What is Abuse?
Abuse is the misuse or cruel treatment of something. To abuse someone means to treat someone unacceptably or use them to gain some type of benefit.
Abuse can come in many different forms such as physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, and other forms of mistreatment.
Physical abuse involves physical violence such as slapping, hitting, choking, kicking, shoving, shaking, beating, slapping, and other behaviours that cause physical harm to the body.
Verbal abuse involves oral language, written language and gestured language such as screaming, yelling, name-calling, profanity, personal attacks, humiliation, degradation, blame, threats and other behaviours that cause mental distress to the person targeted.
Sexual abuse involves sexual assault, sexual violence and sexual harassment such as rape, groping, choking, penetration, exposure of body parts, touching, looking, and other sexual behaviors forced without the person’s consent.
Emotional abuse involves psychological mistreatment such as gaslighting, manipulation, criticism, bullying, condescension, fear and other toxic behaviours from someone in a close relationship.
Child abuse involves the mistreatment of a child through physical, sexual and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect from an adult, young person or older child.
The Negative Consequences of Abuse
Being abused can result in many negative consequences due to the different forms it can take. It can result in:
- Physical consequences: Injuries, wounds, cuts, burns etc.
- Psychological consequences: Negative thoughts, fear, decline in mental health, uncontrollable emotions etc.
- Financial consequences: Decline in career, money issues etc.
- Relational consequences: Strain on relationships, withdrawing from others, becoming socially isolated etc.
- And an overall decline in health and wellbeing
Discussing Abuse Through Counselling
At Creative Devotional our counsellors are able to provide support through our counselling service. Our counsellors provide a safe, non-judgmental environment to confidentially talk about your experiences. They can provide you with strategies and tools to address abusive memories, flashbacks and nightmares.
