I thought you did really well! Hope all is well with you, kind regards, Larry :)

By "people" I can only assume you mean non qualified people, like alleged mates etc?? But whichever, I would argue it isn't the experience itself which traumatizes a person, it's the effect of it. For some, they could have a spider crawl over their arm and they'd just flick it off. For me, I would go "mental". screaming, shaking, sweating and wanting to incinerate the whole house to be sure of getting rid of the thing. As such, the psychological effect on you PERSONALLY to getting sexually assaulted cannot be quantified on some sort of scale of how bad it is, or what have you. It's purely down to how it affected you at the time and ever afterwards. All I can say to you is to try not to have too many people in your life who cannot accept you for being you and nothing else. Because if they think you are not good enough in your natural state, then you can never be good enough acting as though you are someone or something else. We're all at our best, when we are true to, and of, ourselves. Best of luck!!

I've found it's pointless trying to run away from triggers or trying to be less affected by something (triggers are out of our control essentially) - however what one can do is change the way they react to the trigger. We are so used to responding with judgment (ie. "Why am I feeling like this? What's wrong with me?") - instead try acknowledging the sensations those triggers bring about in your body (ie. "I understand you're feeling scared/anxious/fearful/guilty/angry, and that's okay. I'm here."). Think about why you're choosing to do something; for yourself? for work? for the pleasure of others? We may feel obligated/conditioned to not feel like we have a choice, when in reality we do. The sexual abuse from your ex is example enough of people taking pleasure for themselves without regard for your well being (aka. toxic abusers). My advice would be to start changing how you think about regarding the things you "have" to do and the things that you need done to grow in your happiness. A lot of social norms are conditioned ways of being, "You should do this for me, you should do this for them, blah blah," & I've found relief in letting go of those ridiculous conditions. I hope this helps, there's tons of stuff online for trigger help!

Rehana C. Thanks so much!