Enough!

I happened to be watching Enough, the movie that stars Jennifer Lopez as a victim of domestic violence in her marriage to a rich man. She had subdued herself to this for a long period until her child was of age to acknowledge what was going on. From watching this movie, I thought about my past relationship with my ex, and thought about the physical and emotional abuse that I was subdued to for a year and a half. I thought about the 30+lb. weight loss, the stress, partial hair loss, and depression that I went through in that time period, and the only person i could confide in was one of my best friends, who continued to offer help, but I felt too weak mentally to change. I was struck by love, and felt that he treated me this way because he cared too much for me, when in actuality, he was only insecure and controlling. I never reported the abuse until it got to the point that I was put in a position whether I sacrifice my health or my relationship. I think back to how shame I felt about being involved in an abusive relationship, because I never thought it could happen to me. However, I realized it can happen to anyone, and that Im fortunate to save myself from that situation.
As a result of this situation, I just ask and advocate prevention for this issue not only for women, but as well as for men. A few statistics suggest that:

• 1 in every 4 women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime
• 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year
• 85% of domestic violence victims are women
• Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence, most cases are never reported to the police.

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactsheet(National).pdf