Surviving Abuse
Unfortunately, abuse can occur in families, relationships, and even in community environments such as work or school.
If you are being abused or were abused in the past, this can have devastating effects on you. Abuse can be a one-time event, or may start out subtly and build up over time, but it relates to feeling controlled, manipulated, violated, humiliated, and/or demeaned as a person.
Sometimes people are not fully sure that they’re being abused, because the one harming them can be charming, manipulative, apologetic, or even convince them that the abuse didn’t happen.
You don’t require a physical scar or bruise to be visible in order for it to have been abused. Please know that no one deserves to be abused. Its important to seek help, stay safe, and recover from the mistreatment.
There are many different types of abuse, below are some examples.
What is Emotional Abuse?
Emotional abuse, also called psychological abuse, psychological violence, verbal abuse, or mental abuse, occurs when someone treats someone else in a way that is psychologically harmful.
Examples of emotional abuse are things like: bullying, name-calling, manipulating, gaslighting (trying to make someone doubt their own memory, perception, and sanity), denying, minimizing, or blaming someone for abuse that occurred, isolating someone from others, humiliating someone, giving guilt trips, trying to control someone, threatening to commit suicide to prevent abandonment, using cell phones or online communities to humiliate, harass, or intimidate, threatening to reveal personal secrets to others, stalking, accusing someone of cheating, threatening to take children away, yelling or swearing, intentionally frightening someone, withholding important information, making derogatory or slanderous statements, etc.
What is Physical Abuse?
Physical abuse is when someone intentionally causes physical harm to another person.
Examples include things like: slapping, hitting, punching, kicking, breaking objects, throwing things, scratching, biting, burning someone, reckless driving, physically restraining someone (e.g., pinning them against a wall), chocking or strangling, force-feeding or depriving someone of food, or using weapons or other objects to cause bodily harm.
What is Sexual Abuse?
Sexual abuse is when one person imposes any type of undesired sexual activity on someone else, or when the age of consent has been violated.
What is Economic Abuse?
Economic abuse pertains to harm related to finances and the world of work.
Examples include things like: prohibiting someone from working, forcing them to sign accounts and then ruining their credit rating, not allowing them to sign accounts and build credit, stealing from them, harassing them at work, sabotaging someone’s efforts to make a living, controlling access to family funds, refusing to work, excluding you from financial decisions, demanding to know how you’ve spent every dollar, expecting you to behave in a certain way if you are not the primary breadwinner, or demeaning your financial contributions.