When I was young, I thought abuse was only sexual (rape) or physical (hitting). Little did I know...there are many ways to abuse someone. Emotional, verbal, spiritual, and financial are a few of them. Abuse is all about control over another person. The subtle ones are extremely difficult to recover from because they destroy your soul and sense of self...not to mention that other people don't "see" them, so they tend to disbelieve you or minimize your pain.
It has taken a huge amount of work and time for me to overcome the damage and I still have flashbacks and triggers.
And it's been a dozen years since I was last abused.