Sexual harassment can have a variety of short term and long term effects on a victim’s health.

1. Mental Health of a Sexually
Harassed Person
By-
Arundhati Prasad
B.A. (Hons.) Applied Psychology
A7406919042

2. INTRODUCTION
What is sexual harassment?
Any unwelcome sexual advance , request for sexual favors , inappropriate
sexual remarks or other verbal or written communication or physical conduct
of a sexual nature in a workplace or other professional or social situation.
People commenting obnoxious comments related to one’s body on their post; touching in an inappropriate
way; Abusing; etc.
It’s common in workplace, brothel house, schools, colleges etc. due to which people are getting conscious
and most of them are suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) , depression, anxiety, eating
disorder.
These days’ people are being harassed in several ways. For example:-

3. It’s important to work on the victims as they are suffering from several mental health issues. Most
of them are suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) , depression, anxiety, eating
disorder.
Many survivors report flashbacks of their harassment and feeling of shame, isolation, shock,
confusion and guilt.
Sexual
Sexual harassment can have a variety of short term and long term effects on a victim’s health.
1.PTSD ( post traumatic stress disorder)
A condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or
severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid
recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world.
2.Depression
A mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of
interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. Depression can also be
associated with thoughts of suicide.

4. 3.Anxiety
A mental health disorder characterizes by feelings of fear or worry that are strong
enough to interfere one’s daily activities. Symptoms include irritability, or
restlessness, lack of concentration, racing thoughts, excessive worry, fear, feeling of
impending doom, insomnia, nausea, palpitations, or trembling, fatigue or sweating.
4.Eating disorder
Eating Disorders describe illnesses that are characterized by irregular eating habits and
severe distress or concern about body weight or shape. Symptoms are constant weight
fluctuations, switching between periods of overeating and fasting, may become isolated
and withdrawn, engaging in ritualistic eating patterns, such as cutting food into tiny
pieces, eating alone or hiding food.
5.Schizophrenia
People who went from sexual harassment can also suffer from schizophrenia that is
people hallucinates or are in delusion and can face other cognitive difficulties.
Symptoms are thought disorder, amnesia, disorganized behavior, aggression,
disorientation, mental confusion, slowness in activity.

5. REVIEW OF LITERATURE –
The impact of sexual abuse on children: A PTSD formulation
The impact of childhood sexual abuse is conceptualized as a post-traumatic stress
disorder, and a study supporting this formulation is presented. Analyses included 71
sexually abused children and their mothers and involved measures of abuse severity,
children's attributional style, and child adjustment. Results supported the PTSD
formulation in that (a) sexually abused children displayed symptoms consistent with
the DSM-III-R definition of PTSD, and (b) individual and contextual factors thought
to mediate the impact of other forms of trauma, such as combat and rape, also
appeared to mediate the impact of childhood sexual abuse (i.e., severity of the sexual
abuse and the child's attributional style regarding the causes of positive and negative
events).

6. CONCLUSION
Sexual harassment was found to be a predictor of negative mental
health in the form of depression, anxiety and stress in nurses of public
hospitals. The association between sexual harassment and depressive
symptoms differed for employees harassed by clients or customers and
those harassed by colleagues, supervisors or subordinates. The results
underline the importance of investigating sexual harassment from clients
or customers and sexual harassment by colleagues, supervisors or
subordinates as distinct types of harassment. We found no modification
of the association between sexual harassment by clients or customers and
depressive symptoms by any of the examined psychosocial workplace
initiatives.