Defining and explaining sexual harassment

Health Watch

What is sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment often falls under the umbrella of sexual assault.
While the definitions of both sexual assault and sexual harassment include non-consensual sexual contact, there are some distinct differences.
The term “sexual harassment” is often used in a legal context.
Sexual harassment includes:

  •  UNWANTED sexual advances or contact;
  • Harassing a person on the basis of their sex;
  • Making offensive comments or jokes about a particular sex; and,
  •  Pressure to go on a date or perform sexual favours,

Sexual harassment can occur anywhere, but many of the laws that protect people who may experience sexual harassment refer to harassment in the workplace.
The broader definition of sexual harassment can include cat-calling, making sexual gestures or comments toward a person, staring, referring to someone using demeaning language such as “babe” or “hunk”, and giving unwanted or personal gifts.

Mental health issues resulting from sexual assault
After sexual assault, survivors may feel their bodies are not really their own.
Survivors often report feelings such as shame, terror and guilt.
Many blame themselves for the assault.
Due to the trauma and negative emotions linked to sexual abuse, survivors may be at risk for mental health conditions. Survivors of sexual abuse may develop:

  • Depression – the loss of bodily independence is often difficult to cope with.
    It can create feelings of hopelessness or despair. It may also reduce one’s sense of self-worth.
    Depressive feelings may be mild and fleeting, or they can be intense and long-lasting;
  • Anxiety – the loss of bodily independence can also cause severe anxiety.
    Survivors may fear the attack could happen again.
    Some may experience panic attacks while others may develop agoraphobia and become afraid to leave their homes.
    In some cases, a survivor may develop a chronic fear of the type of person who harmed them.
    Someone who was raped by a tall, fair-haired man with blue eyes may automatically dislike, mistrust, or, fear all men who match that description;
  • Posttraumatic stress (PTSD) – someone who survived sexual assault may experience intense memories of the abuse. In some cases, flashbacks may be so unsettling they cause a survivor to lose track of surroundings.
    A person may also develop a related condition called complex posttraumatic stress (C-PTSD). C-PTSD yields a chronic fear of abandonment in addition to symptoms of traditional PTSD.
    Some people with C-PTSD experience personality disruptions;
  • Personality disruptions – sexual abuse can sometimes result in personality disruptions such as borderline personality.
    The behaviour linked with personality disruptions could be an alteration to abuse.
    For instance, a characteristic of borderline personality is a fear of abandonment. That fear might not be adaptive in adulthood.
    Yet, avoiding abandonment might have protected someone from sexual abuse as a child;
  • Attachment issues – survivors may find it challenging to form healthy attachments with others.
    This is especially true among children who have been abused.
    Adults who were abused as children may have insecure attachment patterns.
    They could struggle with intimacy or be too eager to form close attachments; and,
  • Addiction – it is likely that abuse survivors are 26 times more likely to use drugs.

Drugs and alcohol can help numb the pain of abuse. Yet, substance abuse often leads to the development of different concerns.

  • Next week’s edition: Mental health issues resulting from sexual assault.