Echoes: Growing Up With PTSD
A Consequence of Juvenile Rape
At 14 years old I was raped for the first time and I would not be diagnosed with PTSD for another 5 years because I felt unable to tell someone. Unfortunately my story is not an uncommon one. In our society rape and sexual assault are incredibly common issues. In my series Echoes: Growing Up With PTSD I gave interviews to 3 women who are at varying levels of dealing with their trauma. The images based on these interviews often seem comforting at first, but become colored by the trauma described in the interviews. PTSD affects the part of their brain that allows people to distinguish between past and present memories. Many women experience triggers in places that simply remind them of the place where their trauma took place. Thus creating echoes of memories that exist in no particular space or time. By encouraging the viewer to interact with the images through the interviews they become witness to these stories as a close family member or friend would be. By encouraging more people to be active witnesses I hope to encourage more people to break their silence as I was fortunate enough to be able to break mine.
