Welcome to today’s edition of The V Word.

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Have you used drugs or alcohol to cope with sexual assault or domestic violence? Recently, I taught a class on substance abuse education. A question came up about using alcohol and other drugs to cope with violence. The relationship between sexual violence and domestic abuse and addiction is complex and reciprocal. Many addictions may form in response to being a victim of violence.
The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape in consultation with the CARON Treatment Centers has published a great resource on Substance Use and Sexual Violence.

The statistics in this resource state that:
A high percentage of adult victims were intoxicated at the time of sexual assault and are unable to give consent. This is often misunderstood as the cause of the assault, but drugs or alcohol do not assault you, perpetrators…