Abuse of any form eats you up from the inside out. It crushes your self-esteem and disconnects you from life.
You don’t have to hide and healing is possible though. It starts with understanding the 7 types of abuse in a relationship. It isn’t just physical.
What is abuse in a relationship?
The question of what is considered abuse in a relationship can be difficult to pinpoint precisely. Most people think of physical abuse but there are many more types of abuse that people can inflict on each other. Essentially, abuse is any action or behavior that causes harm or mental anguish.
For instance, neglect and sexual abuse can sometimes come under physical abuse. Alternatively, you can also have guilt-tripping and name-calling under emotional abuse.
Regardless of the abuse, it eventually leads to mental issues such as depression. Victims often become desensitized to frequent abuse, and they take on the shame and the guilt. Nevertheless, if your gut is telling you something is wrong, then it is.
First, you need to understand what is abuse in a relationship by reviewing the following descriptions of the types of abuse. As you’ll quickly see, it’s more than just about being in a physically abusive relationship.
1. Emotional abuse
Intimidating, insulting, degrading, shaming, humiliating, embarrassing you, being condescending, not listening to you, talking over the top of you, disrespecting you (privately or publicly), making threats toward you, being possessive and overly jealous, being controlling, invading your privacy, spying on you, accusing you of bad behavior (infidelity and cheating) that they are usually engaged in.
2. Verbal abuse
Screaming, yelling, swearing, name calling, interrupting, mocking, intimidating, humiliating you with abusive language and derogatory remarks.
3. Physical abuse
Blocking you from leaving a room, grabbing you, forcing you to look at him by grabbing your face, kicking, punching, slapping, choking, biting you, pulling or grabbing your hair, ripping your covers off in the middle of the night and forcing their demands on you, making threats against you (verbally or with weapons), throwing objects, breaking things, punching walls or kicking doors, driving recklessly, confining or isolating you, or hurting pets or your children to punish you.
4. Economic abuse
Withholding money from you, not allowing you to have access to funds, forcing or coercing you to leave your job, not allowing you to have an occupation, preventing you from attending college, making you account for every penny you spend, preventing you from having access to a car, not allowing you to have your name on any assets or bank accounts, preventing you from knowing any of the joint business/financial affairs.
5. Mental abuse
Accusing you of doing bad behaviors that they have engaged in (such as infidelity); saying/doing bad behavior and then denying it and claiming that you have mental problems and don’t know what you’re talking about; twisting and distorting truth and eventually getting you to believe that you are losing your mind; mentally abusive people are very skilled at lying and manipulating.
6. Sexual abuse
Unwanted sex or touching, pressuring you for sex, forcing you to have sex or unprotected sex, pressuring or forcing you to have an abortion, sending you unwanted sexual images of themselves or others, forcing you to participate in viewing pornography, forcing you to do anything sexually that is unwanted or against your will.
7. Spiritual abuse
Forcing and manipulating you to do things against your will (forcing sex, forcing submission) by distorting scripture and threatening punishment by God if you don’t comply; preventing and denying you from doing things (such as getting a job, attending college, having access to money, having certain friends, reading and interpreting the bible for yourself, making choices for yourself, attending functions) by distorting scriptures on female submission to support their power and control of you.
