Domestic Violence is anti-discriminatory! It affects people from all walks of life. It comes in many forms. Domestic Violence does not care if you are single, married, old, young, employed or unemployed. If affects everyone. Most people are not even aware they’re being abused. Physical abuse is only one form of DV, and most people believe this is the only form.

Here are other forms of Domestic Violence and abuse, and their warning signs.

Verbal-


Verbal abuse includes withholding, bullying, defaming, defining, trivializing, harassing, interrogating, accusing, blaming, blocking, countering, diverting, lying, berating, taunting, putting down, discounting, threatening, name-calling, yelling and raging.

Emotional-

Rejecting, ignoring, terrorizing, isolating, denial and blame. Will use any kind of tactic to wear the abused down. Emotional or psychological abuse can be verbal or nonverbal. Its aim is to chip away at your feelings of self-worth and independence. If you’re the victim of emotional abuse, you may feel that there is no way out of the relationship, or that without your abusive partner you have nothing. Emotional abuse includes verbal abuse such as yelling, name-calling, blaming, and shaming. Isolation, intimidation, and controlling behavior also fall under emotional abuse. Additionally, abusers who use emotional or psychological abuse often throw in threats of physical violence.


Mental-

Mental abuse is usually a culmination of verbal and emotional. When we think of its long-term effects; Verbal, Emotional, and Mental combined; the resulting issue is- Domestic Violence. A person doesn’t have to beat us physically to be abused.

Financial-

This is where the spouse will withhold finances to control. The abuser will often demand to know what the money that was given was spent on. Which can erupt into an episode of abuse (in one form or another) when the abuser does not accept the answer. The abuser will think the victim is lying. The abuser controls all the finances (i.e. credit cards, pay checks, welfare checks, bank accounts, any source of income). The abuser will do this in order to further control the victim and how much time is spent away from the home.


These are just a few forms of Domestic Violence.