We spend a lot of time talking about adult domestic violence. We spend far less time talking about where it actually starts.
Dating violence doesn’t suddenly appear in adulthood. It’s practiced, normalized, minimized, and often ignored long before then.
For many teens and young adults, harmful relationship behaviors show up quietly first, constant texting framed as “care,” pressure masked as “love,” jealousy disguised as “protection,” control excused as “passion.”
And because there are no bruises, no police reports, and no crisis calls, it often goes unnamed.
That silence is costly.
What goes unnamed at 16 doesn’t disappear at 36. It evolves. It becomes harder to recognize. And it shows up later not only in intimate relationships, but in workplaces through coercive leadership, emotional manipulation, overperformance, and the normalization of harm in professional spaces.
When young people are not taught how to recognize unhealthy relationship patterns early, those patterns don’t fade, they mature. What was once tolerated in adolescence often becomes endured in adulthood.
This is why prevention matters.
At The OPAL Center, Inc., our work is rooted in education, not therapy and in prevention, not crisis response. We equip teens, young adults, educators, and communities with trauma-informed tools to recognize harm early, name it accurately, and interrupt it before it becomes a lifelong pattern.
Prevention is not about fear. It’s about clarity. It’s about teaching young people that discomfort is information, that control is not care, and that love should never cost your voice.
If we truly want to reduce dating violence, domestic violence, and workplace trauma, we cannot keep waiting until adulthood to intervene.
At The OPAL Center, Inc., we believe prevention starts with education and protecting young people means teaching them to recognize harm before it becomes a lifetime pattern.
Prevention is the work. Education is the tool. And protecting young people is the responsibility we all share.
