Are you being abused? Do you feel as if you are in a domestic relationship? Domestic violence is a serious threat for women today. Women need to know the signs of an abusive relationship and how to leave a dangerous situation.
Have you ever noticed a time in your relationship where your significant other apologizes and says the hurtful behavior won’t happen again? When in actuality your fear is that it will happen again. You start to find yourself wondering whether or not you are imagining the abuse. Leading you to feel as if the emotional or physical pain you felt was real. If this sounds familiar, you might have experienced domestic violence within your relationship.
Domestic violence which can also be called Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) occurs between people in an intimate relationship. Domestic violence can take many forms, including emotional, sexual and physical abuse and threats of abuse. It might not be easy to identify domestic violence at first. While some relationships are clearly abusive from the beginning, abuse often starts slowly and gets worse over time.
Young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rates of IPV which is almost triple the national average. Lately there have been many cases in the media about domestic violence in relationships amongst celebrities or athletes which makes it seem as if it is a normal thing for relationships when it’s not. It is never okay for a man to hit a woman nor is it okay for a woman to provoke a man into putting his hands on her. Even after some physical altercations may have occurred, many women tend to stick with their men after they have put their hands on them in an unacceptable way.
The longer you stay in an abusive relationship, the greater the physical and emotional toll is going to be. Later you will become depressed and anxious which you’ll begin to doubt your ability to take care of yourself. This can also lead to you wondering if the abuse was all your fault. All of these things can make you feel helpless or paralyzed. There is only one way to break the cycle and that is to take action and the sooner you do this the better off you’ll be. You can start by telling someone about the abuse, whether it’s a friend, a loved one, or even a close teacher. At first, you may find it hard to talk about the situation, but you will feel relieved after you have talked it out.