| Are you a victim of abuse? If you are a victim, you | | | | first time, ridiculing you for being yourself. Your friend |
| probably don't know how to leave. You may even | | | | may tell you how fat you look in your favorite shirt, |
| feel that it's your fault you are hurting. I want to tell | | | | or criticize your choices and lifestyle. |
| you right now, the situation you're in is not your fault. | | | | One who criticizes others to make themselves feel |
| You can leave and there are people who will help you | | | | better lacks self-esteem. |
| escape. Take that first step and escape today. | | | | We often allow others to injure our emotional well |
| Domestic Violence and Abuse can happen to anyone | | | | being long before we would allow the same person |
| anywhere. | | | | to strike us. Although we don't realize they are |
| We don't consider a criminal justice student with | | | | hurting us. |
| training in self defense a victim, but the reality is quite | | | | We could escape easily in the early stages, if we only |
| different. Even someone trained extensively in | | | | recognized an abuser for what they truly are. |
| self-defense can become a victim of Domestic | | | | When you first realize a person puts you down and |
| Abuse. | | | | hurts you with words, it's time to leave. It's time to |
| The abuse cycle starts before you feel the first | | | | escape, before the next stage of the abuse cycle |
| blows of a beating, and long before you recognize | | | | starts. |
| the abuser. Domestic Violence begins with mind | | | | Learn to recognize the characteristics of an abuser |
| control, when your boyfriend cuts you down for the | | | | and leave before the abuse starts. |