Whenever we see someone being abused, we often ask ourselves… how did that happen, especially to a person who’s strong and independently minded? Today, it’s really hard to spot the signs of abuse in a relationship. And we never know who are those people that have tendencies to be abusive. It’s also hard to tell if someone you know is being abused, unless you see the marks on her/his skin.
Perhaps the person you know blames herself or himself of what happened. Perhaps the person you know tells herself or himself that everything is going to go back to normal after the abuse. Perhaps on some level that person believes she or he deserves to be treated wrong. The challenge is for you to spot this kind of abuse in relationship, as a friend and as someone who wants to put an end to domestic violence.
The signs of an abusive relationship vary with the age of the victim and the type of abuse. Signs of child abuse are actually comparatively easy to spot. You see, children are not quite as good at hiding things.
Often times, victims of abuse will tell you about the situation on some level. To be able to spot the signs of child abuse, you must observe how the child behaves. For example, if the child has physical marks on her or his body that she or he can’t explain, she or he might be in an abusive relationship. Same thing if a person is too quiet and withdrawn or moody.
It can be a bit harder to spot the signs of abuse whenever an adult is being physically abused. It’s because the victims would rather keep the situation to themselves rather than put themselves and their abuse, a partner or a parent, into shame.
When the victims jump to their abusers aid, they are not just trying to convince themselves that the situation is normal and their relationship is not abusive. Keep in mind, that victims, as much as they can, will give sorts of reasons why do they deserve to be hit and to claim that the it’s just an isolated case.
What’s even more difficult to spot are the signs of emotional abuse. This is because there’s no definite meaning of where emotional abuse begins, generally, it’s all subjective. And that’s the biggest challenge in spotting the signs of emotional abuse. You must get out of the relationship if you feel you are berated and excessively criticized. Don’t wait until your partner hits you before you take action.
