TEEN ABUSE MAY LAST A LIFETIME

Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week kicks off Today

According to Safe Shelter, a nonprofit that provides programs and services to victims of domestic violence, abuse in your teens carries through to your adulthood. “Statistics indicate that one in three American women experiences some form of domestic violence during her lifetime, and that number holds true for teen girls in dating relationships as well,” said Teri Ebel. “When young people learn to behave abusively or accept abusive behaviors in their earliest love relationships, they’re setting a course for a future of this relationship pattern,” she said.

Dating abuse is not just physical. There is also so much verbal abuse and controlling that goes on in relationships. A great book explaining verbal abuse and how to escape it’s grip is “The Verbally Abusive Relationship” by Patricia Evans. Get it on Amazon.com. No matter what form the abuse takes, it always demoralized and diminishes self-esteem.

What is the answer? Awareness! Stop the violence in your present and especially your future by realizing and accepting that the abuse you are experiencing is NOT okay and NOT the norm and you, yes you, deserve better! I understand it’s difficult to breathe and see outside your situation when it is a parent doing the abuse. Whoever is abusing you, please know that you matter and you do not deserve to be treated like this. There is life outside of abuse and you must do whatever you can to get away from your abuser. Tell friends and people you can trust what is going on, see help from local shelters or call the domestic violence hotline number you find in your local phone book. Search the web for ways to escape abuse. Take self-defense from your local YMCA or check out videos or books on it at the library. There are people out there who want to help you!

It you want a life away from abuse you MUST choose to live in conscious awareness of what you want in your life, face your hurt, and heal from your pain. If you don’t take step to take control, sadly you will continue to be a victim of abuse your entire life. The normal pattern of abuse victims—especially when it begins in your youth or teens, is that once you leave your first abuser, you will subconsciously be drawn to another and another, even though they look different on the outside. Because even though you don’t like being abused, it feels normal to you and we always seek our “comfortable normal” regardless of what pain or lack of pain it brings. You don’t have to continue living like that.

There is a God who sees and hurts with you and wants to rescue you and give you the life you were created to live. Pick up your bible and read the entire chapter of Psalm 139 (right in the middle of the Bible) and Romans 5:3-5, then read the entire book of John (4th little book three fourths the way through the Bible). The fact that you are reading this is a sign that you are ready to make a change for your future. Congratulations on loving yourself enough, even when you feel worthless, to seek health. God loves you, you’re worth it, begin to stop the violence today!