You can help

While reading this weekend, I came across this passage in a book that dealt with abuse. One statement read, "the limit of your self abuse is exactly the limit that you will tolerate from someone else...if someone else abuses you a little less than you abuse yourself, you will probably stay in the relationship and tolerate it endlessly."

As a survivor of domestic violence (a past boyfriend), this was a total eye-opener to me. I had dealt with the thought of low self-esteem, but I had never thought of having a low self-esteem and beating yourself up of minor things - I'm not pretty enough, thin enough, whatever enough - as being a form of self-abuse. At some point a person needs to wake up and say, "I'm not perfect...I am going to accept myself the way I am." Once you can learn to accept yourself, you're ready for other people to accept you.

Here are some Dating Domestic Violence Facts:
- Women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rates of domestic violence
- 70% of teenage and college women who are sexually assaulted, are raped during the course of a date
- 53% of victims of domestic violence were abused by a current or former boyfriend or girlfriend
- Nearly 1 in 5 teenage girls who have been in a relationship report that their boyfriend threatened violence or self-harm when presented with a breakup

If you or someone you know is a victim of dating violence and wants help, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.