Victims of domestic violence often experience physical symptoms as a survival response to their trauma. Whether enduring physical or psychological abuse, both victims and healthcare professionals frequently fail to connect these symptoms to the violence.At the Women Safe Association in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (78), Sarah* doesn't mince words about her 15-year ordeal. "It swells me," she says with a wry laugh. Wrists, knees, hands—this 46-year-old mother began swelling inexplicably, her pain a mystery.
After exhaustive tests yielded no answers, clarity came when her symptoms eased during separation from her husband.
In divorce proceedings since 2019, Sarah married what seemed the ideal man—a tall, blond, blue-eyed top student—in 2007. Beneath that facade lurked a psychologically abusive partner, she reveals. Accusations of child mistreatment, blaming her for his mother's suicide, outbursts against doors: the engineer kept her under relentless pressure. "But he never touched me—he was too smart for that," he even boasted, she recalls.
Oreneta*'s ex-husband employed a similar tactic. Married for 30 years, this 51-year-old scientist gradually realized the control her partner exerted. After derailing her studies and isolating her from family, tensions exploded when she sought work, turning her life into a nightmare.
Video of the day:Nervous breakdowns, verbal abuse, marital violence, and sexual assault—peaking during the early COVID-19 pandemic—ravaged Oreneta mentally and physically. Recurrent fungal infections, severe pelvic pain, and endometriosis marked her body.
Relief came swiftly after filing for divorce in April 2021. "I decided in seconds, after knowing for a decade I should," Oreneta reflects deliberately.
Like Sarah beside her, she awoke to the profound toll of her partner's repeated violence on her body and mind.
Psychologist Annie Ferrand, a trauma specialist, lists common signs: "Weight loss, insomnia, migraines, chest tightness, lump in the throat, recurrent cystitis, pain during penetration…"
Read also:These are psychosomatic responses, as psychiatrist Muriel Salmona, a psychotraumatology expert, explains. "Violence triggers intense emotions and a stunned state. To survive, the brain floods with cortisol and adrenaline—stress hormones."
"Prolonged exposure keeps the brain in hyper-alert mode, saturated with neurotoxins. It activates dissociation to endure extreme stress, impairing self-defense, escape, or accurate threat assessment," notes Salmona, president of the Traumatic Memory and Victimology association.
Victims often feel detached from their bodies, like observers, leading them to downplay or hide the abuse.
The body retains traumatic memories from abuse. Women in domestic violence form indelible traumatic imprints.
Flashbacks resurface worst moments, causing long-term effects. "Chronic stress disrupts thyroid, ovarian, and menstrual function; triggers cardiovascular issues, hypertension, immune suppression, and autoimmune diseases," Salmona details.
Victims rarely link these to daily violence.
Awareness is crucial, as they often somatize without realizing it.
Oreneta grasped her victimhood a year ago via Women Safe's program, naming her "hypervigilance" and dissociation after shingles, tendinitis, headaches, panic attacks, depression, and vagal episodes.
Like Sarah, doctors missed the violence connection repeatedly.
Muriel Salmona finds this unsurprising: 80% of victims go undetected by health pros. With Annie Ferrand, she decries the lack of psychotrauma training, despite 60% of cases involving it.
Read also:Sarah and Oreneta are improving: Sarah via psychocorporal massage and alternatives; Oreneta with psychology and sophrology. But for others unaware?
France falls short, says Salmona. "The Istanbul Convention mandates a center per 200,000 residents for gender/sexual violence including domestic. We need 200; we have 10, mostly for assaults, not domestic-specific psychotrauma."
Such care repairs damage if provided promptly. Frustrated, Salmona plans international alerts on France's failures.
She stresses "the absolute urgency."
