Keep a checklist, if your partner does any of the following you may be at risk for abuse.
Does your partner...
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Speak badly about other women or men in their life?
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Have a bad temper?
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Constantly find fault in you or others?
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Always have to win? Is overly competitive with your time and attention?
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Refuse to discuss their feelings and then blow up when you push the subject?
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Disapprove of how you spend your money or how you dress?
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Understand the difference between affection and sex?
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Drive fast or do other things to scare you?
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Accuse you of lying?
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Demand to know where you are at all times?
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Constantly become jealous or angry when you want to spend time with family or friends?
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Make fun of other people and enjoy humour that embarrasses others including you?
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Find it hard to say sorry?
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Does not take no for an answer?
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Threaten to harm you or themselves if you leave the relationship?
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Twist the truth to make you feel like you are to blame for their actions?
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Use the phrase "If you really loved me you would..."?
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Call you offensive or derogatory names?
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Humiliate you in front of other people?
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Threaten you with physical violence, abandonment, or harm to others you love?
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Express excessive jealousy over friends and family, especially friends of the opposite sex?
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Isolate you from friends, family or your local community?
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Threaten to 'out' you as a lesbian, gay, bisexual or whore or slut?
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Become violent, paranoid or controlling while under the influence of drugs or alcohol?
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Show violence towards other people or animals?