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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Valdosta chapter.

Hello beautiful ladies!

 

This month is Domestic Violence month. This is a topic that I haven’t experienced but have seen and heard a few times. It’s kind of hard to recognize the signs of domestic abuse if you’ve never experienced/seen it. I’m here to list out the signs of someone in a bad situation and to let you know that it is okay to get out of it.

purple ribbon domestic violence awareness month
Photo by Kat Jayne from Pexels

  1. You can see the physical abuse.

If you see someone with visual bruises, they may be a victim of domestic violence. Now, don’t see a paper-cut and automatically get suspicious. Ask yourself:

  • Do they constantly have these bruises?
  • Do they cover up certain parts of their body more than needed?
  • Do they hold the areas to hide them?

 

Sad woman with smudged mascara holding a fake smile
Photo by Sydney Sims from Unsplash

2. They act a little weird

When you knew someone before the abuse started, then you can tell by their attitude that something is wrong. If they were once an extroverted ray of sunshine and now quiet, on edge, and to themselves, then there’s probably something going on. They probably don’t want to bring more attention to the issue, so they try their hardest to mask any type of trauma through weird behavior.

 

Woman laying in a field of flowers
Photo by Guillaume Bolduc from Unsplash

3. When asked, they blame themselves.

Most of the time, abusers blame their abuse on the people they inflict it on. This is a way of getting them to stay longer. This is why sometimes the victim is always making excuses for them like: 

      “They didn’t mean to.”

      “It’s because I (insert irrelevant and invalid reason for abuser abusing them).”

      “They apologized so it’s okay. Maybe it was how I (insert yet another irrelevant and invalid reason for abuser abusing them)”

I definitely understand if you can’t get out of a situation easily if you have kids, but please talk to someone if you’re having any trouble. No one deserves to be in a bad situation with someone else. Love doesn’t hurt, but anger does.

Do what you can to either fix a bad situation or LEAVE.

With love + warning signs, 

Marissa Auriell

Dom Pollard

Valdosta '22

Dom is a sophomore, majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in African American Studies and Sociology. They plan on doing work in either education, activism, film, or all three. They are a queer individual who speaks their mind and provides love + other elements to bring perspective to HERCampus Valdosta. HCXO!