7 SIGNS YOU ARE IN AN ABUSIVE REALATIONSHIP

Many things. All the red flags are usually there but a lot of the time, they’re overlooked. When a man talks down on you. He doesn’t value you. Even economically, he withholds money from you, that’s abuse. You find that some women have husbands who refuse that they should do family planning. That’s abuse. A woman has 3 or 4 babies and doesn’t want another one but the man is saying she must have another child. He says “I’m not going to use a condom. You must not use contraceptive pills.” Those things are abusive. He slapped you once, you think he’ll not do it again. Abuse can be physical, emotional, or psychological, a lot of the time, we focus on just physical abuse. We don’t look at the emotional, or financial. These things are abuse. We shouldn’t just focus on physical abuse. We should look at all the ways that abuse presents itself. People have normalized them but they shouldn’t be normalized. They shouldn’t be overlooked, thinking they’re no big deal. They’re big deal. Besides, even the man being jealous or possessive over you, accusing you of being unfaithful, trying to control you, threatening you with violence or a weapon, beating, slapping, choking you, blaming you for his violent behaviour and telling you that you deserve it, calls you unprintable names, prevents you or discourages you from going to work or school or seeing family members. Like in the case of Osinachi now, we’re told she has not been home since she got married! She had not been to her village since she got married. When a man makes you think your friends are bad, all those things are red flags.