Over the years, various groups, organizations, and programs have been set up to help put a stop to the global problem of domestic violence. While there are countless successes already, there are still a lot of things that need to be done to eradicate the problem completely. The first thing we all need to do is to learn to identify domestic abuse victims, especially since most of them would often are too afraid to speak out.
Signs That a Person is a Domestic Violence Victim
Here are some of the most important warning signs of domestic violence:
- Non-Physical Signs
- The victim may decide to stop working (or going to school). In other cases, she may frequently be late for work, meetings, family events, and other similar functions. Some victims may even prefer to be isolated and alone most of the time. Many of them hide in their bedrooms and refuse to go out of the house.
- The victim suddenly develops low self-esteem, never mind if she was a happy and confident person a few weeks earlier. A person who is domestically abused feels worthless and powerless.
- The victim gets anxious easily, especially during arguments or conflicts. This is a result of her powerless feeling.
- The victim usually develops a passive-aggressive behavior. This happens even in simple situations like cooking for dinner or completing a household task.
- The victim blames herself for everything that is going wrong. This is true even when someone is simply relaying a story to her. She’ll take the blame for something that happened to someone, even if she was not there when it happened.
- The victim is perpetually stressed. She finds it difficult to sleep, eat, and socialize. She has recurring aches and pains (stomachache, headache, etc.).
- Depression is a natural thing for her.
- Physical Signs
These are the injuries types that are common in domestic violence victims.
- Facial bruises or cuts and fractures.
- Ruptured eardrum.
- Broken or loose tooth.
- Bruises or scraped on the arm, on the body, on the neck, and on the head.
- Rectal/genital injury.
Most of the injury areas can usually be covered by clothing.
- Other Signs
There are other signs that are non-physical and non-medical, such as:
- Cigarette burns.
- Welts (with an outline of whatever was used, i.e. belt buckle, frying pan, etc.).
- Bruises all over.
- Bite marks.
