You know your significant other, the one you love so much and would never hurt? I guarantee you have been a bully to them.

The difference between bullying and abuse is nothing. Abuse is defined as treating a person with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly. Bullying can be seen as form of abuse, stated nobullying.com.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and believe it or not, most people have either been a bully or been a victim of bullying behavior.

Bullying is defined as any unwanted aggressive behavior that has the tendency or capability to be repeated, and it happens in relationships more than we think. Your significant other is late for a date you have planned all month for. They are never on time and this time they aren’t either. They get to the house and you begin an argument. You lay into them about all the times they have been late. According to loveisrespect.org, you have just committed an act of bullying. They then profusely apologize and look downcast. They have just joined the 57 percent of people who don’t notice they have been bullied.

Being bullied does not just involve being attacked physically. Loveisrespect.org states that 43 percent of college-aged women have reported being involved in a violent or abusive relationship. Sixteen percent of people bullied in relationships have been sexually abused. Thirty-six percent say that they have had to give passwords to email and social media accounts or risk being emotionally or physically abused.

Where’s the love? Numbers like these can make it seem like relationships are just a matter of who can come out on top. It seems like having an argument in a seemingly healthy relationship can be misconstrued as being a bully. Remember that bullies persist with their unwanted aggressive behavior. If a disagreement turns heated, stand your ground. If it doesn’t change, leave. Forty-three percent of people recognize that they are being bullied and do something to make a change. Nobullying.com says that there is no difference between bullying and abuse, that the definition for abuse is the same as bullying and that two coincide with each other. Relationships are about love, not control. Bullies are all about taking control. Take them down by keeping control over your heart and life.