I have been pondering this post for over a week now, but for some reason, I can’t get the words to come out right. They seem to be choking in my throat.
Which is ironic, since October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and that’s why I want to write this and publish it now. I want to add my small voice to the fight for awareness. I want people to realize that domestic violence exists. And it happens every day, to people you know, by people they should be able to trust.
According to the Domestic Violence Awareness Project, “Domestic violence is best understood as a pattern of abusive behaviors—including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks as well as economic coercion—used by one intimate partner against another (adult or adolescent) to gain, maintain, or regain power and control in the relationship.”
Note that it can be physical, sexual, and psychological.
In my case, my mother was a victim of domestic violence – physical and psychological – and the perpetrator? My father. That means I was a victim of it as well, along with child abuse. We walked on eggshells. We never knew when my father might explode. When he might buy us tons of presents, or he might break the piano. (Of course, I didn’t know it then, but these behaviors were symptoms of bi-polar disease, a topic for another post in the future.)
There’s nothing that can be done about what I experienced, but you can do something now, to help others. Please join me in taking the Domestic Violence Awareness Month Challenges: 20 challenges to help end domestic violence. Challenge 1 is joining (done).
Challenge 2 is sharing this information, because knowledge is power:
- More than 1 in 3 women & 1 in 4 men in the US have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner (CDC, 2010)
- Intimate Partner Violence can affect health in many ways. The longer the violence goes on, the more serious the effects. (CDC, 2012)
- You have the right to a healthy relationship with a partner who treats you with respect.
Although my voice is weak at the moment, I encourage you to stand up with me against domestic violence.
Resources:
- Domestic Violence Awareness Project: their goal is to teach men, youth, women — everyone within our communities — how to recognize domestic violence and offer support to speak openly about it
- NO MORE: working to end the shame and stigma of domestic violence and sexual assault
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: home page
- The Hotline: education on what is domestic violence
