It?s easy to see the t-shirts when you?re walking to Atkins Library or see the posters about Domestic Violence Awareness Month and brush it off.? It?s not like it affects you, right?
I understand why those who have not been affected by any kind of abuse, physical or emotional, can be complacent.? It?s easy to think that it doesn?t happen very often, and it?s often heard that those women or men in abusive relationships should just leave, that maybe they are bringing this upon themselves.
Growing up with an abusive father, I can tell you it happens more than you think, and there are people all around you who are affected on a daily basis.? It doesn?t matter whether or not someone is still in or around an abusive relationship ? the things they have experienced stay with them forever.
My father never hit me, and some would say I was too young to remember anything going on with my parents when I was that young, but I can say without a doubt you are wrong.? Nightmares of things I saw and heard still haunt me today.
When I was younger I convinced myself I was the only one who had experienced something like that at my young age.? Never would I have thought there were others like me.? I also had no idea that one day when I knew girls in abusive relationships I could be there to help them.
Most women in abusive relationships don?t leave when they should.? There are many reasons for this, but for my mom it was me.? She didn?t want her little girl to grow up without a daddy.? I understand that, but one day a counselor told her if she didn?t leave I would end up with someone like him.? The next day she left.
I think when girls in relationships like my mom and dad?s see how leaving changed not only my mom?s life but mine as well it shows that things do get better.
It may have taken almost 18 years for me to work through all of my ?daddy issues,? but here I am stronger and happier than I ever thought was possible.? I?m not saying the nightmares and the memories are gone, those will never leave.? I?m saying there are more good days than bad to remind me how lucky I was to get out.
So this month, or from now on, when you see someone trying to bring awareness to domestic violence, listen and pay attention.? There are more women, and girls, out there who are affected by abuse than you realize.? While some may not be physically abusive, emotional abuse often does lead to physical violence.
I am almost sure that we all know someone affected by some form of abuse, so don?t turn your head when you see the signs.? Watch, listen and pay attention because you never know when someone?s life is on the line.
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