Are You a Victim of Abuse?

Determining If You Are a Victim

Are you a victim of abuse? Many people may be reading this right now and saying, no, not me, however they may be wrong. There are many forms of abuse. We all hear about the biggies, those cases where a spouse is beating up a spouse or a case where one person finally has enough and it ended is death. These are the types of abuse that get national attention. There are many other forms of abuse that take place that don't get talked about like verbal and emotional abuse.

Verbal abuse takes place when someone berates you constantly. Do you live in a situation where you are hearing things like, "you are stupid", "I don't know why I married you" or "I wish you would just go away"? Often times it is children who are the victim of this type of abuse but it isn't exclusive to children, adults undergo it as well. If you are in a situation where your partner is constantly saying things to hurt you or make you doubt yourself, you may be in an abusive situation.

Emotional abuse is a little tougher to determine especially because it makes the person abused question themselves. When emotional abuse takes place, the victim is made to think that they are "too emotional" or "over reacting". In this form of abuse the abuser often times uses the victims' emotions against them. For instance, if a person is prone to feelings of guilt the abuser will use this emotion against the victim by attempting to make the victim feel badly about their decisions. Saying things such as, "you are being selfish" or "you only think of what you want" can make the victim freeze in their tracks and then attempt to do the abusers bidding so that the abuser will stop telling them that they are selfish.
These are just two types of abuse in a bevy of abusive behavior. If these sound like situations you may be in, talk to someone. The first step to dealing with abuse is admitting that you are in that type of situation to begin with.