Mental Abuse can affect anyone at any specific age, and can cause a lot of distress. Abuse relationships don't just have to be physically. Mental Abuse is defined is Any act including confinement, isolation, verbal assault, humiliation, intimidation, initialization, or any treatment which may diminish the sense of identity, dignity, and self-worth. No one should ever go through this with your friends, family, girlfriend or boyfriend.

There are long term effects of a mental abuse relationship such as Depression, withdraw, low self-esteem and self-worth as discussed before, emotional instability, sleep disturbances, physical pain without cause, suicidal attempts or thoughts, extreme dependence on the abuser. These effects may not start right away, they can usually start later in the relationship. A lot of people don't realize that they are in a mental abuse relationship until someone tells you or something really big happens.

You can feel really undesirable as a person and feel really isolated. You may feel shame or guilt, you can feel like you have no control in the relationship and feel powerless. You shouldn't feel that as a person. You cannot let someone tell you what to do or of how you feel. You are your own person.

There are red flags to watch out for, though. Before you get into a relationship, make sure you are not in a mental abuse relationship. Red flags:

- They are always angry at you or something

- Makes vulgar comments about others in your presence

-They start putting you down

- They can tend not to go to work or school, but that's personally their choice

-They tend to control you, or try to isolate you

- Compare you to former partners

-Tell you to shut up, call you fat, dumb, other names directly and indirectly

-Always blame the fights on you

-You can find yourself always being depressed, sad, or unhappy

-Threaten you that they will kill themselves or self-harm for you not to break up with them

There are other red flags, but that is just some. A lot of mental abuse relationships are caused by if your partner (the one that is abusing) has a sense of entitlement, believe they can get away with it, they learn they can abuse to get what they want. Girls and young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rate of intimate partner violence, which is almost triple the national average. Nearly half of 43 % of dating college women report experiencing violent and abusive dating behaviors in their partners. And 33% of teens who were in a violent or verbal relationship ever told anyone about the abuse.

People who are verbally abused have trouble handling it the right way. You have to know your rights as a girl or whoever. You have to know you need to be respected as a human being and a person, know where you stand. You have to realize you need to stop changing your partner, you're not doing any favors of staying in the relationship. Never provoke in their manipulation. But the most thing you need to do is to get support. Reach out to people, let your friends/family know what is happening to you. The end, you may have to leave the relationship, it may be painful but sometimes you have to if that person won't change and is not making you happy.

So now, the reason IM writing this article is because I have experienced all this, really, all this. My past recent relationship was a mental abuse relationship. The first time I met my boyfriend, I thought he was great, wonderful, that I was so lucky, that was called 'The honeymoon Stage.' Throughout the relationship, I noticed he was not treating me right, in person he was fine, all lovable and nice, but through texting, it was like he was another person, he called me names, controlled me, put me down, pretty much all the red flags. I couldn't tell anyone, I was somewhat scared to. We are on and off dating. I thought he was the one for me, that's why I couldn't let him go. We loved each other.

But everyone told me...my parents, my cousins, my friends kept telling me I can't live through this, I need to get out, I deserve better. So I had to end it. I know I'm gonna miss him and everything, but I am better off. Someone better will come into my life. They are not worth it. I do have the long term effects, I have insecure issues, I feel like I'm not worth it at all, I've had suicide thoughts. I have thought "People would be better off without me." But they aren't. And I'm mentally damaged now. I will eventually move on and hopefully, forget all about this.

People have no reason to go through this, we all deserve better and to be happy, if you are not happy in your relationship, do something about it. Stand up for yourself. Care about how you feel. We are human beings, and my experience, not 'Piece of trash." We are all worth something.