What it really means to be in an abusive relationship
Society is very familiar with the terms physical and emotional abuse, whether it is personal or a term heard in passing. The majority of people want a happy, beneficial relationship not one that is going to cause more harm than good, yet so many people find themselves in harmful relationships. Why? People do not just find themselves in repressive relationships, there are many factors in one's life that contribute to the reasons one may find themselves victims in repressive relationships. When people think of tyranny what first comes to mind is some of the world’s darkest events and the tyrants responsible for them. More often than not, tyrants are at the forefront to blame for the suffering and death of so many innocent people. Some historical tyrants that come into mind include Adolf Hitler and a person he worked closely with, Benito Mussolini. Hitler ruled Germany with absolute authority in the years leading up to world war two, took advantage of the German people’s suffering in the wake of world war one. He was able to manipulate the German people transforming himself a symbol of hope at the time, offering the German people a way out of the crippling poverty the country was stricken with as a result of the loss of world war one. By 1998 Hitler has established a strong support system and threatened to invade Austria (tyranny citation pg 18). Austria allowed the invasion to transpire with no objections to the Nazi
There are certain groups of individuals that appear to be most at risk of abuse than others, and therefore more vulnerable. Vulnerable adults can be abused in different ways for different reasons.
Many women and men seek intimate relationships in order to fill their emotional needs of security, safety and love. Their journey starts off with their loved ones spoiling them with flattering gifts and emotional words. The love they feel is so wonderful and deep that they believe that nothing can come between them. They are so happy and convinced that they will live happily ever after with the one they love. Unfortunately, the fairytale they have dreamt about was only temporary and soon comes to an end. The love story they have ones longed for turns into a horrible nightmare. The emotional words they were once spoiled with turn into howling screams and name-calling. The flattering gifts turn into physical abuse. This relationship is referred to as domestic violence or intimate partner violence. This happens when a partner or significant other declares power, authority and control over the other partner. To maintain this authority and control, the abusive partner uses emotional, physical or sexual abuse over his victim (Alters 27). Victims will desperately look for an exit out of this relationship, but only to be blocked by numerous walls of the despair, fear and misery. Many people are convinced that victims have the option of leaving, but they are too weak and they choose not to. What many people don 't know is, victims of domestic violence have many reasons preventing them from leaving their abusers. In most cases the outcomes of leaving are
To understand the cycle of domestic abuse, one must understand what constitutes and is considered
The cycle of abuse starts when an individual is abused and then the perpetrator feels regret. The guilt leads the perpetrator to ask for forgiveness and engages in positive behavior towards the victim. The victim does not leave the abuse because he/she “perceives few options and feels anxious terminating the relationship with the abusive partner, feels hopes for the relationship at the contriteness of the abuser and does not call the police or file charges.” In addition, after the victim forgives the perpetrator the couples experiences a honeymoon stage. During the honeymoon, stage the victim is optimistic about the relationship’s nonabusive future. After the honeymoon
Abuse is any behavior that is used to control and subdue another person through the use and fear of physical, emotional, and sexual assaults. Intimate partner violence can come in many forms. I will discuss these further as well as treatment options and services that are available for individuals in these abusive relationships.
While I know what a healthy relationship consist of, it made me realize that even more women than I originally thought are probably victims of an abusive relationship. There are some women that I work with now or over the past few years that everyone in the office thinks their spouse is a “jerk” or that they deserve better but never really thought of them as a victim. A lady that I worked with recently would have to call her husband and talk to him during her lunch hour because he believed that she was cheating on him. He would also control what she wore and would not like when she would have make-up on. Her spouse would think she wore make-up to attract other men. I knew the way he would treat her was not right but never once thought she was involved in an abusive relationship. Abusive relationships to me are relationships in which one is forced to participate in unwanted sexual advances or activities and physical abuse such as hitting, chocking etc.
Abuse can come in many forms, including those that we cannot physically see. Intimate partner violence can occur physically, sexually, and psychologically and emotionally. Physical violence includes the use of physical force, such as slapping, hitting, kicking, grabbing, throwing, use of a weapon, and the like, with the intention to cause harm, injure, or kill (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Sexual violence describes violence that uses force to compel a person to engage in sexual activity against their will or ability to decline. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). And lastly, psychological and emotional violence involves harming the victim through the use of threats or coercive tactics such as, but not limited to, humiliating, controlling, isolating, or stalking (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Similarly, there are two major forms of intimate partner abuse: intimate terrorism and situational couple violence (Leone, Lape, and Xu). Intimate terrorism describes a pattern of abuse in which one partner exercises a cycle of continuous power and control over their significant other by means of physical or coercive actions that trap their victim in the relationship while, in contrast, situational couple violence refers to violence that it provoked by a specific conflict (Leone, Lape, and Xu). Overall, it is clear that intimate partner abuse occurs in a variety of ways and to varying degrees of
Her research finds that, “Intimate partner violence is experienced by at least 1.3 million women each year, who make up 85 percent of the victims.” (McVay 4). Further stating that programs continue to be funded that are ineffective for these women that are experiencing the abuse. Shockingly Kristie also found a link between attachment and partner violence, showing that “…the influence of insecure parental attachment bonds creates an individual who often develops anxious adult romantic attachment patterns leading to a greater propensity to enter into a violent intimate relationship.” (McVay 4). Understanding that these predispositions occur in childhood is pivotal in understanding how these things blossom and continue to grow throughout life within a person’s character. That parent-child relationship plays a role into all other intimate relationships. In fact, “personality/behavior problems all stem from early developed attachment patterns.” (McVay 17). Analyzing adult attachment patterns showed why some people cling to violent intimate relationships as well. Proving that just as “…infants struggle with dissociation and rejection from their caregivers, so do adults suffer from separation from their intimate partners.((Feeney, 1999) Mcvay 19). Another important aspect is defining just what intimate partner violence (IPV) is. “(IPV) is perpetrated or threatened physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, financial, or stalking violence, which includes willful intimidation perpetrated by a current or former intimate partner against another.” (McVay 54). This proves that intimate partner violence is not only physical but also emotional. It is something that negatively affects the partner, it is hard to detect, and can affect anyone, sometimes even without them recognizing it. After her study, she found that if the relationship doesn’t pose extremely dangerous
Toxic people have ways of pulling others willingly into unhealthy relationships without raising any obvious red flags. They know how to make the other person feel that every mishap is their fault while steering the blame away from themselves. Many people believe that those who are caught up in an abusive relationship allow themselves to be the other’s doormat, but the truth is that it happens regardless of how confident or smart the abuser’s partner is.
A vulnerable adult is someone aged 18 or over who may receive community care services because of a disability, age or illness, or may be unable to take care of themselves or protect themselves against significant harm or exploitation. Older people are especially vulnerable, for example those with health issues who are unwell, confused and unable to stand up for themselves due to how frail they are. Because of their defencelessness and vulnerability elderly people are more at risk to abuse. Other vulnerable adults include people who are open to abuse because of learning difficulties, physical disabilities or mental illness. Those with learning difficulties may be taken
The CDC reports that nearly half of all men and women in the United States have been psychologically abused by a romantic partner, while around a quarter of women and 1 in 7 men have been physically abused [2]. This is a dramatic difference from areas like the United Kingdom, where 8.2% of women and 4% of men have been abused [3] One in three people experience abuse by a romantic partner by the age of eighteen [4]. In 2015, 87% of hospitalized abuse victims in New York state were women, and were admitted more often than male victims [5]. This can likely be partially attributed to traditional gender roles, which assume that men are “stronger” than women and are “weak” if they are hurt by a woman.
Do you alter what you say in front of your significant other because you know they will get angry?
Domestic violence happens every day and it includes people of all races, ethnicities, color, religions, rich or poor, old or young, man or woman and physical and mental disabilities. Domestic violence happens to anyone regardless of where you live, work and how smart you are; these do not matter to the person committing the acts of violence against you. Today, domestic violence goes by Intimate partner violence defined as actual or threatened physical or sexual violence or psychological/emotional abuse by a spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend, or date (Meadows, 2014). There are other forms of domestic violence such as stalking and dating violence. Domestic violence just doesn’t occur to married couples,
Abuse can have many different meanings, there is one in particular that takes control in many Americans relationship, “physical maltreatment” (Abuse). Sadly there is an increasing amount of young adults going through an abusive relationship or were in one. Many of the people that become abusers consider violence as a normal behavior because they have witnessed it on a daily basis. They than begin to mistreat everyone that comes in his or her way. An abuser is frequently interested in controlling their victims. An abuser’s behavior is usually manipulating, in order to make their victims
According to The National Domestic Violence Hotline, the abused stay in domestic relationships due to fear, embarrassment, low self-esteem, love, and believing that the abuse is normal. For me, these are all true.