Teenagers need to know where love stops and abusive relationships start

an article by Holly Bourne for the Guardian

Many young women have been in an abusive relationship without even realising. A new website aims to teach them about coercive control


Repeated stalking’: Edward and Bella in Twilight. Photograph: Allstar/Summit Entertainment/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Why are we always pointing to Instagram as the cause of mental illness in our teenagers? It’s frustrating that abusive relationships, and the trauma they cause, are rarely mentioned in discussions about the prevalence of mental health problems in young people. Research by Women’s Aid and Cosmopolitan has found that a third of teenage girls have been in an abusive relationship. And, if that isn’t shocking enough, when the remaining two-thirds were asked further questions, it emerged that 64% of them had, in fact, experienced abusive behaviour – they just didn’t realise it was abuse.

Continue reading

---

How to Stop Going Back to an Abusive Relationship

a post by Asma Rahman for the World of Psychology blog



Abusive relationships are more common than you might think. It affects people at a young age and usually affects women more than men. It’s even harder to walk away from an abusive relationship when you don’t recognize it.

According to the statistics:

• 38,000,000 women will experience sexual violence from their partner.
• 40-45% of women in an abusive relationship are raped or assaulted during their relationship.
• 70% of women will suffer physical or sexual abuse over their lifetimes from their partner.

The United Nations and the World Health Organization place violence into two categories:

• Intimate Partner Violence:
  Occurs when a partner or ex-partner’s conduct causes physical, sexual, or psychological injury.
  
• Sexual Violence:
  Happens when any sexual act or attempted sexual act is done without consent or is coerced on the partner. This includes rape.
  

Continue reading

---

Twisted Love: What I Learned from Being in an Abusive Relationship

a post by Frantzces Lys for the Tiny Buddha blog


“Never wish them pain. That’s not who you are. If they caused you pain, they must have pain inside. Wish them healing. That’s what they need.” ~Najwa Zebian

Most of us don’t grow up and say we’re going to be killers.

Most of us don’t grow up and say we’re going to hurt people.

We don’t grow up thinking and planning to hurt ourselves.

But there are moments in our lives in which we’ve stepped outside of ourselves and made decisions that impair our lives. Decisions that remain with us for a lifetime.

Then we have difficulty forgiving ourselves because what we did went against everything we’ve ever believed. We wonder if this is who we’ve always been. We wonder if we’re able to change.

Continue reading

---