Abuse is one of the major problems people face in society. Abuse could be physical, psychological, and emotional.
I can remember a friend of mine who was in an abusive relationship but refused to leave the relationship because she was scared of starting afresh.
It all started when we were in school. In our second year a guy approached my friend (Olivia) and asked for her number which she gladly gave without hesitation because that was the first guy that has ever approached her since we entered school so she was very happy.
That is how their relationship started and I was happy for her. He was very loving and caring at first but as time went on, the guy changed. Olivia started coming to school with bruises and black eyes. Oh sorry I forgot to mention that we were not staying together, we stayed off campus at different locations.
Olivia will come to school with black eye and when I ask she will say she had a fight with her neighbour because she had this nasty neighbour who was troublesome, so I will ask her whether she has reported to the landlord so that something should be done about it and she would always say yes.
So this continued for some months and I was bothered because at some point the thing was affecting her studies, she was no longer concentrating in class and her grades were dropping.
One day I decided to pay her a visit unannounced. On getting there I was shocked because my friend was shouting and crying at the same time, so I pushed the door open to see what was going on. To my greatest surprise her boyfriend (Williams) was pounding her like fiufu on on the floor. When he saw me, he left immediately. I went to Olivia, to assist her in standing up from the floor.
I was furious because my friend never for once told me that her boyfriend was abusing her. I never asked her what happened that day, I decided to let that day pass because she was in pain.
I slept in her apartment that day, I could not leave her alone in that condition. When we woke up the following morning the pain subsided because I gave her some pain killers. I was then forced to ask her what happened since I was curious to know what would make Williams beat her like that.
She said “I read a text from his phone sent to him by Sandra and I asked him who is Sandra? Williams, are you cheating on me?”
”Instead of him to answer my question he was angry and asked me why I touched his phone and we started arguing, that was not the first or second time. All the bruises and black eyes I suffered were caused by him”.
”Why didn't you tell me something like this was going on?” I asked.
”I did not want to get you involved because I know you might get him arrested and I will lose him”. She replied.
”My dear it is better to lose such a man than to die in such a relationship” I advised.
I didn't follow up to see if she heed my advice as I knew that a word was enough for the wise.
Abuse is something that will make you lose your self-esteem. You become physically, emotionally and psychologically down, you don't have confidence in yourself again and most people tend to become aggressive,and isolate themselves from family and friends.
Let's try to fight this thing called “Abuse”
For those of us that are abusive, stop it and for those that are in an abusive relationship or another, it is better to save yourself while you are still breathing.
Thank you for reading.
Images gotten from Meta Ai.