Worried About Hurting Others

Recognising that your behaviour is abusive is the first step to changing it. It’s very difficult to admit that you abuse people you love, but it is possible to change how you relate to others, if you genuinely want to.

Recognising abusive behaviour

Do you:

Criticise your partner?
Blame them when things go wrong?
Ever push or hit your partner ?
Feel they are scared of you?
constantly worry that your partner may be seeing someone else? Do you accuse them and check up on them?
Tightly control money or spend money the family needs on things for yourself?
Pressurise your partner into having sex or do things they don’t enjoy?
Fantasise about punishing or hurting your partner?
Need to get your way at all times?
Worry about your temper and wish you could stop?

Domestic abuse ruins lives. It’s a pattern of controlling, bullying behaviour, which usually gets worse over time. It will affect your partner’s health, happiness and confidence and can have a terrible impact on children living with you. But, it also has a brutalising effect on you. You won’t ever really be happy if you’re unable to maintain loving, trusting relationships. If you abuse your partner, they will become increasingly wary and even scared of you and your relationship will obviously suffer as a result. You may find that the jealous, controlling behaviour you use to try and keep hold of your partner, is the very behaviour that drives them away. It’s hard for your partner to keep loving you, if you bully or hurt them. They are likely to tread very carefully round you and feel unable to share their real feelings or concerns, for fear of your reaction. They may pacify you, or keep things from you, to avoid conflict. After an abusive episode, you may choose to forget about it and move on, but the effects on your partner will last much longer.

Minimising the abuse

You may feel your partner is overreacting and say things like “I barely touched you” or “that’s nothing compared with what we had to deal with when I was young.”

You might say you’re sorry and that you only act like that because you love them so much and things would be different if they loved you properly in return. You might bring flowers and treats to apologise, promise to change and make an effort to be kind or help them out round the house. But these kindnesses are designed to keep your partner hooked into the relationship and are part of your pattern of abusive behaviour.

Blaming your partner

You might feel your partner makes you angry, provokes you or makes you jealous. But if you think your partner needs to change, to stop you being abusive, then you are not taking responsibility for your own behaviour. You choose to be violent or bullying towards your partner. If they are upsetting you, you can walk away and calm down. If you can control your temper around other people (like your boss) then you can learn to recognise when you’re getting angry and might abuse your loved ones.

Blaming other things

You might have had a bad day or too much to drink. But stress, alcohol and drugs do not cause domestic abuse. Other people have abusive childhoods without abusing their partners as adults or manage mental health disorders without using violence. These are excuses preventing you from taking responsibility for your behaviour. If you feel the need to be in control of your partner and angry when they resist that control, then this is why your relationship is abusive. Other factors can make abuse worse but they are not the real cause.

What can you do?

Only you can choose to stop abusing people you love. Your partner can choose whether or not to stay in the relationship but cannot stop you being abusive. Get help to understand what the underlying causes and triggers are for your abusive behaviour and learn to recognise and manage your reactions. This will be a hard process and facing up to your behaviour and asking for help is a brave thing to do. Ask your GP for counselling or ring the specialist Respect phoneline (details below).

If you are able to change and your partner chooses to stay with you, it will take a long time to rebuild the trust that has been chipped away by your behaviour in the past. Or if your relationship has ended but you want to stay in your children’s lives, accept that they have a right to be angry with you. It will take time for them to trust that you will not hurt them (or your ex-partner) again.

At present in Sheffield the main domestic abuse perpetrators programme is delivered by the Probation Service, but only to men who are successfully prosecuted and receive a community sentence of at least 2 years, to allow enough time to finish the programme.

Anger management courses are not usually helpful for men who are domestic abuse perpetrators.

Domestic abuse perpetrator programmes are:

There to try to keep your partner/ex and children safe
An opportunity for you to look honestly at your behaviour and decide what needs to change
A chance for you to learn new ways of behaving in a relationship
A help for you to be non-abusive in future relationships
An opportunity for you to repair your relationship with your children or to understand why they are angry with you

Perpetrator programmes are NOT:

A guarantee of saving your relationship – that’s up to your partner and you
A guarantee you will stop abusing – that’s still up to you
A way of persuading the courts to grant you contact with your children if they have decided you aren’t safe to have direct contact with them – just attending isn’t enough, the courts will want to see that you have changed and the programme staff will be very skilled at assessing if you have
Couples counselling or marriage guidance

Who abuses who?

The majority of domestic abuse is committed by men towards women, although it can also involve men being abused by their female partners, abuse in same sex relationships, and by young people towards other family members, as well as the abuse of older people in families. It also includes forced marriage and honour-based violence. Domestic abuse occurs irrespective of social class, racial, ethnic, cultural, religious or sexual relationships or identity.

Support for men and women who want to stop abusing

Inspire to Change – South Yorkshire Community Rehabilitation Company

Telephone: 0114 2567270, email inspiretochange@sodexojustice.scc.gov.uk, website www.inspiretochange.co.uk

This service delivered by South Yorkshire Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC), works with men and women who are aged 16 and above who have been abusive controlling and/or violent to their partner or spouse. The support is designed to help those causing harm to learn new skills and find ways to manage and control their abusive behaviour, encouraging positive thinking and behaviour changes to prevent harm to their partner, children and family in the future.

Taking part in Inspire to Change gives participants:

an understanding of how to recognise the signs of domestic abuse
a better understanding of why they use violence or aggression in their relationships
an awareness of how attitudes and beliefs can affect behaviour
the practical tools to develop and maintain change
an improved and better life for themselves, their children and others affected by their behaviour

At the first appointment fully trained staff will meet with participants to develop their own personal Inspire to Change plan. This plan may include:

setting up one to one sessions
booking on a short respectful relationship course – a 12 session programme
taking part in a more intensive and in depth course called Building Better Relationships – a 30 session programme
participating in group work sessions

You can access the service by self-referrals and referrals by any professional working with the perpetrator, the victim or family are accepted. Contact CRC by telephone on 0114 2567270, by email inspiretochange@sodexojustice.scc.gov.uk or go to their website www.inspiretochange.co.uk

Respect Phoneline 0845 122 8609
(Monday – Friday 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm)

Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme (IDAP)
South Yorkshire Probation. Only available through probation services

Relate
Relationship advice rather than specialist domestic abuse service, but will work with partners individually to begin with if there is known domestic abuse 0300 100 1234

S.T.O.P. Start Treating Others Positively in Leeds 0113 244 6007