Psychological Violence
Just because there are no scars, it doesn’t mean one is free and away from being the subject of violence.
Psychological Violence (also called psychological abuse or mental abuse) has been recognised to be a growing form of violence that is usually looked over without much thinking, at least in India. It is present in almost every home and yet only a few have the eyes to see and recognise it while others just seem to be indifferent towards it.
In this type of violence, the person is subjected to such inhumane behaviour that he/she may fall into psychological traumas like anxiety, chronic depression or post-traumatic stress etc. Like physical violence, this too can have life-threatening effects on the victim. Mostly it is brought out verbally and through behaviour and since the victim is usually helpless, the person inflicting the trauma has the leverage.
Humans have always had a taste for dominance and chauvinism. It is almost like “what’s the use of this power if I can’t exert it on the ones who can’t fight back?” And I think that is where everything goes wrong. There are things like workplace bullying, domestic violence, child abuse, abusive relationships, gaslighting etc. that corrupt human relationships to such extent that a person will prefer taking his/her own life rather than living with it.
With all of this happening in one’s life, there is bound to be an aftermath and that is shown when the victim’s behaviour is closely observed. There are so many after effects and a few of them are loss of trust, decreased performance, loss of motivation and self esteem, depression, panic attacks, eating disorders etc.
It is high time that we stop considering things like depression and other mental health hazards only as movie content. They are serious health hazards and they are growing now, more than ever.
IMG source - google