Eight in 10 women who seek support after experiencing sexual violence are being diagnosed with psychiatric disorders

Content warning: this article mentions sexual violence, abuse and rape.

A report by Victim Focus has looked at the experiences of 395 women who have attempted to or been successful in seeking support after experiencing sexual violence. The report explores the barriers survivors of abuse and sexual violence face.

Written by Bryony Porteous-Sebouhian

“An increasingly underfunded and over-medicalised view of their trauma”

Victim Focus, a national organisation which aims to improve the way that victims and survivors of sexual violence, abuse and trauma are portrayed and supported by mental health services has conducted a new set of research.

The report that has resulted from the research, ‘Exploring the experiences of women who sought support for their mental health after sexual violence’ has uncovered numerous barriers that survivors might face when attempting to access support, from stigma around types of abuse and trauma to stereotypes about survivors themselves.

The 105-page report also found that nearly eight in 10 women who have sought mental health support after experiencing sexual violence are being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, as a result of seeking support.

Some women in the study felt that a diagnosis helped them, with many citing that a diagnosis validated their experiences and made them feel more in control, while others felt a diagnosis was an easy way for their sexual trauma to be ‘explained away’.

One woman explained how support was withheld from her until she “accepted the BPD [borderline personality disorder] label,” the same woman went on to express that she “never believed in the BPD label, but it was the only way to access the support.”

The report found that the most common diagnoses were:

• depression (63%)
• anxiety disorder (53%)
• PTSD (42%)
• and BPD (14%)

Speaking to Stylist, Dr Jessica Taylor who is the CEO of Victim Focus and a psychologist has said that the research suggests sexual trauma is not being understood as a “legitimate response” to sexual trauma. Experiencing a wide variety of symptoms as a result of trauma, should in theory be ‘enough’ for people who have experienced abuse or sexual violence to receive help, but this isn’t what Victim Focus have been seeing Dr Jessica Taylor said.

“Instead, women are given labels of mental disorders and encouraged to take medication, which will do nothing to process the sexual violence the have been subjected to. Many women told us that they knew the root cause of their symptoms was the sexual trauma, but knew they had to accept a mental disorder diagnosis in order to get therapy or further support.”

Dr Jessica Taylor also spoke about GPs who have gotten in touch since their report was published, saying they “see this happen all the time”, where women come to them “with multiple psychiatric disorders on their files, but no mention of the rapes or abuse or trauma.”

“This positions women as mentally ill and disordered rather than validating their very real sexual trauma from rape and abuse”

The solution to this issue will not be a simple case of “stop diagnosing women with psychiatric disorders who have experiences abuse or sexual violence”. For many women, and survivors as the report exemplified, a diagnosis can be a comforting explanation for symptoms that might feel scary, out of control or distressing.

So too, might medication help some people to begin their road to healing and recovery. Instead of focusing on the diagnoses themselves as the issue, healthcare practitioners, mental health professionals, even police must begin to unlearn and re-learn what trauma is, and what it does.

A truly trauma informed approach will, take into consideration a diagnosis, if there is one, but unlike the current over-medicalisation of trauma – as a Victim Focus report pointed out – it should not take president. Instead, a focus on processing and finding ways to heal, whether that be through body work, therapies such as EMDR, peer support groups should be at the front and centre of how we help survivors.?

If the subject matter of this article has affected you, you can call Rape Crisis' helpline on 0808 802 9999?or chat with them online here. You can also seek help locally through the NHS through Sexual assault referral centres (SARCs) which you can find out more information on here.