Nightmares and sleep disturbances are common. Shame, humiliation, and embarassment are characteristic. Memory may be impaired. Victims should be encouraged but not forced to express themselves. This stage can last up to a week, but many of its features may carry over into later stages.
Personal boundaries are confused, and relationships chaotic and conflicted.
Again, some of these symptoms may persist into later stages. For a prisoner who may be involved in perpetual if less violent sexual exploitation and who must continually compromise to avoid further gang-rape, this may show itself in mechanical compliance with sexual demands while remaining basically numb to the experience, and strong dependency with regard to his new master and protector. Feelings of security and protection, desperately needed, are associated with sexual performance and submission to more powerful men. Survival needs to comply with demands for a submissive role frequently overrule urges to rebel and reclaim autonomy, suppressing these but causing deep conflicts which appear as disturbances in other psychological areas. The suppression period can last for many years, even decades.