I believe everybody suffers from some form abuse.
I'm believe that everybody suffers from some sort of abuse at
some point in their lives. Either physical, sexual, verbal, or
emotional.
I know that not everybody has been psychically or
sexually abused. They are the most common talked about & the
easiest to identify obviously so I wont' go into them here. However, I
do think that everybody suffers from verbal and/or emotional abuse
during their lifetime at some point. Most during their childhood. It can be from a
parent (or parents), sibling (or siblings), or even the school bully.
Verbal
would include those things like telling somebody that they are stupid,
can't do anything right, are ugly, etc. I guess you can say that it is
an "easy" one to identify too even though I doesn't tend to get talked
about that way. Most people just call it bullying or dismiss it as the cruelty of kids. It shouldn't be as easy to dismiss
as that though. Verbal abuse is ALSO emotional abuse. It makes the
child (or any person) feel bad & in the long run the one on the
receiving end starts to believe what he/she is being told. Especially if
no one (or very few people) are saying the opposite just as (or more)
frequently then the negative feedback that constitutes the verbal
abuse. After that happens it can take months, years, or even a lifetime
to ever recover to the point that the abused person feels like a
worthwhile person again.
Emotional abuse is even harder to
recognize. It covers verbal abuse (& maybe even physical &
sexual) & even more. Neglect would fit under emotional abuse.
People (esp. kids) are victims of this type whenever they are
constantly (& consistently) ignored, interrupted, & in other
ways are shown that they aren't worth the other persons time or energy.
It doesn't have to be verbal. That's what makes this one SO hard to
recognize.
Now I may not have a Ph.D, doctorate, or any other
type of degree so I can't say that any of this is any more then my
viewpoint. You are welcome to have a different opinion. My only credentials are that I've been verbally & emotionally abuse by a younger sister & still haven't recovered from that.