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What's worse?

What is worse Physical abuse, emotional abuse, or verbal abuse?

  • 29 votes
  • 73 votes
  • 1 vote
Ravenwolfcasey 7 Oct 1
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55 comments

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1

Emotional/psychological abuse is often the most painful and difficult to get over. And the abuse can be inflicted verbally, non-verbally (through policies and procedures like discrimination or shunning), as well as physically. It's possible for someone to be abused physically and not really be aware that they are being abused. But if they are abused emotionally they definitely know it.

8

They are ALL wrong. I'm not picking one over the others.

7

Why must we rank them. Abuse is never good.

7

No abuse ...is acceptable ...in any shape or form .Categorizing forms of, is at best ...stupid ; and I feel that making it such is at best dehumanizing .Sorry having been subject to all forms , I feel quite strongly about this one .

7

Every single one can screw a person up - be they adult or child. And most happen in some combination.

I've never been told any tale of abuse and thought "that's the one to have." .

No vote here.

On the other hand, it seems to me that both physical and verbal abuse lead to emotional abuse. And probably the abuser either conciously or subconciously intends their physical or verbal abuse to cause emotional harm. I can't say that I was ever physically abused (that I remember), but did suffer verbal abuse from my alcoholic father, and I'm sure his intention was to hurt me emotionally. Although I've always referred to this as psychological abuse, it amounts to the same thing.

@bingst Absolutely. You never have to lay a hand on someone to cause them unending harm. I saw way too much of this. (working with clients).

And in my book - it being done to a kid who usually has no decision making power over leaving? That is the worst.

At least an adult has some decision over staying or going.
Even when they believe they don't.

7

You don't have an all are equally bad option. I choose that.

6

case by case; no way to generalize. physical abuse can culminate in murder, making the other two kinds moot. emotional abuse can culminate in suicide, making the other two kinds moot. verbal abuse IS emotional abuse.

g

5

They’re all awful.

5

With all due respect it's kind of a ridiculous question. It is sort of like asking, " which is a worse way to die, being impaled by your steering column, or being decapitated by a guard rail through the windsheild?". In either case the outcome is the same and both are pretty bad. All abuse is bad snd there is no slide rule of better or worse. Its just a matter of the extent of abuse.

5

D. All or any mentioned above.

Abuse is abuse. It fucks with you. I have had the luck to experience all at different points of my life. Some alone, some in combo. It all sucks.

4

All are abhorrent, but emotional abuse is the worst. Physical and verbal abuse are just different forms of emotional abuse.

4

Emotional abuse. Mainly because it is the emotional abuse component that leads to victims of physical abuse to stay with their abuser. Without the emotional abuse more women and men would get the hell out upon the first occurrence of violence. By the time physical abuse happens self-worth is almost non-existent.

Yes.

4

All of the above.

3

All abuse is terrible

3

Been through all at some point. takes years, if not forever, to heal.

3

Why is there NOT a " All of the above" option as well.
Every form of abuse is as bad as the next in my opinion.

I did not put a All of the Above..because obviously they are all bad but I wanted to see what people thought...about them individually

3

Abuse is abuse. Bad news anyway you experience it.

3

I think emotional and verbal abuse go hand in hand.

3

Physical abuse sucks. I feel like verbal abuse should be included in emotional abuse.

Emotional abuse takes hard work and incredible time to heal. Bruises heal much faster. Both can be deadly.

Often emotional or verbal abuse is much worse than physical abuse!

It has taken me many years to even confront the verbal/emotional abuse. It has been so damaging. forgiving and stopping the cycles has helped me heal quite a bit. We can be much better humans. 😉

3

All forms of abuse are emotional. Physical wounds heal, but the emotional element endures. Verbal abuse is only words, what lasts is the feelings those words evoke. Without the mind the body is nothing. The scars that can't be seen are the hardest to heal.

3

All the above.

3

Verbal abuse is emotional abuse. Physical abuse is also emotional abuse.

3

The worst abuse is the self abuse of enduring being abused.

Agree...why I left my ex years ago

3

Physical abuse, because it's almost always accompanied by the other two forms of abuse as well.

Deb57 Level 8 Oct 1, 2018
3

They are all equally horrific.

3

It doesn't matter what kind of abuse it is, whether it be physical, mental, or verbal, they all do significant damage. It's like asking which form of energy is better, coal, nuclear, or natural gas. It doesn't matter because in the end all you are doing is heating water to steam to spin a turbine. Abuse is abuse no matter the form.

This ^^

@RavenCT Thank you.

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