When you think about the health issues related to domestic violence, you may immediately think of bruises or broken bones. While these health issues usually heal quickly, many victims are now noticing long-term health problems years after the assault.
In fact, victims of domestic violence are 20% more likely to experience a chronic health condition than women who have never been abused.
Common Chronic Health Conditions of Domestic Abuse Survivors
Long after the broken bones have healed, underlying health conditions can still remain, but many victims aren’t making the connection between their health conditions and the abuse they experienced.
To understand how these health conditions are related to abuse, we must first understand what happens to the body over time. Years, months or even just weeks of domestic abuse, can have long-term consequences on the body.
The Critical Impact of Stress
Even in the prehistoric era, physical changes in response to stress were essential to survival. The bodies of victims of domestic violence experience a great amount of stress, prior to, during and even after an attack.
When under stress, the brain, heart, lungs and blood vessels become over-activated, and chronic stressful situations can cause physical and psychological damage, leaving victims at a higher risk for health issues such as:
- Heart Disease
- Stroke
- Weakened Immune System
- Diabetes
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Digestive Diseases
- Immune or Endocrine System Dysfunction
- Anxiety Attacks
Stress exacerbates any chronic conditions that a victim may already have, so victims who are prone to digestive disorders, for example, may experience a more extreme reaction while their body is under stress.
Stress is also the most common trigger for migraine headaches. Studies show that people who experienced childhood abuse are considerably more likely to experience headaches as an adult than children who experienced no abuse.
In addition, the more severe the abuse, the higher the likelihood a victim has of experiencing headaches.
Understanding the Source of Chronic Headaches
The head is the most common target area of intimate partner assaults. When the head is thrown back, to one side, or hit with an object, the brain crashes against the side of the skull. This can irritate the muscle connected to the pain-sensitive tissue that covers the brain causing to spasm. Headaches often result.
These impacts can also cause the vertebrae in the neck and upper back to shift out of alignment. When this happens, the misaligned vertebrae can pinch on a nerve causing pain up the back of the head and down into the neck.
Without treatment, the vertebrae will likely remain misaligned and can cause chronic headaches, migraines and neck pain.
Chiropractic treatment consists of an examination of the neck and spine to determine which joints are misaligned. Then, thorough chiropractic therapy, doctors restore motion to locked joints.
Brain injuries are also a common health concern among victims. The forceful impact of the brain hitting the side of the skull can cause injuries that can become more severe as time goes on:
Common Symptoms Affecting Memory
- Difficulty Concentrating
- Memory loss
- Difficulty making decisions and solving problems
- Depression
Neck Injuries Explained
Neck injuries are the second most-common injury resulting from intimate partner violence. Neck pain can result from obvious assaults such as being hit with an object in the head or neck, but they can also result from being severely shaken so that the head and neck whip back and forth.
When the neck is jerked back, beyond its normal limits, it’s called a neck strain or whiplash injury.
Common Symptoms of a Neck Injury
- Headache
- Pain between the shoulder blades,
- Neck pain or stiffness
- Shoulder pain
- Blurred vision
- Nausea
- Weakness
- Back and chest pain
- Dizziness
- Numbness or Tingling in the Arms
- Difficulty sleeping
Victims who seek treatment for neck pain sooner recover much more quickly than those who wait. Without proper treatment the soft tissues that support the head and neck may heal incorrectly. If they don’t heal correctly on their own, persistent muscle, ligament and verve pain can cause chronic neck problems and even disability.
Early treatment can allow the body to heal correctly, restoring proper alignment and preventing potential problems later in life.
Chiropractors specialize in neck pain treatment – restoring motion to joints that are fixated and freeing up the injured areas of the neck through chiropractic adjustments.
What You Need to Know About Low Back Pain
When a victim of domestic abuse is pushed down the stairs, against a wall or another object that causes an impact on their back, the vertebra in their spine can become locked up or fixated at the point of impact. The longer these fixated joints remain immobile, the more quickly the cushions between their vertebra (discs) begin to deteriorate. This can cause low back pain, numbness or tingling in the arms and hands, and even sciatica pain.
When areas of the spine are fixated (locked up), the bones above and below the fixated joint begin to overcompensate – becoming hyper-mobile (or too flexible, moving beyond their normal range of motion.) When this happens the joint becomes unstable and more prone to injury.
If left untreated, the joints that remain locked up can cause other areas in the spine to become misaligned, leading to dull or shooting mid-back pain, neck pain, uneven hips, and even headaches.
Arthritis often results when joints are locked up or fixated for long periods of time. The discs (or cushions between our vertebrae) begin to flatten over time if they don’t have movement. This causes the vertebra to pinch on the nerves that run between the bones of the spine and can result in pain, and stiffness.
How to Stop the Cycle
The key to preventing many of the more severe symptoms associated with domestic abuse is to catch the problems early. Through early detection and treatment, many of these health conditions can be prevented.