Family violence has short and long-term physical, emotional, psychological, financial and other effects on women. Every woman is different, and the individual and the cumulative impact of each act of violence depends on many complex factors. 

Women who experience family violence are often unable to act on their own choices because of physical restraint, fear and intimidation and, they live in persistent fear of further violation. They are frequently silenced and unable to express their point of view or experience.  Women often make their partners’ needs and feelings the constant focus of their attention as a survival strategy, which may result in an inability to attend to their own and their children’s health and well-being. Following are words that women have used to describe the effects of living with family violence: 

Numb…Indecisive…Suspicious…No appetite…Insomnia…Stress-related illness…Palpitations…Nervous all the time… Used alcohol to deaden the pain…Drugs…Smoked a lot…Bald patches…Self-mutilation…Asthma…Eat all the time…Didn’t care what I looked like…Overate and put on so much weight…Rundown…No opinions…Tried to fix everything…Forget what I’m talking about…Frightened of the dark…Just go along with everything…No interest in sex…Push everyone away…Can’t cope with anything…Angry all the time…Guilt…Lonely…Abandoned and betrayed…No confidence…Just stay home…Stopped going out…Lost my friends…Gave up study…Daydream all the time…Cleaned compulsively…Tried suicide…Tried to kill my partner…I don’t know who I am anymore…