Abuse can often be predicated by consistent warning signs – and being aware of those warning signs can help victims potentially avoid being stuck in an abusive relationship.

Through her When Georgia Smiled: The Robin McGraw and Dr. Phil Foundation, Robin has worked tirelessly with victims of domestic violence.

“Very recently, I spent the evening in the Emergency Room … and I was with a beautiful young woman who had just been abused by her husband. She had been with him for 10 years – all through middle school, high school and college. And I had spent the evening with her in the hospital. She had a dislocated shoulder and a dislocated knee. He had just thrown her down the stairs while she was holding their 3-month-old baby and she said, ‘You know, Robin, I really never saw this coming. I always thought he was the love of my life. I really believed that we would be together forever. I never saw it coming.”

Robin shared with this woman this list of the nine warning signs of an abusive relationship from WhenGeorgiaSmiled.org:

1. Quick involvement in a relationship
2. Extreme jealousy
3. Controlling behavior
4. Threats of violence
5. Abrupt mood changes
6. Verbal abuse
7. Breaking objects
8. Use of force during an argument
9. History of past battering

“She just looked at me like, ‘The warning signs were there, I just didn’t see them. They were all there for the entire 10 years,’” Robin shared.

Through the foundation, Robin has also created the Aspire Initiative, a free domestic violence education curriculum for tweens, teens and adults, to reduce the level of intimate relationship violence in the United States. She has also created the Aspire News App, which has been recognized on Capitol Hill and on the floor of the United Nations as one of the most meaningful apps in the fight against domestic violence.

Watch the video above as Robin discusses the list, as a precautionary tale with Jordan and Kyle, an engaged couple who came to Dr. Phil to discuss problems in their own relationship.