Effects on Women

Domestic and family violence can have many effects on women’s lives in the immediate and long-term, including:

• Living in fear; unable to predict when the next incident will occur.
• Experiencing inconsistent emotions, such as fear, anger, shame, resentment, sadness and powerlessness.
• Struggling to nurture and parent their children as they would hope to.
• Low self-worth and poor self-esteem, leading to isolation from friends, family and other social connections.
• Poor mental health, sometimes leading to psychosomatic illnesses, eating disorders, insomnia, gastrointestinal disturbances or generalized chronic pain.
• Developing post-traumatic stress, which includes varying degrees of anxiety, depression, panic attacks, trouble sleeping, nightmares and hyper-vigilance.

Further information on the effects of domestic and family violence is available from the links on our Contacts page.