Love Is Respect

Love is Respect
Abuse in dating relationships is common among teens, with 33% of teens reporting some kind of abuse. Abuse isn’t just physical; it is mental and verbal as well. According to Webmd.com, a health and psychology oriented website “one out of every 3 teen relationships is abusive”. Physccentral.org, a website dedicated to abusive teen relationships claims that just like adult domestic violence, teen violence is a pattern of controlling behavior in which one partner attempts to affirm their power through physical, sexual, emotional, physiological, or verbal abuse. Ariana Gisela, a student at Cal State LA said “the best thing I can tell someone who’s facing a situation like this is to tell somebody. Tell somebody because it may escalade into even worse things.”
Physical abuse is any intentional use of physical force with the intent to cause fear or injury, like hitting, shoving, biting, strangling, kicking or using a weapon. More than one in 10 high school students have already experienced some form of physical aggression from a dating partner. Ana Martinez, a student at South Gate High School said “sometimes we’re too young to realize something’s wrong. I think everyone should love and respect themselves enough to understand no one should ever put their hands on you.” No one should ever experience domestic abuse.
One such individual, who chose to remain anonymous, said she simply couldn’t leave the relationship. “It all started when he would constantly text me to ‘check up’ on me. He would get extremely jealous when I would hang out with my guy friends. From there, it gradually became worse. One time he pushed me to ground and kicked me. He had told me I was worthless and that no one else would want me. Sadly, I believed him. I was only 16 at the time and I didn’t have anyone I could talk to about the situation. I know how hard it is to leave the one you might think you love, but when it comes to the point of them hurting you on a daily basis or ever so often, you have no choice but to leave for the sake of your life.” To put in perspective, teens today are still in abusive relationships and can’t find a way out. It is important to understand that no one deserves to be treated this way.
Abuse isn’t just physical, it is also emotional. Emotional abuse includes non-physical behaviors such as threats, insults, constant monitoring or “checking in,” excessive texting, humiliation, intimidation, isolation or stalking. Name calling, constantly being put down, and threatening are also of emotional abuse. Adrian Rodriguez, a junior at Bell High School said “I think emotional abuse is just as wrong as physical abuse. It might even be even more harmful than physical abuse. A bruise fades away, but mentally putting someone down stays with them forever. Why would anyone intentionally hurt the one they love anyway?”

Everyone deserves to be in a safe and healthy relationship. Anyone can help make that happen by raising awareness about the issue, saying something about abuse when they see it and organizing their friends to make a difference. If someone truly loves and cares for someone, they won’t ever try to hurt them, whether it’s physically, verbally, or mentally.