I just ran across this poem, it is so amazing and yet so scary. I thought I would share it with you:

The Cycle of My Life
By Pamela, age 16

It all starts out wonderful until he strikes
Constantly hearing I’m sorry
Until it doesn’t matter anymore
Forgiving every time, forgetting never
Calling out for him to stop
Never stopping until it is almost too late
Never thinking about the consequences of his actions
Just making me think out every possible consequence of mine
Hearing I’m sorry all over again
Meeting him with open eyes
Awaiting the gifts I know will pour forward
Until it all stops-
And the cycle begins all over again

There are three main types of dating abuse – verbal or emotional, physical, and sexual. In Verbal or emotional abuse involves someone trying to control your feelings or behavior, a partner will do or say something to make you feel scared and lower your self-esteem. Some of the techniques might be:
Name calling and put downs

Yelling and screaming

Embarrassing the person in front of others

Intimidation

Spreading negative rumors about the person

Threatening to divulge intimate information about the person

Preventing the person from seeing friends and family

Threatening violence or harm

Telling the person what to do

Making racial slurs about the person

Making the person feel responsible for the abuse

Going to the persons friends and trying to destroy those relationships

Sixty-one percent of high school students have surveyed said they have had a partner who made them feel bad or embarrassed about themselves.

Did you know that physical abuse doesn’t always leave a mark. You don’t have to be bruised and bloody to be physically abused. Physical abuse can include:

Scratching

Kicking

Pushing

Choking

Biting

Slapping

Shoving

Pulling hair

Punching

Pinching

Forty-five percent of girls reported they had experienced some form of physical aggression from someone they are dating. A large percentage of girls are being physically abused when they refuse unwanted sexual advances.

Sexual abuse is described as any sexual behavior that is unwanted or interferes with the other person’s right to say “no” to sexual advances. Some examples of sexual abuse are:

Unwanted kissing or touching

Forcing someone to go further sexually than they want to

Unwanted rough or violent sexual activity

Date rape

Not letting someone use birth control

Not letting someone use protection against sexually transmitted diseases

Seventy-six percent of high school students surveyed said that they had experienced one or more incidents of unwanted sexual activity, including unwanted kissing, hugging, groping, and sexual intercourse.

Much of the information in this blog came from a whitepaper on teen dating violence from www.soroptimists.org