As we strive to restore, rehabilitate, and empower survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, we provide support in a variety of areas. We provide relapse prevention led by a San Diego survivor leader. We provide budgeting and money management classes and opportunities for vocational education. One of the things we also value is anger management, which we support by CBT classes and mindfulness in our support group, along with referrals to mental health counseling. Anger can be one of the most difficult challenges survivors face in their recovery.
Some survivors come into our program with poor anger management because they have developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a mental disorder that triggers their fight-or-flight response in tense situations, and sometimes in seemingly mundane situations. When a survivor’s anxiety from PTSD kicks in, their bodily arousal elevates, making their heartbeat noticeably faster and their breathing more rigid, which can lead to an anger episode. This can stem from something as simple as a verbal disagreement, having stress from getting to or missing an appointment, or as big as being confronted with their trauma in some way. To a normal person, these things are manageable, but to a new survivor, these situations can trigger an anger response.
We must remember that survivors develop PTSD not because of these minor inconveniences but because they were conditioned for long periods of time to resort to survival mode. These women have faced physical abuse at the hands of their exploiters, homlessness, violence with weapons, extreme isolation, having their family broken apart, and repeated sexual abuse. They often experience this consistently for years at a time while exploited. Trying to live a normal life after having survived such horrific conditions is understandably a huge challenge for them!
Anger can be destructive for survivors if they do not know how to manage it. It can lead to forfeiting services because they are so angry they want to leave the structure of a program. It can affect their employment if they cannot control their anger around coworkers, managers, customers, or clients. It can lead to more stress surrounding Child Protective Services cases. It can also affect their sobriety and lead to a possible relapse if they don’t have coping mechanisms other than using drugs and alcohol. And finally, if their anger destroys everything around them, it can lead to a relapse back into sexual exploitation.
Along with the support we provide for anger management, our team also provides new survivors with grace. We understand how and why they may have anger responses that are disproportionate to the challenge they are facing, not only because we have a trained, trauma-informed staff, but also because the majority of our staff are survivors. We have been there. We know what it is like to live with trauma for years and years and then face the challenge of rebuilding our lives. It is not an easy task, but we know from experience that anger is something we can manage so that we still can achieve all our goals and live a happy, full life.
To partner with us in supporting emotional wholeness in the lives of survivors, please visit our website.
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