Symptoms of Domestic Violence

Using Emotional Abuse

• Putting you down
• Making you feel bad about yourself
• Calling you names
• Making you think you're crazy
• Playing mind games
• Humiliating you
• Making you feel guilty

Using Privilege

• Treating you like a servant
• Making all the big decisions
• Acting like the "Master"
• Being the one to define roles
• Making you unimportant
• Punishment for not "obeying"
• Ordering you around

Using Economic Abuse

• Preventing you from getting a job
• Making you ask for money
• Giving you an allowance
• Taking your money
• Secretive about income

Using Coercion and Threats

• Making or carrying out threats
• Threatening to leave, to commit suicide, to report you to welfare
• Making you drop charges
• Making you do illegal things

Using Intimidation

• Making you afraid
  (looks, gestures, actions)
• Smashing things
• Abusing Pets
• Displaying Weapons
• Threatening to expose your "weakness"
• Threatening to "tell"

Using Children

• Making you feel guilty about the children
• Using the children to relay messages
• Using visitation to harass you
• Threatening to take the children
• Threatening to hurt you through them

Using Isolation

• Controlling what you do, who you see and talk to, what you read, & where you go
• Limiting your outside involvement
• Using jealousy to justify actions
• Destroying your support system

Minimizing, Denying, Blaming

• Making light of the abuse and not taking your concerns about it seriously
• Saying the abuse didn't happen
• Shifting responsibility for abusive behavior