During military service, I experienced domestic violence for a minimum of nine years while being married to another military service member. In January of 1988 during military service and marriage, I also gave birth to my second son, who died three day after being born. Although many people may find themselves in complicated situations, I never thought that I would be one of those individuals. During this period of fear, pain, and sadness, I dealt with the situation the best I knew how, because I had military responsibilities, parent responsibilities to my first born son who was six years old at the time, and while still trying to keep my family together. I quickly found other means of managing my experience with both situations by convincing
My family and I are continuously healing from my scars on my heart and the damages that were placed upon my spirit. The intervention wasn’t easy to choose from. It took many hours, days and months to regain back my skills to function normally. I needed to learn to live, love and trust as many survivors have had to do. Although I had chosen the medicinal path as part of my therapy course, my family learned how to provide a safe haven for me as well. My therapy was educational for myself and for my husband. We both needed to understand the PTSD in order to move forward with our healing process. Since then, I have been able to reduce my medication with the continuance of therapy and my family being my support system. The healing process is never ending with someone who suffers from PTSD caused by domestic abuse. Like many other survivors of DA and PTSD, I needed to understand what can trigger my episodes and how to handle those moments of vulnerability through therapy. There are many women in the world who are suffering at this very moment from the implications of domestic abuse and PTSD. Gregory C. Scott president & CEO of New Directions for Veterans makes a statement how we need to understand that it is not just veterans who can suffer from acts of violence. He reminds the world that violence can happen to anyone, any race and to any gender. “While there is certainly war happening in foreign lands, we
Billy Thompson and Sam Westfield were similar in many ways. Since a young age they both has excelled at sports and both loved more then anything, the sport of football. While growing up, the boys did not know each other and probably thought they would never have too. But all of that changed with the diagnosis.
Due to domestic violence’s widespread effects, most individuals either retain, or know an individual who retains, personal experience with domestic violence. In both my personal experience and my mother’s, I preserve three distinct experiences of domestic violence. My first exposure to domestic violence occurred when I was four years old, as my parents reached the breaking point in their marriage. I witnessed physical and emotional abuse in my parent’s marriage as they fought over their three children and their marriage. The physical abuse represents the first, and only, memory I retain of my parents being married. Because I never witnessed my parent’s happily married, it affected my childhood through making me feel as if I must pick a side. I felt that my childhood did not represent a family, but rather a continuous battle over who retained more power over us children and the resources. I deemed relationships as degrading and selfish due to the
Survival is a key part of living in the 21ST century. From living in the wild, to getting through a 9 to 5 workday, survival is important in every situation. 1 in 5 women and nearly 1 in 7 men who have every experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner, first experienced some sort of intimate partner violence between 11 and 17 years of age, which makes domestic violence a constant issue society faces each day. Domestic Violence is defined as an act of violent or aggressive behaviour within the home, typically the violent abuse of a spouse or partner.
One of Americas’ most common global issues is domestic violence, a crime that is considered physical or aggressive behavior at home and typically through a spouse. According to HelpGuide.org ‘’Domestic violence and abuse can happen to anyone, yet the problem is overlooked, excused, or denied (paragraph 1). Which I agree a hundred percent , due to I have witnessed it happening within my family, and majority of the time the victim is usually in denial that they are being physically and emotionally abused. Domestic violence should be justified the same no matter how big or small the issue is, because most of the time the problem is only going to get bigger. Domestic violence should have zero tolerance, no one should express their “love” through
There is an immense role occupational therapists can provided for survivors of domestic violence to improve their overall quality of life. Victims of domestic violence often have lifelong challenges and are at greater risk for many disorders and occupational deprivation.
According to the NCADV (the National Coalition against Domestic Violence), domestic violence (DV) is “willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another.” Domestic violence is also known as intimate partner violence (IPV). All of this includes physical, sexual, and psychological violence as well as emotional abuse. Domestic violence is one that does not specifically effect one kind of person. Any person regardless of their gender, age, sexual orientation, race, religion, or socioeconomic status can fall victim to this. Every case
Domestic violence happens to millions of homes every year. Consequently, the public “saying no” to domestic violence, victims, now less self-conscious to have been victimized, are able to talk about their wrongs, and can summon the help to prosecute their perpetrators, both in criminal and civil stadia.
Liken the human mind to a freshly turned field in early summer; a blank canvas with the potential to nurture a blossoming life. However, anyone who’s ever laid eyes on a newly plowed field has likely seen ruts carved into sections of aerated earth. Just like any plot of soil, stress and strain can riddle a human mind with divots and craters, all of which must refill before a mind can continue to grow.
During the semester of Spring 2017, I interned at a domestic violence organization called DC Volunteer Lawyers project. I heard about this internship by looking through the University’s career web page. After doing some research on the organization, I was interested in applying. I was not sure what I would be getting myself into. I assumed that it would be an internship where I was not allowed to be too involved and would be learning from afar. I also thought it may be an internship with clerical tasks such as copying, printing and answering phones all the time. It turned out to be the complete opposite.
In the year of 2010 around 11:00AM on a bright and sunny summer morning and not a cloud in the sky, you could hear birds chirping and feel the wind blowing, I was planning on swimming in my clear heated pool in my backyard with colorful lights on the inside, it was planned to be the perfect day. Little did I know I was not going to be the only one swimming.
Cold water splashed against my face, forcing me back into the present. I gasped for air, filling my lungs which meant I was still alive. I looked around me to find I was lying on my back, on the floor, in the hotel room Brian had brought me to. Detective Donovan was standing over me with an empty glass of water in her hand and no gun. If I stood a chance to save myself, the time was now.
My full name is Zachary Randall Durbin and when I wasn’t born yet my mom was going to name me Mathew. I don’t like that name because it doesn’t seem like it would fit me. Luckily my Uncle came to town 2 days before I was born and I’m not sure what he did to convince my mom of agreeing with the name Zach. I love my uncle for that. Well when I was 3 years old my real I got my name from my uncle because my mom wanted me to be Matthew but thanks to my uncle I have the name that seems to fit me the most.
Lemmey, D., McFarlane, J., Willson, P., Malecha, A. (2001). Intimate partner violence: mother’s perspectives of effects on their children. The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, 26(2), 98-103.
Domestic violence is a worldwide issue in past and present society. Domestic violence, or battering, is a pattern of psychological, economic, and sexual coercion of one partner in a relationship by the other that is punctuated by physical assaults or credible threats of bodily harm. People in all social, ethnic, economic, or religious groups are affected by domestic violence; whether the couple is married, divorced, living together, or dating. The victims of domestic violence can also be young, old, straight, or gay. Domestic violence usually involves women as the victims and men as the perpetrators, but that does not suggest that others cannot be battered or perpetuate abuse, such as women on men, or same sex abuse. Domestic violence has become a common occasion in society today, and more and more couples are experiencing it. All relationships experience disagreements, but battering involves every aspect of a relationship. Domestic violence has ultimately been demonstrated to be socialized in society and questions why women are more likely to be victimized over men.