Mental Health Effects of Different Forms Types of Abuse
Abuse is an all too common occurrence in relationships worldwide. Abuse is not only limited to romantic relationships. It can also be present in familial relationships, friendships, and interactions with acquaintances and strangers.
In the United States, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men1 experience extreme physical violence from their partner. This leaves a worryingly high number of people with scratches, burns, scars, etc., inflicted by their partners.
But while the signs of physical abuse are typically visible, the effect of malicious mistreatment by a partner is often emotional and largely out of sight.
Many victims of domestic abuse have to grapple with the emotional and mental health effects of psychological aggression, neglect, financial abuse, and other forms of intimate partner violence.
In this guide, we'll be examining the different ways abuse takes a toll on mental well-being. Plus, we'll be highlighting ways to seek help when living in an abusive situation.
Physical Abuse
This is perhaps the most overt form of abuse. Physical abuse employs the use of force to humiliate, control, or coerce a victim to act in a particular way. It is intentionally causing bodily injury to a partner to establish dominance over them.
Forms of Physical Abuse
Here are some common forms of physical abuse:
Choking
Slapping
Biting
Throwing objects
Effects of Physical Abuse
When a person constantly receives or is at the risk of receiving blows to the body, slaps to the face, or another form of cruel physical contact, there is a high chance that their body will host various injuries in many states of healing.
For women especially, physical violence and the threat of it come with a different set of challenges. Receiving constant violence and the stress of expecting harm has been linked to chronic health challenges like back pain and headaches.
Women who were victimized by their partners also report higher rates of depression and anxiety due to this treatment.
People that have been battered by their partners may also experience stress, PTSD, eating disorders, among other symptoms. Physical violence may disrupt sleep patterns and has been linked with insomnia.
Emotional Abuse
Because emotional abuse can take many forms, it’s often hard to give a fitting description of this form of maltreatment. For a general idea, emotional abuse may occur where a person’s emotions are manipulated by a pattern of abusive and bullying words or behaviour. It is controlling and acts as a way of punishing a person through humiliating tactics and threats.
This form of abuse does not require physical contact to cause damage, it does, however, diminish a person’s self-esteem and self-worth.
Someone that employs emotional abuse may chip away at their victim’s sense of reality, and personal value by disregarding requests or needs. They may start unnecessary arguments, or make overly critical comments on their partner’s appearance. They tend to go in and out of unpredictable moods, or may make unreasonable demands of their partners.
In some cases, they may employ extreme criticism when these demands are not met to their standards.
Emotional abuse may take different forms that can cause a victim to feel wounded, worthless, and anxious.
Forms of Emotional Abuse
Silent treatment
Withholding affection
Routinely making threats
Cruel name-calling
Gaslighting
Intimidation
Threatening to harm a partner
Isolating the victim from friends and family
Effects of Emotional Abuse
Being surrounded by a partner with turbulent mood changes can be mentally taxing. When a partner can cleverly construct their words to debase and demoralize, or otherwise warp their victim's reality, it can have far-reaching effects.
Victims of emotional abuse are likely to experience depression and anxiety. It isn’t uncommon for an abused partner to develop phobias, or alcohol and substance use disorders. An emotionally abused person may also self-harm or engage in reckless sexual practices following emotional harm.
Very worryingly, a person that has experienced emotional abuse may begin to harbour suicidal thoughts and can even attempt to end their life as a result of the pain.7
Sexual Abuse
Some of the most brutal forms of domestic violence come in the many variations of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse occurs where a person is forced to perform sexual acts against their wishes.
It may also occur where they are degraded during intimate situations, or where bodily autonomy is threatened by a partner.
While rape is the most recognizable form of sexual abuse, this form of violence may appear in other ways.
Forms of Sexual Abuse
Insisting a partner dress in a preferred way
Demanding sex when a partner is ill or tired
Unwelcome sexual photography
Sharing nude photos without consent
Forcing a partner to watch pornographic content
Effects of Sexual Abuse
When a person’s sexual autonomy is forcibly overtaken by a partner or another person, this can produce understandably adverse reactions in the body and mind.
Being forced to perform sexual acts or partake in dehumanizing forms of intercourse can cause feelings of guilt to present themselves,8even though the victim is in no way responsible for what has occurred.
A victim of sexual abuse may also find it difficult to hold on to relationships and can begin to struggle with depression and anxiety. While navigating the anger and disbelief of their partner’s actions, victims may experience PTSD, sexual dysfunction, and poor sleep patterns.
In severe cases, this extreme breach of trust and humanity can cause a victim of sexual assault to make attempts at ending their life.
Financial Abuse
An easily overlooked, yet dangerous form of abuse occurs where a partner has limited or no access to funds in a relationship. In such a situation, one partner has the majority control over the money in the relationship, and how it is dispersed for needs.
This mistreatment may also crop up where one partner is prevented from opportunities that might grant financial independence.
Financial abuse forces a person to become heavily reliant on their partner for funds to buy everyday items like clothing, groceries. This ultimately affects the victim's ability to survive.
Forms of Financial Abuse
Controlling how funds are spent at home
Denying a partner access to shared accounts
Being financially reckless with joint funds
Preventing a partner from taking up employment opportunities
Placing a partner on an allowance from the income they earned
Effects of Financial Abuse
It can be mentally and emotionally devastating when one person can decide to withhold money for the food their partner eats, how much they can spend on new clothes, or even decree a haircut as an unnecessary monthly expense.
Intimate partners—usually women, on the receiving end of financial abuse may be found in a constant state of anxiety and distress over their economic state. The reality is that they lack the resources to leave their partners and feel trapped. This feeling can lead to depression.
Financial abuse can also significantly affect the household by impacting the ability to carry out parental roles adequately.
