HOSEI WOMEN - ZERO TOLERANCE FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Domestic violence/abuse is present in all levels of society. To ignore it is to permit it to continue. Abuse of women has far-reaching health consequences for a woman and her children. Women who are in abusive relationships/marriages suffer higher rates of health problems and social dysfunction.

I had five different health challenges/medical conditions when I was in the abusive marriage with my ex. I was taking drugs as if it was food. And all the drugs did was to manage my conditions, they couldn't cure me. It was in the second month of leaving the marriage that I realised that even though I wasn't using my medications, all the symptoms of the different ailments I had had vanished. Everything went back to normal. My period became regular, my heart beat stopped its erratic permutation, the chronic migraine that had defiled medication disappeared, the chronic depression vanished, the anxiety attacks that was my constant companion stopped, with it my uncontrollable, unnatural sleeping habits. It was not really sleep. I guess it was just a survival mechanism that makes me go unconscious whenever my brain could not handle all the negative emotions within me. For even though I'll be asleep and unconscious, I used to hear everything people around me were saying. Especially if they were making fun of me or talking about me. I will be snoring so loud, yet I used to hear things being said around me.

I lost this special ability unfortunately when I left the abusive marriage. I really enjoyed having direct access to people's true opinions about me while presumed to be asleep and unconscious. Lol! Now,  my sleep is deep and sound, with no anxiety attack and fear.

Finding the strength and courage to break free from the tangled bonds an abuser weaves is not easy. Most women that eventually summon the courage to leave do so out of desperation and helplessness more than out of confidence. 
Because we were brought up to have a permissive attitude towards abuse. So we hardly take a strong, uncompromising stand against it at the inception. It's when it becomes intolerable that we start fighting it, by which time, the abuser would have gotten comfortable with the abuse and will not be willing to let go of it. That's one of the things I pray we will change in our children as we bring them up. Instilling in them zero tolerance for abuse.

I believe if our parents had done that in us, we wouldn't have endured abuse as we did. All the damage that occurred while enduring abuse would have been prevented. If not totally, the effects would have been reduced drastically.

Life is to be enjoyed and not to be endured!