Personally, I think that this is a complex question that has no easy answer. Based from my own personal experience, a good relationship ship ultimately boils down to one basic thing: mutual love for each other. In every relationship, we have to ask: Do the parties have a love for each other? Love is a key requirement to make any relationship a success. Of course, even with much love in their midst, every relationsip goes through some tough times. The two parties might have some different views and this causes argument between them. We can always expect this to happen, and arguments are normal  in most cases.

For most relationships, this is the time when the partners should begin to exercise their senses of understanding and compromise. Unfortunately in some cases, relationships do not quite go the way the parties have planned it. Some best-laid relationships can turn sour, dynsfunctional adn even abusive. In these cases, something has to change if the parties want their relationship to work out in the end.

I have personally witnessed an abusive relationship. It happened next door, or across the street, to where I lived as a child. At a tender age of 11, I already witnessed more than my fair share of dysfunction as I saw first hand an abusive relationship between my neighbor and his wife. The husband slapped his very own wife with a switch, which was a popular term for a stick. Needless to say, I was alarmed by an occurence I could only describe as bizarre since I believed that couples should not behave this way towards each other.

Farther down the street from where I lived, I saw a neighbor scold and shout profanities at his wife. It was only after a couple of years that I saw a police car escort the abusive man away and that was the last time I saw of him. A few years later, when I was already 14, I discovered that this man was an alcoholic. It was not a very big shock, really. In fact, a lot of abusive relationships begin when one or both partners abuse drugs or alcohol.

If you know an abusive relationships occuring in your neighborhood or even in your own family, then now could be the time that you do something about it. In most causes, an abusive relationship goes on for a long time because the abused partner feels helpless by the fear or control. Who knows, you could provide the helping hand that he or she needs. It is definitely your duty to do something about it. You may have gathered some information regarding abusive relationships from commercials on TV. You may also go online and know more about the first signs and symptoms of abuse, the victim, the abuser and their relationship.