Understanding Abuse

 Abuse can take many forms, and it’s not always easy to recognise when it’s happening. Whether it’s emotional, physical, sexual, financial, or online, abuse often leaves you feeling isolated, confused, and powerless. Each experience is unique, but the impact can be significant, affecting your sense of self, your relationships, and your overall wellbeing. Understanding the different types of abuse is the first step in acknowledging your experience and seeking the support you deserve. Below, you’ll find information about the various forms of abuse.

 Emotional abuse is a pattern of behaviour in which the perpetrator insults, humiliates, and generally in stills fear in an individual in order to control them. 

Physical abuse is defined as any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person through bodily contact. It is a deliberate act of force that results in harm, injury, or trauma to the victim's body. 

 Coercive control is an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim.

 Financial abuse is a form of domestic abuse and is a way of having power over you. It involves someone else controlling your spending or access to cash, assets and finances. This can leave you feeling isolated, lacking in confidence and trapped. 

 Online abuse is when someone monitors, stalks, harasses, threatens, controls or impersonates another person using technology.

 Neglect is a form of abuse where the perpetrator, who is responsible for caring for someone who is unable to care for themselves, fails to do so. 

 The practice typically involves a perpetrator strangling or intentionally affecting their victim’s ability to breathe in an attempt to control or intimidate them. Studies have shown that victims are eight times more likely to be murdered by their partner if there had been non-fatal strangulation beforehand.