This is Domestic Abuse — Part 2

Abuse Isn’t Always Physical

I discussed in my last podcast the sensitive subject of domestic abuse or emotional mistreatment and how few people are aware of its existence in our society in the Western world.

I believe this is the case because the word ‘abuse’ may feel such a loaded term on it’s own & it may evoke a feeling of resistance and distance for many.

As I have mentioned before, abuse isn’t just physical, and there are many other types of abuse other than the ones I listed last week.

Many types of non-physical abuse encompass the degrading of the woman’s sense of self, designed to be a slow but subtle and corrosive level over long periods.

Government agencies, police forces and charities around the globe, agree that abusers or toxic people may carry out more that one form of emotional mistreatment against their unsuspecting targets.

Toxic people may use a combination of multiple types of mistreatment, and it is this sustained, passive-aggressive approach, that causes women such confusion and deep suffering.

Emotional mistreatment has such a profound impact on the body’s nervous system, which is in constant communication with the immune system, thereby impacting the physical health and emotional health as the body’s nervous system is unable to relax and in a continuous state of ‘flight/fight’ maladaptive stress response. This means that the stress hormone cortisol and adrenaline are being pumped out affecting other hormones like progesterone and estrogen — but more on that later.