My mom has been emotionally manipulative/abusive to me for as long as I can remember. It's always been more on the covert side of things and it wasn't until a few years ago that I really started to realize that my mom might have hurt/scared me more than I initially realized.

Just a brief background on my relationship with my mom:
My mom and I have a codependent relationship. Where she holds all the power and makes me feel guilty for everything. She gaslights me. She is very domineering and raised me with an authoritarian mindset. She is a textbook definition of a helicopter parent and is rather neurotic herself and can be emotional volatile at times. I literally had to find out I was adopted by my estranged father at the age 24. I'm 26 now.

Anyway, my question is, if my mom was physically aggressive with me on a few occasions, does that mean I was physically abused? I guess, I'm asking, because I'd feel like a fraud claiming to have been physically abused when maybe I wasn't. Does one time really all it takes?

I remember one time in high school, I was crap at swallowing pills and my mom was trying to help to take a nyquil tablet which might as well been a huge horse pill to me because no matter what I did, I couldn't swallow it.

I remember my mom got so frustrated that she told me to lie down on my back and she'd pour some water into my mouth. But after like the second or third attempt and I still hadn't managed to swallow the pill she kind of just got upset and started pouring the water more and complaining. And when I started to sputter and cough she held me down for a moment and keep pouring trying to get me to swallow the damn pill. I don't remember exactly what happened explicitly after that but I think she gave up once the water bottle was empty and I remember being shaken up and crying a little from being startled and roughed around a bit. I probably got up off the floor and cleaned the floor and went to my room.

There was another time where I was probably 19 and I would say frickin" a lot because well you know, I didn't curse in front of my mom and she said that frickin was just as bad and that every time she'd catch me saying it, she was going to sock me. I remember at first I didn't mind, but then she wasn't like holding back her punches *they were just in my arm so. I would have to remind/ask her to take off her rings first. And sometimes, she wouldn't hit me right away but let them accumulate up to like 5 hits. I don't know why but I guess she eventually stopped.

Then there was one time where we were arguing. I was probably 20. And I don't remember but she kind of just snapped. I think I called her on a bluff and told her to go ahead and she tried to choke me. She forced me down with her weight on my bed and got her hands around my throat. She had a firm hold but she wasn't pressing down trying to block my airway, she was just shaking my whole body. The whole think was less than a minute, probably only like 30 something seconds.

I know this sounds dumb, because I realize what I typed. But like if those were the only instances do they really count? Like they are so spaced out. Should I worry that my mom might resort to physical violence again as a possibility?