If you’re wondering if what’s happening to you is abuse, one way to find out more is to look at a checklist of behaviours that are consider by organisations like us (and the law) to be abusive. Here’s ours, from our website:
Domestic abuse can take many forms, including psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional abuse. Find out how to tell if you’re experiencing it and what to do if you are.
Does your partner, ex-partner, or a family member:
- Call you names, threaten to ‘out’ you, or use put-downs?
- Use your gender or sexuality as a basis for threats or harm?
- Damage your property?
- Threaten to harm you or others that you love?
- Control your access to money?
- Make unwanted advances or force you into unwanted sexual contact?
- Hit, shove, grab, kick, throw things, or use other forms of physical violence on you?
- Control your contact with friends, family, work, or the LGBT ‘scene’?
- Threaten to harm themselves if you leave or seek help?
What do you think? If you think you might be experiencing abuse – what is it like to read this?