This is directly copied and pasted from a step by step guide to healing from sexual trauma.I thought it was a poignant point and felt the need to share.

Writing and reading your story also helps you heal physically too,.Your amygdala has been well-trained to regard every hint of rape-like information to be a potential danger and it continually sounds alarms throughout your life that can make you suffer anxiety,panic, irritability and fear.By deeply exploring the rape story itself you re-program your brain to be less vulnerable to it's over-sensitive,over-detection of danger. There are actual changes in the way the brain functions during the process of facing your story,rape itself shifts from being a collection of generalized imprints in the amygdalic "alarm center," into a tangible conflict that your controlled rational thought brain(the frontal and prefrontal cortex) can manage.It's as if by writing and revealing your story, your brain relocates the problem away from the overly-nervous,traumatized,panicked regions of the brain and hands it over to the parts of the brain that can deflate it's power.You engage new regions of the brain in your war against rape rather than letting the same brave but overwhelmed amygdala do all the heavy lifting.