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e-mail hoaxes
How many times have
you received an e-mail telling you of the latest threat to women. These include e-mails about the man, who gets you to smell perfume, you will then fall asleep (because it's chloroform) and abducted. Or the one when there's a little old lady waiting in your car when
you get back to your car, who has had a funny turn and sat down in your car because the door was open(who is really a mad axe murder just waiting to strike)

If there was a real threat, such as these, it would make headline news.
You can check out whether or not this is an 'urban legend/hoax/scam by using websites like www.urbanlegends.com

Most importantly - don't forwad on these e-mails - delete.

Personal Safety and You

Safety can relate to any number of situations and/or experiences.  For the purpose of this page we will refer to of safety, threat and associated feelings in relation to rape and sexual abuse.

What is Personal Safety?
Personal safety refers not only to physical safety (freedom from physical harm) but also to psychological safety, which involves freedom from worry about physical safety as well as being victimized by hostility and aggression.
http://www.tru.ca/hsafety/workinglearningsafely/personal.html

When you feel unsafe you can feel sick, sweaty, anxious, panicky, your stomach can be churning, you can get tunnel vision, your heart will be racing,

The Five F’s

Defensive fear responses: When human beings are faced with a threat situation it is likely they will do one of the following:

• Friend - Active Defence
• Fight    - Active Defence
• Flight   - Active Defence
• Freeze - Passive Defence
• Flop    - Passive Defence

Friend is the earliest defensive strategy available to us.  At birth the human infant will utilize their cry in order to bring a caregiver to them.  The non-mobile baby has to rely upon calling a protector to its aid, in the same way that the terrified adult screams in the hope that rescue will come.  The social engagement system, or friend response to threat, is evident in the child who smiles or even laughs when being chastised.  To smile when fearful is likely to be an unconscious attempt to engage socially with the person causing the fear. 

Fight as a survival strategy, is fairly self explanatory.  The threatened individual may respond with overt aggression or more subtle ‘fight behaviours’, for example saying “no”.  It is important to remember, the people most like to utilize the fight response are those who have been trained, for example Police Officers and people in the military.

Flight: any means the individual uses to put space between themselves and the threat.  It may involve sprinting away from the perceived danger, but is more likely exhibited as backing away or, particularly in children, as hiding.   When the brain deems that friend, fight or flight are not likely to be successful it will elicit a freeze response.  Levine points out that immobility has several advantages to mammals when threatened by a predator, namely: that the predator has less chance of detecting immobile prey; that many predatory animals will not eat meat that they consider to be dead. (Levine, 1997)

Flop occurs if, and when, the freeze mechanism fails.   The body will shift from a position of catatonic musculature tension (as is observed in ‘freeze’) to a ‘floppy’ state, whereby muscle tension is lost and both body and mind become malleable.  The survival purpose of the flop state is evident: if ‘impact’ is going to occur the likelihood of surviving it will be increased if the body yields, and psychologically, in the short-term at least, the situation will be more bearable if the higher brain functions are ‘offline’. 

Survival  Because the purpose of the five Fs is survival, success will be gauged in survival terms; “success doesn’t mean winning, it means surviving, and it doesn’t really matter how you get there.  The object is to stay alive until the danger is past.” (Levine, 1997:96).  Whatever strategy you use it is the right one because it is what you will do instinctively.  In hindsight, people may say, “I wish I’d done this” or “I wish I’d said that” however when a person is in a threat situation they are not thinking with the same rational mind.  If a defence is successfully used it is likely to be utilized again.  If a defence system is unsuccessful it is unlikely to be used again.
Rape and sexual abuse are crimes of power and control.  We know that it is more likely for rape or sexual abuse to occur in the survivors own home by someone they know. 

How can we keep ourselves safe as adults:

• Abuse thrives in secrecy; try to seek some support from someone you trust
• Contact WRASAC’s helpline
• Create a safe place for yourself, this can be a physical place but you can also create a safe place in your mind which you can escape to.
• Try to remind yourself it’s not your fault.

If you are still in an abusive relationship/situation there are agencies who can help.  Please see our Useful Contact Information leaflet.

For information on keeping children safe from abuse please see our leaflet on Possible signs and symptoms of child sexual Abuse.

** Information courtesy of Zoe Loderick. 

Quick Links - Useful Information
Child sexual Abuse - Rape and/or Sexual Assault - Impact of rape and/or sexual abuse
-Information for family and friends- Information for workers - Flashbacks - Personal Safety - Police and Courts - Possible signs of child sexual abuse - Ritual Abuse - Self-harm - Sexual Harrassment at Work - Suicide -