06/06/2025
What does Balance mean to you? To some, it is safety. This is not the typical post on this page. But, it is my passion to educate on health and wellness which includes feeling safe in order to live your healthiest life and be your best self. Knowledge is power. Resilience can be your superpower. There should not be barriers for resources.
Domestic Violence Is More Than Physical Abuse — Learn the Signs👇🏻
While domestic violence can be physical, it can also include non-physical forms of abuse.
Domestic violence includes all forms of abuse that take place within a family or household. It can include situations where someone abuses a significant other, children, parents, siblings, other relatives, and even housemates.
It’s estimated that domestic violence affects 10 millionTrusted Source people in the United States each year.
No type of abuse is OK, whether it’s physical or non-physical in nature. Each type of abuse can be emotionally damaging and traumatizing.
However, people who’ve experienced domestic violence may find it helpful to learn about the different types of abuse so that they can understand and recognize it better.
The type of abuse you experience might affect the resources you seek.
Additionally, the law might distinguish between different types of violence, depending on where you live.
How is non-physical violence defined and characterized?
Non-physical violence isn’t always as obvious as physical violence — but it can be just as damaging. Abusers may try to control you through emotional, verbal, financial, or psychological abuse.
Emotional and verbal abuse
Emotional and verbal abuse aims to undermine your self-esteem and independence. An abuser may try to make you doubt or dislike yourself so that they can control you more easily.
Verbal abuse can include name-calling, constant criticism, and accusations. It could also include shifting blame from the abuser to the victim: “The only reason I yell is because you make me so mad! What else do you expect?”
Emotional abuse is not always verbal, and it can include deliberate patterns of behavior. For example, an emotional abuser may try to isolate you from your loved ones by forbidding you from seeing them or manipulating you into cutting them off.
Financial or economic abuse
Financial abuse means controlling your ability to acquire, use, or maintain financial resources. They might prevent you from working or have total control over your bank accounts.
Economic abuse can also involve someone taking loans and credit out under your name or deliberately ruining your credit score.
Psychological or mental abuse
Psychological or mental abuse involves tactics to frighten, manipulate, or control you. They might isolate you from friends or family, dictate your daily activities, or use threats.
If someone deliberately makes you fear them — for example, through displaying weapons around the house or by threatening you — it’s a form of mental abuse.
Mental and psychological abuse can include gaslighting, which is where someone deliberately makes you question your perceptions, memory, and sanity in order to control you.
How is physical violence defined and characterized?
Physical violence can include physical abuse as well as sexual abuse.
Physical abuse
Physical abuse involves any intentional act causing injury or trauma to you by way of bodily contact. It can include hitting, punching, or pinching.
Using other objects to hurt you — for example, throwing things at you — is also physical abuse.
A less-recognized form of physical abuse is when an abuser withholds necessary resources for your health, such as medications, food, or even sleep.
If someone deprives you of something you need for your health — say, if they don’t let you access your asthma pump or wheelchair — it can be considered physical abuse.
"Much of the federal infrastructure that supports domestic violence programs is damaged or gone."
The Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, Safe Voices, and NextStep domestic violence resource centers were interviewed for this New York Times article by Rachel Louise Snyder.
Domestic violence programs and services are all affected by the changes and uncertainty with our federal funding. Our state's individual domestic violence resource centers are all affected significantly, but slightly differently depending on our local resources. This article highlights how our Maine Coalition and these two domestic violence programs are impacted.
In the coming weeks, we will share more with you about how Partners for Peace and survivors in Penobscot and Piscataquis county are affected by the issues that are comprehensively outlined in this article.
New York Times Article: https://tr.ee/b5v9b3 (Link in Bio)
Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence Safe Voices NextStep Domestic Violence Project
