The figures are shocking - 40% of American women and nearly a quarter of American men have been sexually assaulted. While #MeToo stories have helped combat sexual harassment in the workplace, improved police interventions, and resulted in high-profile convictions, the public has only just begun to reckon with the impact sexual assault has on survivors. The ongoing silence points to the still-taboo intersection of two subjects: sexual assault and sexuality. Sex After Sexual Assault explores this crossroads through the lens of survivors' own stories. Tens of millions of people across the United States experience sexual assault, and 94% of survivors experience symptoms of traumatic stress. These symptoms, such as decreased trust, anxiety, powerlessness, and depression, may affect our sex lives. This crucial book tackles the obstacles a survivor frequently faces while rebuilding a sex life after sexual trauma: dissociation, panic attacks, physical pain, flashbacks, and more. Each chapter includes a varied selection of survivors' stories in order to normalize and uplift a diversity of healing experiences. For survivors it is a guidebook, a road map, true stories to lean on in a lonely void. Consider it a companion survivors can turn to for support, knowledge, encouragement, resources, and fellow survivors' expert insight while also providing clarity for current partners of sexual assault survivors, giving them the tools to help us through whatever obstacles our trauma histories present.
