Warning Signs is a collection of three books that tell one story about an abusive relationship. The purpose is to help people learn the warning signs of intimate partner violence (IPV) and domestic violence (DV). IPV is a subset of DV, in that IPV is abuse between intimate partners and DV is abuse between any family members. In both cases, they are abuse with one person’s intent to exert power and control over another person. It can take the form of physical, sexual, emotional, financial, or psychological acts or threats of violence. (For more, see the United Nation’s page on domestic abuse.)
This is my personal story of enduring abuse and how I eventually left. After each chapter in the story, there is a section called “warning signs” that discusses the warning signs of abuse that I did not see at the time. When I experienced this, I did not know what DV or IPV was, and thus I did not know what I was experiencing or that I needed to leave the relationship.The warning signs sections will help people see the signs in the context of abuse as it occurs.
My hope is that these books can teach people the warning signs so that people can: 1) Not enter abusive relationships; 2) Leave if they are in them; 3) Help people notice if someone is in an abusive relationship, and then teach them the warning signs so they leave; 4) Help people whose loved ones have experienced abuse understand what happened and why it was hard for them to see the signs and leave; and 5) Create a global discussion so that we can change these patterns, so as a society we can work toward ending abuse.
As a community of people reading this book and people that care about survivors, I hope that we can help people make smart decisions. Share your thoughts and stories using #WarningSigns so we can grow together.