Never take your self-worth for granted, because in the end, it's all you have.
In the clouded mind of someone who has been emotionally abused, it tends to get lost in the fog.
Commonly misguided through a false hope of happiness, relationship abuse is known to be a blinding phenomenon of emotional strategies. Sometimes, evil, narcissistic people abuse their significant other, and other times, the abuse is rooted in one's one emotional abuse or neglect. In summary, it's just a result of an unstable person projecting their own problems onto the other. Either way, it's all too common in relationships, and all too often it turns into a never-ending cycle of damaging behavior. Worst of all, it turns into physical which can become deadly.
According to a report by National Domestic Violence Hotline, 43% of dating college women report experiencing violent and abusive dating behaviors. It also mentions how college students are not equipped to deal with dating abuse. "57% say it is difficult to identify and 58% say they don't know how to help someone who's experiencing it."
How can you know someone is experiencing a cycle of emotional abuse when there are no physical scars to prove it? How can someone know how deeply they are being affected mentally and emotionally when they have fallen under a brainwashing spell of abuse? How do you know when you become a victim?
You start to lose yourself, that's how.
You start to feel bad about things that once made you happy. You start to lose motivation for things you once loved. Your personality, mood, and emotions begin to slip out of your control. This is why knowing your self-worth means everything.
The National Institutes of Health reported, "emotionally abused women can be more lonely and despairing than physically abused women."
It's easy to determine visible scars, but mental and emotional abuse is repressed deep within which makes it harder for loved ones to recognize early on. Self-esteem is what suffers the most, ultimately leading to the loss of self-worth. The report also investigated the impact of different forms of abuse. It had then discovered that "women receiving services from a domestic violence agency and found that both emotional abuse and physical abuse contributed to depression and low self-esteem."
As humans, we must know the importance of our worth. If someone makes you feel bad about yourself, they're not the right person for you. If they abuse you with fear tactics, humiliation, or even simple hurtful words—they are not the one. We must learn the difference between anger and abuse.
Notice the red flags. Catch it early on. Abuse is more than physical.
The first step begins with putting yourself first.
Sheetal Tadiparty
Flickr Creative Commons
