By Joey Sampson
Did you know, according to DVS, 33% of adolescents in America experience some form of abuse from a partner? Abusive relationships are a lot more common in high school than you might think. They happen pretty often and the worst part is that nobody speaks up about it. When you think of the word ´´abuse´´ you probably think of physical abuse such as hitting, but there is a lot more than just physical abuse.
There are all kinds of abuse in high school relationships, such as physical, verbal, sexual, mental, and cultural. These are all kinds of abuse in relationships that high schoolers can be victim to. But what are all these kinds of abuse?
Physical Abuse
Physical abuse is pretty straight forward, it is when a partner will hurt the other person in the relationship physically. Physical abuse is when the partner will do something like hit, choke, bite, kick, or even slap their partner just to keep control in the relationship. Physical abuse is one of the more common types of abuse in relationships and something that happens when it shouldn’t during a high school relationship, or any age relationship at that.
Verbal Abuse
Verbal abuse is when the partner will use their words to play tricks on the other and make them seem worthless. Verbal abusers will use their words to put down their partner so they have power. Verbal abuse is really bad and it is very common during high school relationships and it can cause mental scars that take a really long time for teens to get over.
Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse is something very very tragic that can happen in high school relationships. Sexual abuse can range from rape and forced sexual activites, to words about it making people think that sex is the only thing they are good for. This is one of the worst types of abuse because it can really scar a person both physically and mentally.
There are all kinds of abuse, even a couple more such as cultural abuse or financial abuse, these are all really bad and can really hurt a person in multiple ways. According to Mayo Clinic some symptoms of abuse might be:
- Being absent from school a lot more
- Self harm
- Big changes in behavior like anger or sadness
- Unexplained or poorly explained random bruises, burns, or fractures
- Looking for affection often
- loss of self esteem
In Conclusion
These are all possible signs of some sort of abuse and if you notice someone near you experiencing these symptoms, look into it, help them
Abuse of any kind is absolutely horrible, and if something like that happens to you, reach out for help, to a teacher, a parent, a close friend, or anybody you can trust. If you don’t feel comfortable telling someone, give the National Domestic Violence Hotline a call at 800-799-7233. We need to bring awareness to relationship abuse for adolescents, if you or someone close to you is experiencing any kind of abuse, tell someone about it, it’s not okay to be treated like that.
