Topic Monday: 7 Types of Domestic Violence
Often when we hear domestic violence, we think of physical violence such as hitting, pushing, shoving, punching, kicking or grabbing. However, there are many other types of violence that falls under the heading of domestic violence. Let’s take a lot at these:
Emotional Abuse is constant criticism and belittling, silent treatment, name calling, insults, emotions to induce guilt and repeatedly making and breaking promises.
Mental or psychological Abuse is when you are threatened with bodily harm, harassed, blackmailed, have your property destroyed, isolated from family and friends, constantly being checked up on, feel that you are imprisoned in your environment and situation, and withheld access to the phone, internet, transportation and other forms of communication. This is one of the most common forms of abuse and the while the lingering effects are much deeper than physical abuse, the outward signs are much harder to see. Physical abuse often leaves scars and marks, where with mental abuse you have to notice the change in behavior and even then it is often difficult to notice. Often the abuser is so slow and methodical in implementing their plan that the person being abused does not recognize the signs until they are already deeply under the control of the abuser and have no way of leaving. I dealt with all of these forms of abuse but it happened so slowly that I did not recognize it until about half way through our three year relationship.
Spiritual Abuse is speaking falsely of God, using your beliefs to force you to do something you don’t believe in, tries to convince you that the abuser is God and you need to worship him {or her}, using scripture out of context, and uses scripture and doctrine to justify the means for what they are forcing you do {they may even try to tell you “this is God’s will}.
Financial Abuse is when another individual maintains complete control over your finances. This happened to me in one of my relationships. Your spouse may have a say in where you work or don’t work, harassing you at work, withholds money from you and withholds information about the family bills. I often was not even allowed money for simple things such as to grab lunch while I was working.
Sexual Abuse is when you are forced to have sex {rape}, have a part of your body attacked in a sexual manner, treating as a sex object, demeaning sexual remarks, have sex withheld, or forced to have sex with a third party.
Technological Abuse is manipulation of your social media accounts, hacking your email accounts, listening in on phone conversations, recording or filming conversations without your knowledge and consent, violation of privacy, tracking phone and internet usage and refusing to allow you to use the phone or internet.
Have you or someone you know been a victim of these types of abuse? Can you think of other types of abuse you’ve endure?
Tweetables: