Disclaimer: The following information serves as a guide on some of the dangers of domestic violence and ways you can use to avoid it and shouldn’t replace qualified legal advice. For further information about what you can do as a victim of domestic violence, you should contact a licensed domestic violence attorney as soon as you can.
When some people see you and your partner going out in public, they might have been wishing to themselves that their respective relationships with their partners are as happy as what they think both of you have right now. What those well-wishers of yours might not know is that underneath the smiling façade that you strive to maintain in public lies the dark secret that your partner has in fact been abusing you. As a victim of domestic violence yourself, you would want to know the dangers that it poses to you as well as some of the ways to avoid it from further damaging you.
What Are Some of the Dangers of Domestic Violence?
Regardless of how exactly your partner mistreated you, the dangers of domestic violence itself are all too real. Some of those dangers are as follows:
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Physical health problems
Aside from the immediate effects that you’ll feel after your partner had physically abused you like pain resulting from the injuries that you’ve sustained at their hands, you as a victim of domestic violence may be prone to a smorgasbord of physical ailments including but not necessarily limited to the following:
- Gastrointestinal disorders like heartburn and bowel-related diseases
- Chronic pain
- Eating disorders like binge eating, anorexia or bulimia
- Sleeping disorders like insomnia, night terrors, and teeth grinding
- Traumatic brain injury
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Mental health problems
Even if your partner didn’t beat you up, they might still have abused you by trying to break you psychologically so that you’ll do what they want you to do. These are some of the mental health problems that may occur to you as a result of being a victim of domestic violence:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Low self-esteem
- Alcohol or drug abuse
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Sexual health problems
You may be of the belief that you and your partner aren’t ready to start your own family yet, but they started sexually abusing you anyway. Some of the ill effects resulting from the sexual abuse committed to you by your partner may include but aren’t limited to the following:
- Vaginal bleeding
- Unplanned pregnancy
- Sexually transmitted infections
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Untimely death
Lastly, your life can get cut short if your partner who commits domestic violence decides to either kill you after being severely blinded by their anger against you or drive you slowly into killing yourself instead.
What Are Some of the Ways You Can Use to Avoid Domestic Violence?
While you might initially think that you’re powerless to stop your partner from constantly abusing you, especially if they’re physically stronger than you are:
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Store emergency numbers in your phone that you should use to report the domestic violence done to you by your partner.
As the last mentioned danger of domestic violence which is untimely death can happen to you when you least expect it, the very first thing that you should do is to save some emergency numbers in your phone for you to instantly dial anytime.
- If you’re a woman who has suffered domestic violence at the hands of your partner, you can call the 24-hour National Domestic Violence Helpline.
- Most people think that domestic violence solely happens to women, but men can be victims of it too. If you’re a male victim of domestic violence, you can contact either the Men’s Advice Line or the Mankind Initiative.
- If your life is being put in grave danger by your partner regardless of your gender, you should have the police arrest them immediately by calling the nationwide emergency number 999.
- You should set all emergency numbers mentioned above to speed dial so that you don’t have to search them in your phone’s list of contacts or enter them manually.
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Have an escape plan ready in case your partner decides to abuse you again.
Some domestic violence victims find themselves too scared to run away from their partners either because they can’t leave their children behind or received threats of punitive action should they ever escape.
- However, your safety should always come first above everything else. Thus, you should start planning your escape from your partner right after you’ve called any of the emergency numbers listed above.
- If you know someone you can fully trust, and your partner doesn’t know them at all, you should call and explain your domestic violence situation to them so that they can let you stay at their place.
- But if you don’t know anyone who can help you right away, your other best option is to seek refuge in a shelter where you’ll be living with other fellow victims of domestic violence.
The UK’s Office for National Statistics found out in its Crime Survey for England and Wales – or CSEW – last March 2017 that a little under two million adults aged 16 to 59 had experienced domestic violence in the hands of their partners during most of 2016. No matter how big or small the said statistic might seem to you, domestic violence is never okay, most especially if you’re a victim of it yourself. Thus, you would want to take note of the above-listed dangers of domestic violence as well as ways to avoid it from completely ruining you. You should also call a domestic violence lawyer right away to explore all the legal actions that you can take against your abuser.
When you see yourself experiencing domestic abuse, especially when it’s your workplace, it’s best that you know what legal actions you should take. And this website can be a very good source for you to do just that.
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