Domestic Abuse - Trying to Survive

A cold feeling overcomes you as you enter your home. You don't feel like you belong and there is a fear inside of you that can't be controlled. You're scared and you're alone. You have nothing to look forward to in life, but you are guaranteed a beating for your smallest mistakes. You are a victim of domestic abuse and the battle has only just begun.

Domestic abuse affects all groups regardless of race, religious beliefs, income level, sexual preference, marital status, or age. It is not a single form of maltreatment. It is a combination of all of the abusive behaviors which include sexual, emotional, psychological, financial, physical, and verbal. Repeated abuse has long lasting traumatic effects such as panic attacks, hyper vigilance, sleep disturbances, flashbacks (intrusive memories), suicidal ideation, and psychosomatic symptoms. Victims experience shame, depression, anxiety, embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, abandonment, and an enhanced sense of vulnerability.

Domestic abuse results in death, serious injury, isolation, emotional damage, medical issues and poverty for the victims. It is the leading cause of injury to women, and the leading cause of women's visits to hospital emergency rooms. Nationally, one half of all homeless women and children are fleeing domestic violence.

Domestic abuse dates back from the time men and women formed monogamous relationships. Domestic abuse is now a crime and women are no longer considered to be the property of a man. The abuse of a woman is ingrained in contemporary social attitudes and so it continues on.

Religious beliefs are a big cause of domestic abuse. Since the day Eve was created from the rib of Adam it provides justification that women have a submissive role within the family. This provides a man with the insinuation that a woman is on a lower scale than a man, and that it is a man's place to dominate a woman.