Different Forms of Abuse

The definition of abuse is to use "wrongly" or to "misuse." There are around fourteen different types of abuse, all equally serious.

The fourteen forms of abuse include; spiritual, sexual, physical, verbal, emotional, drug abuse, child abuse, incest, spousal abuse, elder abuse, human rights abuse, animal abuse and legal abuse.

Spiritual abuse is abuse in the practices, beliefs and teachings of churches and religious organizations or groups. An example of spiritual abuse would be "mandatory" mass suicides in cults.

One of the most common forms of abuse is physical abuse. This occurs when a person inflicts physical pain on another person. Physical abuse is very common in bullying on playgrounds or from spouse to spouse.

Another common type of abuse would be verbal. This can be name calling, threatening, or lowering of another person's self esteem through words of any kind.

Emotional or psychological abuse can be caused by humiliation, alienation by peers or parents, or intimidation. When one person uses "mind games" to get what they want from another person this is emotional abuse. It can also be defined as when a person inflicts emotional pain on another person.

Sexual abuse has occurred when one person has used another person for sexual pleasure, either by force, or by using emotional abuse. Most often it occurs from parent to child or by strangers.

Not far from sexual abuse is incest. Incest is sexual activity between close family members.
One or more of these types of abuse can be directed at one specific person. When abuse is directed from one spouse to another, this is seen as spousal abuse. Child abuse is any type of abuse directed towards a child. One other type of this abuse is called elder abuse. Elder abuse occurs most often in nursing homes, but can also happen within the home between elder and care giver. Also when abuse is directed toward an animal in any way it is called animal abuse.

On a broader span, human rights abuse is when one person has violated another person's human rights.
Some different forms of abuse are; drug abuse and legal abuse.

Drug abuse is the misuse of any type of drug. This includes alcohol. A word for this type of abuse is "addiction." The drug or substance does not have to be harmful for this type of abuse to be defined.

The last form of abuse is legal abuse. Legal abuse is seen when a person sues a person purely out of spite and to hurt the other person, whether emotionally or financially. Another term for this abuse is "malicious prosecution."

Any type of abuse is harmful and there is no "little" amount of abuse occurring. Studies have shown that abuse especially amongst families or peers will start out as something "smaller" like verbal abuse and gradually grow into emotional abuse, physical abuse and most likely lead to sexual abuse.

If you or anyone you know is under attack please seek help. There are shelters, family, friends (where ever you feel safest) and the proper authorities will be there to help you.