I think my sister may be in an abusive situation, and I want to help her, but not sure how. She is in no physical danger, but I think there is emotional/psychological abuse. She is married with 2 kids(4 1/2 and 7mths) and her husband is a partner in a small business. In my opinion, he treats her very disrespectfully and is always angry at her for some reason or other and is always putting her down. Some examples are: He tells her she's a terrible mother and a terrible wife; he gets angry with her for not having dinner ready right when he gets home. These things sound insignificant, but he is very quick to anger and yells at her and is so disrespectful. Her older daughter is now starting to talk to her the same way and it must be because she sees the way he treats her. For the longest time, I just thought of it as regular husband/wife problems that everyone goes through, but she seems to always be making excuses for his behavior. She'll say that he's very stressed because of the business and that even though he yells at her, he eventually calms down and apologizes later and he doesn't mean what he says. My mom and I have noticed a change in her personality. She seems more subdued and not has happy as she used to be. Do I have a reason to be concerned? If so, what should I do?

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Answers

HI,MY OLDER SISTERS AND BROTHER ARE GETTING ABUSED AS WELL BUT BY MY DAD I CANT DO ANYTHING TO HELP BECAUSE IM ONLY 12 BUT I KNOW WHAT YOUR SISTER CAN DO IF SHE CANT GET AWAY FROM HIM SHE CAN CALL THE COPS HAVE ONE OF THEM EXCUSE HER OUT OF THE HOUSE SO HE CANT HIT HER.THE WORST THING IS KNOWING THAT YOUR SISTERS ARE GETTING ABUSED NOT THINKING

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2002