How you may be feeling if you are
a witness or a victim of domestic violence
- You may have some physical symptoms like bruises and broken bones, you may get lots of headaches or stomach aches you may feel sick much of the time.
- You may feel tired a lot and have difficulty sleeping, or you could want to sleep all of the time.
- If your parents are neglecting you, your clothes could be unwashed and you may have a poor diet and lack positive attention.
- You may feel depressed and have low self esteem and confidence, not really liking yourself. You may feel alone and isolated at school, you may feel different from everyone else and not able to join in with activities and friends.
- In difficult situations you may express a lot of anger and not know how you could deal with things differently.
- You may have taken the role of carer to your non-abusing parent, you may feel that it is your job to look after them. Or if you have brothers or sisters you may be trying to protect them.
- You may feel really confused because you love the abuser and don’t want the family to split up. You probably feel afraid.
If you are feeling some of these things and you would like some help then please either go and tell an adult that you trust or telephone ChildLine on 0800 1111.
Remember it is not your fault and it is not your responsibility to look after everyone.
Here are some ways to help yourself in domestic violence situations:
- You need to make safety plans. Find places where you can be safe, make sure you know ways of getting out of the house quickly and make sure you know where you are going.
- You need to have phone numbers of people that can help you. Try and memorize them. There is a good way to help you remember things, look at one of your hands and remember a telephone number and person for each finger. This can then be known to you as your safety hand.
You must always remember it is not your fault and try to protect yourself from the situation.
If you are in danger and you need to talk to somebody right now, you can telephone ChildLine on 0800 1111.