What is an Abusive Relationship?

Abusive relationships are often characterised by broken promises, extreme jealousy, control games, lies, emotional withholding, lack of intimacy, raging, infidelity, sexual coercion, threats and verbal abuse.

This type of relationship also often includes physical abuse, although this is not always the case. Emotional abuse is often common, and is just as damaging as physical abuse, though it is often harder to recognise and therefore harder to deal with and to recover from. Emotional abuse can cause long term self esteem issues and profound emotional repercussions for those who have been abused.

Abusive relationships tend to be progressive - that is, they get worse over time, with emotional and verbal abuse frequently escalating to more explicit threats or physical abuse. Abusers typically vary periods of abuse with declarations of love and promises that they will change, which provides a 'hook' to keep the abused partner in the relationship. In general, abusers are very controlling and needy and the abuse will frequently escalate when they feel they may lose their partner, or when they think they are losing control over them.