The impacts of domestic and family violence and teen dating violence are felt in many areas of women’s and young women’s lives. These are only some of the common tactics of abuse.

Emotional Abuse - includes such tactics such as gas-lighting, mind-games, blackmail, humiliation, degradation, put downs and name calling. Making you walk on eggshells. The aim of this tactic is make you think that you are crazy, hopeless, unworthy or unlovable. The tactic influences the way you think about yourself and the world around you. The tactic impacts upon your sense of worth and your self esteem and contributes to feelings of guilt, shame, despair and worthlessness.

Isolation - includes tactics such as controlling who you see, where you go, what you wear. It can be using jealousy to justify the control or using accusations of you cheating to limit your involvement with friends or work colleagues. It is deliberately sabotaging relationships with your friends and family by doing such things as ruining the family dinner, making such a scene that nobody wants to return or telling you that your old friends and family are bad for you. It can be monitoring and questioning your every move - how long it took you to go to the shop, why you took so long at the gym, what you did all day or going through your phone or social media. Accusing you of cheating so that you begin to control and monitor your own behaviour. Not letting you leave when you want to, taking your keys.

Intimidation - includes using looks, gestures and actions that frighten or intimidate you. Punching holes in walls, throwing furniture around, smashing your phone, throwing things at you. Putting a fist up to your face. Looking like they are going to hit you but stopping. Standing over you in an intimidating way. Using their weight and power to hurt you during ‘play fighting’ then gaslighting your experience of the hurt. Giving you looks that are meant to scare you. Driving erratically, threatening to drive into things or drive off the road.

Sexual - includes any and all unwanted or non-consensual acts of a sexual nature. This includes pressuring you for sex, raping you, making you feel guilty for not giving them sex or forcing you to do things or watch things that you do not like. Spreading false rumours about you sexually.

Physical - pushing, shoving, slapping, strangulation, hitting, punching, pinching, hair pulling or in anyway harming your body causing you pain.

Threats and Coercion - threatening suicide if you leave or threatening any form of harm to you, your children or other members of your family including pets. Threatening to call systems agencies such as police, child safety, centrelink. Threatening to make up false charges, forcing you to drop charges, forcing you to take their charges. Coercing you into doing things you don’t want to do.

Cyber Abuse - such as using social media to spread information, videos or pictures of you. Stalking you on social media. Sending you 100’s of texts, snapchats, tiktoks or emails swinging between threats of abuse to proclamations of ‘love’.

Stalking - turning up in places where you are, following you, knowing what you have spoken about by using listening devices, tracking you via apps on your phone or by placing monitoring devices on your car. Sending 100’s of messages. Clogging your inbox with unwanted mail. Signing you up to organisations that you don’t wish to belong to. Phoning you on private numbers on your mobile or at work or placing camera’s in your home.