Overview
The world may seem different than before
Possible mental and physical reactions
Depression, Anxiety, PTSD
Survivors often need help to move on in life
Finding ways to take care of yourself
Your rights as a survivor
Maybe you feel that this is not the case for you, that what happened to you was not a human rights violation? Maybe you are not sure? If this is the case, we encourage you to read the rest of this letter and the information on this page anyway. It might give some helpful information and you might learn that what happened to you actually was a human rights violation.
Human rights violations are illegal by international standards, and they are horrific and extremely unjust. What may have happened to you should never have happened to you neither to any human being. Because you are a human being, you have rights. Every human being in the world has the same human rights. And these must under no circumstance be violated.
We hope that the information that we give you in the following can help you to take some first steps to move on in life.
The world may seem different than before
Because of the abuse that you may have been exposed to, you may experience going through a difficult and painful time. Maybe you feel like the world seems different from how it used to be, like it is not quite the same as it was before? Maybe your feelings about, or relationship to yourself and people around you seem different? Maybe it is difficult to talk to family and friends about what happened, or maybe you do not want to talk about it to anyone? Maybe you find it difficult to spend time with other people? Maybe you find it difficult to trust people?
These feelings are common. Many people may feel this way after having gone through something very difficult and extremely unjust. It is also possible that you do not feel this way, but that you are experiencing other difficult things. Whichever feelings and reactions you have after the abuse, these are understandable and common reactions to what happened. It is like this because of the abuse, and it is never your fault.
In the following, we will say something about different psychological and physiological symptoms or reactions that are common after abuse. Maybe you experience some of them, maybe many of them, maybe almost none of them, or maybe you experience other types of symptoms? You are not alone in experiencing symptoms, this is common and understandable, and we want to let you know that most symptoms will go away after some time. Sometimes however, and especially when the abuse was extremely grave and maybe happened multiple times, symptoms may last for a long or very long time, sometimes for decades. Sometimes symptoms may disappear for a while and then reappear again. This is not abnormal and it does not mean that you are “crazy”. Most people will need different types of support in order to move forward.
Click here to see the possible mental and physical reactions
Depression, Anxiety, PTSD
On this shelf you can find curated information about psychological reactions to traumatic events.
Depression overview
2023Harvard Health Publishing
Depression is more than just a passing blue mood, a “bad day,” or temporary sadness. The most common symptom is a low mood that can sometimes appear as irritability. Often the person with depression is not able to enjoy activities that he...
Depression & Anxiety “I NEED HELP NOW!”...
2024LGBT HERO
Sharing reliable, easy-to-understand info on everything from mental health to sexual health, coming out, gender and sexuality, hate crime, discrimination and more.
Anxiety
2024Harvard Health Publishing
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations like taking a test or giving a presentation. Anxiety can be beneficial as it helps increase your focus and keeps you alert for danger when the situation warrants it. However, when feelings of fear ...
Grounding exercises
MHHRI
Here you can find a list of grounding exercises. Grounding exercises can help to handle dissociation or flashbacks, and reducing the symptoms of anxiety and panic. It is important to practice the exercises again and again until the skill becomes auto...
A Guide to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
REmilitary
A site for military personnel and others, with a list of facts and resources for patients and their family members who are coping with PTSD, as well as medical professionals assisting with the care and treatment of PTSD patients.
Survivors often need help to move on in life
Individuals who have experienced severe abuse are usually referred to as either a “survivor” or a “victim”. In this letter and on this webpage, we use the word survivor. Often survivors will need help with their first steps of taking back control in their life. However, it may be difficult to talk about what happened. Sometimes it does not feel right to talk. Sometimes survivors even feel some kind of shame about what happened, and therefore do not want to talk about it to other people. Talking about what happened can also be dangerous. You might want to protect others by not telling them or having been told by the perpetrators that they will come back if you tell anyone what they did to you. Maybe it is too terrible to tell someone. Maybe there is no language that can describe it or maybe you are worried that people will not believe you if you tell them what happened. We want you to know that help and support does not necessarily mean that you need to tell someone about what happened.
When it is possible, support from somebody – feeling that you have people who support you – may be important. Social support can be from a partner, family, friends, a neighbour, a colleague, a social worker, someone from a political or activist group that you were part of or just somebody in the village, town or city where you are or somebody else. This support can take many forms, and we have also written a letter specifically for people who are supporting a survivor. Some survivors are close to others who have been targeted by severe human rights violations and might give support to each other. The most important is that the support is respectful and understanding of your needs as a survivor.
Finding ways to take care of yourself
Sometimes, for different reasons, there may be nobody that can support you. Or you may spend time alone and find this difficult. It is important to try to find ways to taking care of yourself. There can be many different ways of doing this. Maybe you can have a flower or plant, and take care of it? Maybe some grounding exercises – as explained under the heading Self-care: grounding exercises on this page – can be of some help? and here you can find more tools.
Maybe going for a walk outside may help you, if it is safe outside, or listening to some music that you like or read a book that you enjoy? If it is safe to use the internet, maybe you can communicate with people there? Maybe there is something else that may be helpful to you?
Your rights as a survivor
As a survivor of a human rights violation, you have specific rights. These rights are the right to redress and the right to rehabilitation and include services and resources that survivors are entitled to. Internationally, a lot of people and organisations work to ensure that survivors are treated with dignity and respect, and that survivors are provided a basis from which to move on in life. These rights mean that you as a survivor should receive help and compensation in order to being able to move forward and to live a good and independent life. The forms of redress and rehabilitation can include things such as medical and psychological help, monetary compensation, assistance with housing and employment, and justice.
Although survivors have the right to redress and rehabilitation, this help is often not available and provided. It can also be difficult and even dangerous to report a human rights violation, making it very difficult for the survivor to claim her or his rights. Unfortunately, on many occasions, survivors do not receive the help that they should. We therefore have included some resources on this website that we hope can be of help to take the first steps in order to move forward in life.
We hope this information is useful, you can find more resources in the menu on this page.
Best wishes, the MHHRI team