in your opinion which do you feel is worse-i can say that thankfully i have not been physically abused-and for anyone who has i am deeply sorry

however, i have been emotionally abused by my biological "father"....from the time i was born up until i decided to have my step-dad (my Dad) adopt me....but i still live with the mental scars-

see-physical scars go away-the mental ones live forever-but i guess in either case you yourself can help to reduce them

but me personally-i would have rather had him physically abuse me for 20 years as opposed to the emoitional/mental abuse

anyone care to share their thoughts/opionions....

Emotional Abuse is very painful and hurtful :'(.....you are so right when you say the mental and emotional pain never heals and the wounds are so very deep!  :'(  I am very glad you posted this here.....It helps more than you will know!!!!...  

Emotional abuse at times is meant with silence
thank you for helping to break the cycle.... :-/


Love always,
Chrissy

I do agree that emotional abuse is just as hurtful as physical abuse. Unfortunately, they are both forms of abuse, and all abuse is bad! THere are types of physical abuse that can leave scars and wounds upon a person forever. Emotional abuse leaves scars in our minds and hearts. Most of the time, ohysical abuse occurs concurrantly with emotional abuse. The abuser often says terrible things to you WHILE hitting or beating you. It is not usually a silent process, the hiting goes along with verbally degrading the person as well. It is all terribly wrong and painful. As children of abusive parents, we are unable to escape, unable to avoid the abuse. I dohope as adults, us who were abused as helpless kids can avoid falling into the same trap when we get older.

I am real tired right now, so I dont know if this post is making any sence at all, I do hope so!

Thanks for starting a good discussion here, I hope others can write a bit about this topic!

Love,
Dara

haha it made sense......

often times physical and emotional abuse do go hand in hand

and yes any kind of abuse is unexcusable and just outright wrong.....

QUOTE

I dohope as adults, us who were abused as helpless kids can avoid falling into the same trap when we get older.

you know i can say that for myself, yes-i will do everything and anything i can to treat my children better and to not ever ever abuse them in anyway-however it is often a learned behavior-my "father" was abused as a child-and you would think that would make him want to be better to his kids and his wife than his father was-but no-he followed right in line w/ him  :'(

Chrissy,

Not only that we wont treat our kids like we were treated, also that we wont allow ourselves to get into abusive relationships in our adult lives. It i s hard if it is family, but I mean getting a relationship, possibly a spouse who is abusive, that would be just terrible for anyone, and especially for us who were abused kids. I tell you , my husband is SOOOOO good, so sweet and easy going. I could not be with him if he were any other way!

Love,
Dara

good point Dara-i agree

though i have found myself being too cautious at times (if that's possable)-like with my ex-he'd say or do some little thing, and i'd be thinking to myself how my "father" would do or say the same type of thing.......idk-for some reason i compaired my ex to my "father" a lot-idk i guess it's a fear of having to go thru what my Mom did  :-/

Guess who!  ;)

All forms of abuse are bad, and all cause damage. I think that emotional abuse is worse than physical abuse, because it damages us physcologically, and it can persist for many years. However, as some of you have said, physcial abuse does not really present itself as merely 'physical'.

personally, i think that mental abuse, and physical abuse are 2 forms of abuse on 2 different levels.. mental abuse is usually abuse that is not seen, leaving deep, emotional scars that usually will never heal.physical abuse is usually noticed by outside people even though mental abuse can be recognized if the issue is addressed.instead of leavng physical scars, and bruises mental abuse tends to be long-lasting and usually causes severe problems later in life...

I was physically and emotionly abused for nearly 10 years and i would have to say the physical abuse was a hell of a lot easier to deal with, i wont say "get over" cause you never really do. Emotion pain is very hard to contend with on many levels.

few a space of about 5 years of my teenage life( from 13-18) my dad got heavily involved in alcohol. Well, it nearly tore my family apart. The mental abuse he put my family through, mainly my mom and I, caused me to mentally disown him as my father. One night he did beat me with his belt and bruised me. It hurt, but the bruises went away.
My dad did finally give up his alcohol. He got right with God, and our family is peacible(sp?) again. I am not afraid to go home, and he as apologized for everthing. He is my dad again. But....i don't trust him like i would have under normal circumstances....the scars are still there...and they effect my relationships with other men.... causes me to put them at a safe distance and try to stay in control... not a good thing. So..long story short... Emotional abuse is worse.

Sorry to hear that, Jelly. From what I've seen of you (through your postings here on BrainMeta), you seem to be fairly well adjusted, in spite of your experiences. So all credit to YOU.

thank you very much

I was abused in both ways...I think they are both bad because physical abuse scars you mentally as well! Some scars do heal but you are right mental scars stays with you forever! I was raped by my uncle when I was 5 and all the way up until I was 7 so I know what abuse is like. I was also verbally beaten down by my ex boyfriend all the time when we were together so I know what that feels like. Thankfully I found a guy who treats me like a Princess. We are engaged to be married in a few months. I think you just need to find someone who you can talk to about it in person preferably someone who has been throught the same stuff. I'm here for you to talk to if you need it Chrissy!