{"id":851,"date":"2012-10-09T02:30:07","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T02:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsavannah.com\/blog\/?p=851"},"modified":"2012-10-09T02:30:08","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T02:30:08","slug":"shining-the-light-on-dark-places-domestic-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsavannah.com\/blog\/index.php\/shining-the-light-on-dark-places-domestic-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Shining the Light on Dark Places: Domestic Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NO<\/a>
\nI have been pondering this post for over a week now, but for some reason, I can\u2019t get the words to come out right. They seem to be choking in my throat.<\/p>\n

Which is ironic, since October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"mourn<\/a>According to the Domestic Violence Awareness Project<\/a>, \u201cDomestic violence is best understood as a pattern of abusive behaviors\u2014including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks as well as economic coercion\u2014used by one intimate partner against another (adult or adolescent) to gain, maintain, or regain power and control in the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note that it can be physical, sexual, and psychological.<\/p>\n

In my case, my mother was a victim of domestic violence \u2013 physical and psychological \u2013 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\u2019t know it then, but these behaviors were symptoms of bi-polar disease, a topic for another post in the future.)<\/p>\n

There’s nothing that can be done about what I experienced, but you can do something now<\/b>, to help others. Please join me in taking the Domestic Violence Awareness Month Challenges<\/a>: 20 challenges to help end domestic violence. Challenge 1 is joining (done).<\/p>\n

Challenge 2 is sharing this information, because knowledge is power:<\/p>\n