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To locals, domestic abuse data all too real
Had she gone out on the first date and the man had punched her in the face, she would have called the police right away and been done with it.
As it was - the way one woman in a local chat room for domestic violence survivors described it - the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband of 20 years progressed so slowly she started to think it was normal. It started with angry outbursts, an almost inadvertent shove, a bad habit of throwing things during arguments.
By the time he finally raised his hand to her, she saw no way out.
Statistics have long shown that women like her are not alone, but a study released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed a startling statistic: About 1 in 4 women in the U.S. has been the victim of physical violence from an intimate partner at some point in her life, the study concluded.
J.R. Thicklin, CEO of the Riviera Beach-based nonprofit domestic violence awareness group Destiny by Choice, says the statistics are not a surprise to those who work locally to prevent and stop abuse. What the study has done, Thicklin and others say, is put a spotlight on the pervasiveness of domestic violence's impact on health care, schools, courts, business and other sectors of American society.
"I think it's opened a lot of people's eyes, and a lot of people are starting to pay attention to this now that weren't necessarily watching that closely before," Thicklin said.
The study, which concluded that about 13 percent of men experience violence from a wife, girlfriend or other intimate partner, also reported that of the 1 in 5 U.S. women who had reported being raped in their lifetimes, more than half had been raped by an intimate partner.
The health consequences are severe.
According to the report, men and women who had suffered abuse from an intimate partner were more likely to report frequent headaches, chronic pain, difficulty with sleeping, activity limitations, poor physical health and poor mental health than those who had never been abused. Women who reported being raped or stalked also had reported more cases of asthma, diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome.
Several of the women in a Facebook chat group for Worldwide Survivors of Sociopaths or Domestic Violence last week reported suffering from post-*traumatic stress disorder.
Luis and Dawn Garcia of Boynton Beach started the support group two years ago after battling the effects of the abuse Dawn had suffered from her ex-husband, they said. Luis Garcia is a retired Boynton Beach firefighter. Dawn Garcia works for the Florida Attorney General's Office.
The group has hundreds of subscribers from around the world.
One of them, Ashley Matias, 27, of Boca Raton, said she was diagnosed with PTSD after she ended a seven-year relationship with a man.
As with others in the group, the abuse in her case progressed slowly but intensified to physical abuse after five years, when she moved to another state with her abuser. Her experience also included forced sex and emotional, economic and verbal abuse - all while she was battling cervical cancer.
On the day she told him she was leaving him and moving back to South Florida, she said, he beat her so badly she could barely walk.
"I am slowly working on myself to get better, but I have my good and bad days," said Matias, who has since married someone else and said she is now in a stable, nurturing relationship.
Although she's moved on, she still identifies with the one-sixth of U.S. women the CDC reports have experienced stalking. Her ex, though hundreds of miles away, still sends her unwanted emails.
This was posted on FB for my local paper and will be in tomorrow's edition. Glad I am not one of the statistics and I do feel bad for those that are.
Had she gone out on the first date and the man had punched her in the face, she would have called the police right away and been done with it.
As it was - the way one woman in a local chat room for domestic violence survivors described it - the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband of 20 years progressed so slowly she started to think it was normal. It started with angry outbursts, an almost inadvertent shove, a bad habit of throwing things during arguments.
By the time he finally raised his hand to her, she saw no way out.
Statistics have long shown that women like her are not alone, but a study released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed a startling statistic: About 1 in 4 women in the U.S. has been the victim of physical violence from an intimate partner at some point in her life, the study concluded.
J.R. Thicklin, CEO of the Riviera Beach-based nonprofit domestic violence awareness group Destiny by Choice, says the statistics are not a surprise to those who work locally to prevent and stop abuse. What the study has done, Thicklin and others say, is put a spotlight on the pervasiveness of domestic violence's impact on health care, schools, courts, business and other sectors of American society.
"I think it's opened a lot of people's eyes, and a lot of people are starting to pay attention to this now that weren't necessarily watching that closely before," Thicklin said.
The study, which concluded that about 13 percent of men experience violence from a wife, girlfriend or other intimate partner, also reported that of the 1 in 5 U.S. women who had reported being raped in their lifetimes, more than half had been raped by an intimate partner.
The health consequences are severe.
According to the report, men and women who had suffered abuse from an intimate partner were more likely to report frequent headaches, chronic pain, difficulty with sleeping, activity limitations, poor physical health and poor mental health than those who had never been abused. Women who reported being raped or stalked also had reported more cases of asthma, diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome.
Several of the women in a Facebook chat group for Worldwide Survivors of Sociopaths or Domestic Violence last week reported suffering from post-*traumatic stress disorder.
Luis and Dawn Garcia of Boynton Beach started the support group two years ago after battling the effects of the abuse Dawn had suffered from her ex-husband, they said. Luis Garcia is a retired Boynton Beach firefighter. Dawn Garcia works for the Florida Attorney General's Office.
The group has hundreds of subscribers from around the world.
One of them, Ashley Matias, 27, of Boca Raton, said she was diagnosed with PTSD after she ended a seven-year relationship with a man.
As with others in the group, the abuse in her case progressed slowly but intensified to physical abuse after five years, when she moved to another state with her abuser. Her experience also included forced sex and emotional, economic and verbal abuse - all while she was battling cervical cancer.
On the day she told him she was leaving him and moving back to South Florida, she said, he beat her so badly she could barely walk.
"I am slowly working on myself to get better, but I have my good and bad days," said Matias, who has since married someone else and said she is now in a stable, nurturing relationship.
Although she's moved on, she still identifies with the one-sixth of U.S. women the CDC reports have experienced stalking. Her ex, though hundreds of miles away, still sends her unwanted emails.
This was posted on FB for my local paper and will be in tomorrow's edition. Glad I am not one of the statistics and I do feel bad for those that are.
