Take an honest look at your situation and answer these questions. If you answer yes to any one of them, you may be a victim of abuse.
Does the person you love …
- Keep track of how you spend your time or check up on you often as if you are not trusted?
- Constantly accuse you of being unfaithful and sleeping around?
- Discourage your relationships with family and friends?
- Prevent you from working, attending school or going out?
- Criticize you for little things, like you cannot do even simple things right?
- Totally ignore you or your children, like you are not even there?
- Control all finances and force you to account for what you spend?
- Let you and the children go without basic needs like groceries, utilities, and phone service?
- Keep the phone locked up or take it out of the home?
- Destroy personal property and sentimental items?
- Call you names and humiliate you?
- Treat you and any children like you are property?
- Tease, abuse, hurt or even kill your family pets?
- Keep you or your children from getting basic medical care?
- Drink or do drugs, then get angry or violent?
- Blame you for the anger and abuse, and say that everything is your fault?
- Tell you that you’re crazy or say the abuse never happened?
- Hit, punch, slap, kick, bite, burn, push, trip or use any other physical force on you or your children?
- Threaten to hurt you, your children, your family or friends?
- Use or threaten to use a weapon against you or others you care about?
- Force you to have sex against your will?
- Knowingly given you a sexually transmitted disease?
- Threaten to kill themselves, or someone you care about, if you leave them?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be a victim of abuse. We can help. Call our 24-hour crisis line at (800) 947-8301.