I have nothing to compare my emotional abuse to as luckily no one ever hit me. My third husband the one married after being single/widowed for the second time, after 14 years alone. He married me to get away from his terrible (unknown to me) life in Northern Minnesota, he took advantage of me in everyway, said all the right things, like no sex before marriage because he had too much respect for me. I thought that was wonderful. Once married, his name on my home and bank account, credit cards etc. and having managed to chase away most of my friends, he kept me near him always. He would threaten to leave, threaten to have me put in jail, saying I was trying to kill him. He was nuts, had been institutionalized years earlier. It was a horrible, debilitating experience. I began to feel helpless, didn't want my son involved so said nothing. Oh and the no sex before marriage, turns out he couldn't if he wanted to, we never did, NEVER! There is so much more to this story that left me a near recluse, too nervous to leave the house. I still have problems and it isn't over yet even though I managed to trick him into a divorce in 2001 (after 6 years of hell). My story would never be believed if written as a book, it is stranger than any fiction I ever read. Mine was all mental abuse but it became physical in the way it changed me from a fun loving wild lady to a near hermit afraid someone might find out what an old fool I'd been.