How To Deal With Violence

Violence is an extreme form of aggression, such as assault, rape, or murder. Its causes include frustration, exposure to violent media, violence in the home or neighborhood, and a tendency to see other people’s actions as hostile even when they are not.

Both women and men can be victims of domestic violence and it is important to understand that domestic violence is damaging to the mental and emotional health as this can weaken your self-esteem and create fear and distress.

Given the seriousness of domestic violence, it is not rare for people to experience mental health symptoms after leaving a domestic violence situation.

Forms of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence can take these various forms:

Physical: This includes violent actions such as hitting, beating, pushing, and kicking. In many cases, physical abuse becomes more frequent and severe over time.

Sexual: Includes any sexual acts that are forced on one partner by the other.

Psychological: Includes a wide range of behaviors such as intimidation, isolating the victim from friends and family, controlling where the victim goes, making the victim feel guilty or crazy, and making unreasonable demands.

Emotional: This involves undermining an individual’s self-esteem, constant criticism, insults, put-downs, and name-calling.

Economic: Examples include limiting the victim’s access to family income, preventing the victim from working or forcing the victim to work, destroying the victim’s property, and making all the financial decisions.

Effects of Domestic Violence

1 . Losing a sense of individuality

2. Lack of confidence

3. Isolation from family and friends

4. Feeling of incompetence

5. Depression

Most importantly, knowing what to do about domestic violence can help you cope with a domestic violent situation and keep yourself safe.

Here are useful tips on how to deal with domestic violence:

For the individuals,

Create a safety plan, which can include how you will stay safe during a crisis, as well as how you will stay safe when you prepare to leave the domestic violence situation permanently.

Create a list of support people such as family members and trusted friends you can contact in case of emergency or if you simply need emotional support.

Contact the court to file a protection order.

Recognize that the abuse is not your fault.

For the society,

Awareness/sensitization: Society needs awareness of the evils of domestic violence. Society should understand how to help a victim of domestic violence and what they must not do.

Enforcement of laws: Sensitization of law enforcement authorities is extremely important, to help safeguard the rights of domestic violence victims as provided under the law.

It is essential that the Police Force is adequately equipped and trained, for them to be efficient and gender-sensitive in the prevention and control of violence. This is because they are central in helping victims get access to justice.

In conclusion, domestic violence involves a variety of types of abuse, including physical assaults, verbal attacks, and emotional manipulation. If you are in a domestic violence situation, you may wonder about ways to stop domestic violence, but the reality is that relationships with domestic violence rarely improve.

It is also worthwhile to attend support group meetings or turn to a mental health provider to seek help if you find that you are struggling to cope with side effects like trauma, anxiety, or depression.