Because women often seemed trapped by violence, researchers interviewed women who were once in abusive relationships to understand why they stayed with their partners. They found that women currently in an abusive relationship viewed their partner positively, while women who had left the relationship tended to see its negative effects. Although they suffered abuse, the women still in the relationship also received affection from the man. Therefore, these women appear to use coping strategies to mask the abuse inflicted and convince themselves to remain in the harmful situation. There are stereotypes and myths that accuse women victims of abuse of perpetuating their own victimization. Previous studies commonly mistake the victim's PTSD as a personality disorder. A new study has been created to examine the personality disorders of women involved in multiple abusive relationships. When PTSD symptoms were present, women with multiple abusive relationships were shown to have more personality disorders than women with a single abusive relationship. This increase in disorders may, however, be the result of protective responses on the part of the victim to the abuse. Relationship abuse is typically caused by the abuser's attempt to gain control over their partner over individual issues or in a broader, more comprehensive way. Not only do they seek to assert this control, but they also hope to ensure that their partner does not have the opportunity to leave them. This domination over one's partner causes the victim to have lower self-esteem and depression. With the help of external resources, victims of abuse come closer to finally leaving the relationship. This qualitative study explores women's vulnerabilities and their effect on...... middle of paper... feeling a loss of control when they experience threats to their relationship. This impotence causes violent outbursts towards the partner to eliminate the threat. Victims of dating violence also lose control and realize their helplessness when they cannot calm a situation. This obvious helplessness causes the victims to remain their violent partners. Intimacy and violence, although contrasting concepts regarding love and hate, are intertwined in dating violence. Among the signs of affection, the abuser expresses anger towards their partner whenever a relationship becomes threatened. This intense emotion, along with violent behavior, can end up being misinterpreted as caring by the victim. In most cases, couples decide to maintain their relationship despite the clear danger from violent implications, believing that anger comes from love.