Domestic Abuse
Living in a home where domestic abuse happens can have a serious impact on a child or young person’s mental and physical wellbeing, as well as their behaviour. This can manifest in the following ways and last into adulthood:
- Anxiety and depression
- Difficulty sleeping.
- Nightmares and flashbacks
- Feeling unwell e.g. tummy aches.
- Become aggressive.
- Lowered sense of self-worth.
- May begin to truant from school.
- Start to use alcohol or drugs. Begin to self-harm.
- Develop an eating disorder.
Children may also feel angry, guilty, insecure, alone, frightened, powerless or confused. They may have ambivalent feelings towards both the abuser and the non-abusing parent. Being witness to domestic abuse is a form of child abuse.
The following websites may be helpful: