In our society today, it's not rare to have issues in many teenage relationships. These issues can vary, from small issues such as someone forgetting a 4 month anniversary, or huge issues like, abuse. Unfortunately, verbal,emotional, and physical abuse occurs in many relationships. Although abuse is wrong, because of the pressure from their partners, victims believe the abuse in their relationship is their fault, so they don't recognize the cycle of abuse and don't remove themselves from the relationship.
In teen relationships, it is not unlikely that abuse is present. The abuser has different methods of abusing their partner. Abusers have a cycle of abuse that they follow. The cycle starts with the "honeymoon" phase. The couple seems to be "in love" and their relationship is perfect! The next phase is the "tension-building" phase. This phase is when the couple starts getting into small arguments over minor things, causing the abuser to become very frustrated. As time goes on, the abuser begin to blame everything on the victim causing more and more tension between the couple. The last, and most
harmful stage is the "raging stage." This stage is when the abuser explodes on the victim, hurting the victim sexually,physically, emotionally, or verbally. After the abuse happens, the abuser goes back to the "honeymoon" phase, claiming they will change, and didn't mean what they did. They will use pressure and guilt to keep the victim from leaving the relationship, and their persuasion eventually works, and the victim stays in the relationship. From there, the cycle repeats
itself in the relationship, until someone finally ends the relationship.
It is true that this cycle is reasonably easy to recognize and has many red flags, for a victim to recognize, giving themselves time to get out of the relationship. But the fact is, because of the pressure from their partner, victims don't see the cycle. When the victim is pressured, they cannot get themselves out of the relationship. The abuser in the relationship uses guilt and threats to keep the victim in the relationship. Although some would say that regardless of pressure, the victim should remove themselves from the relationship immediately. But doing so is not as simple, as it may seem. Unless the victim knows the cycle of abuse, and knows how to resist the abusers guilt, then the cycle and abuse will continue, and abuse in teen relationships will remain to frequently occur.
