Lesson 1: What is Abuse?

Physical abuse includes punches, kicks, slaps, bites, punching, strangulation, choking suffocation, and physical restraints.

Emotional abuse includes lying, gaslighting, isolating from friends/family, continuous put-downs, jealousy, humiliation, blaming them for someone else's actions, and guilt trips.

Sexual abuse includes coerced consent, unsolicited sexual comments, revenge porn, indecent exposure, stealing, assuming consent from previous incidents of consent, and restricting access to birth control.

Financial abuse includes taking their paychecks, controlling all of their finances, taking their bank cards/pins, intentionally being unemployed, putting accounts like businesses or mortgages in their name, transferring just enough money to them so they don't qualify for social assistance

Technological abuse can include only having shared accounts, putting trackers on phones/vehicles, making the partner give up all their passwords, taking their phone/laptop, and posing as them on their accounts.

Criminal harassment (ie. stalking) can include following from one place to another, repeated unwanted communications (texts, calls, emails, etc), staying and watching one place, repeated calls to their workplace, following using trackers, and cyberstalking.

Legal abuse includes frivolous civil suits, not submitting disclosures, falsifying court documents, switching lawyers part way through matters, requesting unnecessary and/or expensive court interventions.

Property abuse includes destroying property that is theirs, hiding their things, destroying the house (ex. punching holes in the wall).