Abusive Relationships

Abusive Relationships
by Ethan Cole
Depending on what statistics you come across on any given day, an average of one in every four women will at some point in their lives be involved in anabusive relationship. That abuse could be extremely violent or completely emotionally, but abusive relationships in any form cause scars that can and will last a lifetime. I've seen women who have beenbeaten so badly that you wince just glancing in their direction. I've listened to women cry over the verbal abuse that has left them wondering if they will ever be able to regain their self-esteem.Abusive relationships can happen to anyone at any age and it doesn't choose what race or gender it can appear in. I've seen some teenage girls who have the misfortune of experiencing their first truerelationship and it turns out to be abusive. That first abusive relationship sets the standards for her next relationship as well. It could turn into a never-ending cycle. I have also, more uncommonly,talked to husbands who are ashamed to say that their wives are abusing them. They have come to my office hanging their heads in complete shame.
The worst kind of abusive relationships is those in whichboth physical and mental abuses are occurring simultaneously. It is usually those abusive relationships that are much more difficult to safely remove yourself from. Sadly, some of the worst ofabusive relationships end in tragic manners that make front page headlines. We all wonder what we could have done to help them or react differently by saying that we would never have let our own selves getinto a relationship like that. I can tell you, that is much easier to say than to do. More often than not, you find yourself caught up in an abusive relationship that has gotten out of control slowly.People do not choose to get into an abusive relationship. It isn't something that they just wake up one morning and decide they will involve themselves in. Abusive relationships, for the most part,...