Remember the last time you had the wind knocked out of you. It brought you to your knees, eyes were stinging, you are gasping to breathe, you feel a little disoriented, and you can hardly speak.
Early on in my Air Force career I was recovering from a trauma, and I focused on just trying to breathe. I was faced with the decision to file a Restricted or Unrestricted Report against a coworker for sexual assault/conduct. I was newer, less than a year, to the organization and feared no one would believe me and also feared how my chain of command would respond to my allegations since my offender was established within the organization. These were my personal fears and because of them I decided the right path for me at the time was to file a Restricted Report.