[di meliora]

Watching my mother getting beat up on a regular basis remains the most profound experience that has influenced my life. The cycle of abuse is something my siblings and I got to know. The family did not talk about the beatings, tension and fear. We eventually confronted my Dad. He responded by brutally beating my mother again.

I tried to help my Mom. I could do little but run for the police. When I returned, Dad was waiting. I do not remember what happened. The results were apparent.

My father was a different man when not drinking. He had some demons he never got around to dealing with.

These articles tell the tale:

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/prin...printable=true
http://helpguide.org/mental/domestic...es_effects.htm
http://www.uthealthleader.org/archiv...epingenemy.htm

Please, those who see themselves in the articles, make the call to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, http://www.thehotline.org/, or local safe shelters, http://www.womenshelters.org/, to get to safety. Your children will thank you.

[Callmebj]

Elan, I hope you have had time to heal from this miserable childhood. One member of the family acting out, ruins the harmony of all the family.

Abused by my mother, not a drunk, just mean!

[Open Eyes]

My father's mother left her husband and her two children, my father was about 13 and his sister about 11. My fathers mother never said goodbye, she just went away.

My father told me his father was a mean drunk, he didn't say much more than that, but I can guess for a woman to leave her children it must have been pretty bad.

I can remember when my father was my age, 50's there was a call one day and my father looked so shocked. It was his mother on the other end of the phone. I remember my father saying, " I thought she was dead" because he had not heard from her in so many years and no one had even seen her.

I can remember when I had a tiff with a girl that stold some of my things and this girls mother exclaimed that she knew all about my father and how his father had done away with his wife. I now wonder if my father had ever heard that gossip and wondered himself.

I think the hardest thing for a woman is to expose her children and I know they stay in abusive marriages because of their children. Somehow they seem to know that the anger and spite will be taken out on the children.

Thank you Elan for posting this thread. It is a difficult issue for those that have been involved with a partner that is/was abusive.

Open Eyes

This thread ought to have a trigger icon. Made me ill yesterday...my past came off the pages of these articles and punched me in the face. Oh well. Guess it only triggered me surprising given the descriptions in these sources. Just an hysteric here.

Yes, "Some women {I will add men too here} benefit from a description of the ANS which regulates many PTSD symptoms." Yes, in the course of going to school, working and going through my 10 year long divorce...learning about the human nervous system was very valuable to me. I learned much. A thorough knowledge of the Anatomy and physiology of the complete individual is a wonderful helpmate in understanding abnormal reactions to stimuli in the environment. ( for pete's sake, it helped me yesterday!!!)~~~~~~~~~~~Pax-theo