women walking around with a mental health disorder.
00:38
The article by Alan Mozes states, “...sexual assault and harassment often take
a significant long-term toll on a victim's mental and physical health,
increasing the risk not only for depression, anxiety
and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” This shows how being raped can have
a big impact on someone for a very long period of time. Sometimes it is not only
mental health that is hurt but their emotional and physical health too.
00:41
Real world stories and people have been able to provide this research information.
My experiment connects to the real world because there are real people out there
who have been raped. According to my research, “every 92 seconds someone is raped in
the United States.” Can you imagine how many people are being abused against their will?
Overall, the goal is to spread the word, make people knowledgeable and end this type of abuse.
00:41
In Conclusion
00:41
Rape affects someones mental health by damaging how they see some things
and how they live. Constantly, remembering how they have to live with this type
of experience for the rest of their lives can be traumatic, reliving the moments lead
to them having PTSD. My background research supports my hypothesis because it
proves that rape can impact someones mental health negativily.