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social worker who knows that her experience is part of a much larger problem. HAMILTON: Today, Garay-Serratos is a Ph.D. No, some of these episodes last for, like, hours. It's not like football, you know, where there's times out and referees. But Garay-Serratos says domestic violence has no rules that limit the damage.
![trauma sign trauma sign](https://www.patrickwanis.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Trauma-10-Types-ACE-Adverse-Childhood-Experiences.jpg)
HAMILTON: Sluggish, confused, struggling to balance. And I remember seeing some of the symptoms that these boxers exhibited while they were in the ring. GARAY-SERRATOS: My father was a very avid fan of boxing. Garay-Serratos says she was still a child when she realized the violence was affecting her mother's brain. Friends and relatives knew but didn't intervene, and her mother never tried to leave. HAMILTON: Garay-Serratos was about 4 the first time she saw her mom assaulted. There was a lot of shaking, objects thrown at her, shoved against the wall, thrown against appliances, dragged by her hair in the yard. MARIA E GARAY-SERRATOS: My mom was hit a lot.
![trauma sign trauma sign](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/trauma-text-written-red-stamp-sign-zig-zag-251288545.jpg)
Garay-Serratos saw that up close during her childhood in Southern California. JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: Domestic abuse takes many forms. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on how assaults by a spouse or intimate partner can damage the brain - and a warning that this story contains graphic descriptions of physical violence. Researchers know a lot about the traumatic brain injuries that occur in contact sports and combat, but they're just beginning to study injuries from another leading cause - domestic violence.