Sanctuary for the Abused
Sunday, July 03, 2022
Psychological Abuse in Intimate Relationships Increases Intensity of PTSD Symptoms
The most common forms of intimate partner violence (IPV) are sexual violence,
sexual coercion, psychological abuse and physical abuse and each causes significant psychological problems.
The act of using pressure … to have sexual contact (physical or verbal/mental):
Pressure in this case can mean physical pressure, verbal pressure or emotional pressure. Physical pressure can include hitting, kicking and slapping the victim; holding the victim down; continuing with the sexual behavior after the victim has been told to stop; and even continuing to kiss the victim as he/she tries to pull away.
Verbal pressure includes behaviors like threatening to use physical force against the victim, yelling at the victim, name calling, tricking, lying, blackmailing and badgering the victim.
Emotional pressure is used much more frequently than physical and verbal pressure and is the most subtle of all the sexual coercion tactics. Using emotional pressure includes the perpetrator convincing the victim that he/she cares more for the victim than he/she actually does, threatening a break-up, wearing the victim down by using the same tactic over and over again, making the victim feel obligated to participate in sexual acts, guilting the victim participating, utilizing peer pressure and even the perpetrator using his/her position of authority over the victim.
“Many victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) experience negative mental health outcomes including anxiety problems, substance abuse, depression, and suicidal ideation,” said Amber Norwood and Christopher Murphy of the University of Maryland. “Most notable are high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with prevalence estimates ranging from 33% to 84%.” Yet in a relationship, not all four behaviors predict PTSD, according to a recent study conducted by Norwood and Murphy. The team theorized that because research suggests that intimate partner rape causes extreme psychological trauma, that sexual violence would be the strongest predictor of PTSD in IPV. In order to confirm their theory, the researchers interviewed 216 women who were in abusive relationships and asked them about the frequency and types of abuse that they experienced.
The results of the study revealed similar findings to previous research, with some exceptions. “As predicted, the rate of PTSD diagnosis was higher in both the sexual coercion (56.8%) and sexual violence (63.2%) groups when compared to the no sexual abuse group (32.3%),” said the researchers. But they were surprised by some of their findings, such as the fact that psychological abuse increased PTSD symptoms much more significantly than physical violence. Overall, exposure to sexual violence and sexual coercion together did increase the presence of PTSD. But when taken as separate factors, only sexual coercion was directly linked to increased PTSD symptoms.
“Though not hypothesized, the finding that sexual coercion (which resembles psychological abuse) is more predictive of PTSD symptoms than sexual violence (which resembles physical abuse), appears to be consistent with the overall finding that psychological abuse had the most consistent unique associations with PTSD. When all four abuse variables—physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual coercion, and sexual violence—were examined together, only psychological abuse remained a significant unique predictor of PTSD symptoms.”
Reference:
Norwood, A., & Murphy, C. (2011, August 22). What Forms of Abuse Correlate With PTSD Symptoms in Partners of Men Being Treated for Intimate Partner Violence?. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0025232
Labels: coercion, complex ptsd, emotional abuse, gaslighting, intimidation, narcissist, physical abuse, pressure, psychological, psychopath, threats, verbal abuse
3 Comments:
When are we taught THE TRUTH about anything? NEVER.
One of the things I remember reading about people who have the brain functioning of a psychopath is that they would rather TAKE something from others. You can GIVE them everything and they are never satisfied because they would rather STEAL from others. (John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.") This comes in many forms, for example, they train us up to cater to them, or serve them, or to be sexually permissive to them and in this way they have stolen our very essence. Here we are thinking WE somehow WANTED this abuse and that we are somehow a part of it, but in all actuality, our God-given personalities are "programmed" to worship someone who is 100% evil.
I was raised to ALWAYS submit sexually to my husband. My mom had a child for every year of her marriage to my father, until they got divorced. Even though my dad had emotionally, spiritually, financially and educationally ruined my mother, she never thought to take a look at what the Bible REALLY had to say about a Biblical marriage, and instead just raised me up to be another abuse victim.
I still see this same pattern in many relationships. The Duggar family is a great example of this. On the surface their way may seem right (keeps people clean, no worries about std's, regrets about poor relationship choices etc.) but have you noticed that the girls are all sitting around waiting for a man? They don't encourage the girls to go to college, but rather teach them to submit to their husband in everything. In the meantime, they are apparently useless except as babysitters and servants to their psychopathic mother's uterus. (There was a "tumblr" that said about the Duggar mom something like, "The uterus, it's not a clown car!") And if both she and her husband are psychopaths (as they appear to be), and since psychopathy is highly genetic, how many more psychopaths are being pumped out? And for those who AREN'T psychopaths in these giant cult families, how many are completey destroyed?
My mom told me that my dad insisted on sex EVERY night of their marriage, as he considered it to be his RIGHT. So here she is with tons of kids, having to submit to rape EVERY night. And this is what she taught me to do. That men were expected to be pigs, to sleep around and do anything they wanted to sexually, (after all they were MEN), yet I was to remain unaffected by this, submit to them, and fix everything. I didn't know what verbal abuse was as I was raised to be berated for everything. I was raised to answer every question asked of me, so that there were no secrets, and yet all my words were used against me. I didn't even know that this was abuse until the past few years.
So I read yet another great article on this website and I think, Lord Jesus, when will it all end? When will we be able to get the word out about psychopathy and abuse so that ALL will know what it looks like, and learn how to protect themselves and their children? Realistically I know this will never happen, but for those few who have found your way to this website, soak up this great wisdom and let the Lord use it to help you heal. That you know there are at least SOME other people who know the hell you've gone through and that some of them are actually praying for you and loving you. IT'S SUPER HARD!
Good article and a great comment.
What I find the hardest, is to keep myself convinced that my feelings are real and that it is my right to feel this way...he even have made me doubt me being sane... This keeps me from walking out, even though I want to most of the time.
EVERYTHING they say is a calculated lie. EVERYTHING.
Walk. Now.
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