I Am Being Abused

If you have been abused in any way, it is important for you to know that you did nothing wrong and have nothing to be ashamed of.  It does happen to other kids and teenagers and you are not alone and have the right to ask for help and to be helped immediately, when living with abuse in your life. You can love someone that is hurting you, and sometimes this makes it very hard to tell.

In most instances, people know the people who abuse them quite well – it might be a family member, a close family friend, or a boyfriend/girlfriend.  Abuse is never acceptable no matter what the circumstances of the situation. You have the right to feel safe and no one has the right to do anything to you that you’re uncomfortable with.

If you’re being abused it can affect every part of your life and people react in a lot of different ways. Your reaction to abuse can depend on things like the circumstances of the abuse, your relationship with the abuser, your personality, and who you have living around you to help you cope.  Sometimes there is a part of the abuse that you might enjoy, but you might also be feeling that there is something not right about what’s going on.  It’s ok to feel a bit mixed up, there is no right or wrong way to be feeling.

When you’re being abused it’s common to have problems which affect your day to day life, such as difficulty sleeping, eating or paying attention at school.  You might be feeling angry, scared, embarrassed or guilty. You might feel like hurting yourself or someone else.  You might even feel numb for a while, and not have any emotions.  It is completely normal for people who have been abused to feel confused about what is happening.

Abuse is never the fault of the person who is being abused and you always have the right to talk about what’s going on, even if you’re not sure that you are being abused.    The person who is abusing might be someone you love – someone who is nice to you most of the time or who is nice to your brothers and sisters, but who is awful some of the time. 

You might be afraid to tell anyone, but it is your right to talk about it. If you want to talk, you can write us a message on the talk to us page.  We also have a free phone number so it doesn’t cost you anything to ring us. We don’t have caller ID  and your call is private unless you want to tell us your name, address, phone number, or anything else that we can identify you by and then we can pass that information onto someone who can help.