RELATIONSHIP ABUSE & DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

They were the perfect couple. Wherever they went they made heads turn. Everything was perfect in their lives. They had eyes only for each other. Until one day she came home screaming in pain. Her worried parents tried calming her down, but she wouldn’t stop screaming. Finally she had to be sedated in order for her to calm down. At the hospital the shocked nurses and doctors discovered that the girl had been abused. Her body was covered with scratch marks, the skin purple and swollen at places. Upon regaining consciousness the girl confessed that she had been beaten up by her boyfriend, not once, not twice. She had been putting up with an abusive relationship for almost a year.

The question that reined right at the top of the parents minds was: Why dint she leave him? Why was she still in the relationship, even after being abused for over a year?. Reality is that there are many barriers to walking out from such a relationship. Not only are the recuperations of doing such a thing a serious issue, but there are also many factors that an abusive partner can use to prevent one from leaving him/ her; extreme cases being threats of murder or even suicide.

This brings us to the central point of discussion. What exactly is abuse? What are the forms of abuse? Why do people fall in the trap of abuse? What is relationship abuse?