I was sexually assaulted, I can't forget what happened. I try to pretend it didn't happen but I'm struggling to cope! What do I do?

Darling, I'm so sorry for what happened. My advice would be for you to talk to someone. A therapist, someone in your family, anyone that can help you get closure over the event. Pretending that the event never took place isn't the best strategy, because one way or another, it will come back to you. Talking about it will get you to take control over the situation, and gain back your own power. I know a girl who was sexually assaulted and didn't talk about it for two years, but in those two years, she had been the most self-conscious, scared person that I have ever seen. She felt that she had lost control and power over her life, which won't help you. So my advice, talk to anyone who will listen because this memory will not go away by itself.

I’m sorry you went through this and there are several things you can do first of all you can report it to the police and if you feel scared you can contact a helpline and they will contact police automatically as they are obliged to when it comes down to these things and then you can receive help and support from police and social services. Another thing you can do is you can reach out to a local counselling organisation or business that specialise in this sort of thing this way you won’t have to talk about what specifically happened but they will help you with the emotional side of things. Obviously you may not feel ready to take either of those steps and that is totally understandable considering the nature of what you are going through. If this happens to be the case you may find that writhing how you feel down on paper into a notepad may help in such away that it gets it out of your mind and therefore may help you cope a little more or even just writing on paper and shredding it or ripping it up getting rid of that thought. Obviously we are all different so different things will work for different people and that’s totally okay hopefully one of these may help but if not I hope you will find something that will help you to cope with this very terrible thing that never should have happened to you at all.

Talk to someone you trust about it and get support. There are multiple resources available (e.g., RAINN, sexual assault clinics, family doctors, etc) and they can offer you support and connections with counselling for what happened. Talking with someone in a clinic, or whichever support you find to be the best, can help in that you won't feel alone in your recovery journey, talking with others and sharing stories of hope and recovery, and being in contact with medical (and possibly legal) professionals who can help. You can also reach out to a therapist or trained listener here on 7 Cups for more support.

I understand that it's difficult for you, difficult doesn't even describes it properly. What happened with you is very unfortunate and cruel. But to cope with it you need to stop pretending, you should accept the truth and make peace with yourself. If you really want it to stop hurting you, you need to accept it and make sure that it remains where it should, which is in the past. What happened was bad, hideous but you got a future ahead of you, a place where you don't have to suffer, but how it will be, depends on today.