I had no idea that this was going on. As a woman who has experienced rape (Even if I was only 12 at the time), and everything that came to follow afterward, I find it incredibly disturbing that this happens. To say that therapy isn't a necessity after a rape is complete bullshit. The rape test alone can be disturbing, considering that not hours after you're raped, you get something else shoved up there by someone you've never met before so they can examine you. Therapy is needed to regain some sense of normalcy and acceptance of what happened. After something like that happens, you can't exactly turn to family or friends, especially those who don't know what it's like. They have no idea what to say, and to do that would only make them uncomfortable and you feel worse, because you start to think that no one knows what it feels like. That you're alone in what you've just experienced.

If I hadn't had therapy, I don't know what I'd be like today. Not only did I have one-on-one therapy, but I was also involved with group therapy with other sexual assault victims, one of which was actually a friend of mine.

I do think, after reading this, that I need to ask my father about some of the monetary aspects of my rape...