Like someone else said, absolute bullshit. The rationalising you’ve done for domestic abuse is disgusting. So you’re allowed to throw hands because you were angry/scared?
Within my opinion, trying to logically break down a toxic behaviour is not the same as justifying it. However, I understand how it could have come out this way. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Let me go a little bit more in depth here:
I stated quite clearly in my original response: "
Let me be clear - abuse is not acceptable and yes, you should absolutely do something about it". Perhaps, I thought that many answers already stated how toxic and bad it is, so I felt that parroting the other answers in plain terms will not really give additional value to the thread and more importantly, not provide any additional value to OP. I want to offer a broader perspective. Because as hard as it to truly understand and admit, many of us do: "Good" and "Evil" are complex and faceted topics and breaking down such a complex issue such as human psyche and relationship to one/two-sentence reply is not gonna help anyone. If it did, psychology and philosophy would not exist.
Now, I don't need you to agree with me - but I'd ask you and anyone else to calmly read through my response, not just roll your eyes immediately if you read something that you interpret as something what you don't agree with. I shall give the same respect to you. Trying to attack my persona will lead nowhere except to bad karma to the writer.
You as a human being know very well that there are bad things happening in the world. So, why is it?
How can we ever get to the bottom of it, if we refuse to talk about it in more deep terms than just simple "good" and "evil"? Human psyche is extremely complex, love is even more complex. We have tried to figure these things out for several millenia and are seemingly almost nowhere with it. For all the advanves we have made in philosophy, psychology and neuroscience we are seemingly still so far from understanding it.
So why do bad things happen? I for one, do not believe that it's some endemic corruption of humanity that is causing this. If you believe in such things, we have a fundamental difference in our worldview, and will likely never agree on this topic. I respect your right to view the world from your experience nevertheless. Not to go too deep in to psychologic determinism here, it's clear that she is acting out her own pain. Is the acting out happening in a toxic way in this case? YES.
People fundamentally lack self-control. In the lighter forms it comes in simple things: Not being able to keep up with the diet, not sticking with that workout routine, or in context of this forum, having that million-dollar idea that you never get to and keep procrastinating. Very few are willing to admit that (more than often primarily to ourselves) but we are extremely bad in controlling ourselves. In the more sinister and dark ways, that lack of self-control manifests as abuse and violence towards others. To quote Nietzsche here:
"The corruption of morals is a consequence of decadence".
So to then reiterate and improve my previous answer to OP a bit:
1. Abuse is not acceptable, and you should not stand still. Because of yourself, but as well as your girlfriend. The longer YOU allow her to do this, the deeper she will fall into that hole of despair and pain, that manifests in such a toxic (and yes, absolutely unaccetable) way. And in terms of you, it can lead to more harsh abuse, which will damage
both of you even more.
2. You know your relationship best. None of us can judge your history of who knows how long time and experience by your 1 sentence post.
3. Acknowledge that if you choose to try and help her, it does not make you weak. Acknowledge that you are not a doctor. Couples and individual therapy for both of you - professional help - is the best way to untie these deep knots. Whether that means staying together or realizing you are not a match, is not for me (and not for ANYONE in this thread) to judge.
4. There is no shame in choosing to fight the demon inside her in efforts to help her. Just be smart about it. And there is no shame in letting go, acknowledging that you are not capable of helping her.
We will truly be OK in the end indeed. Existence is magnificently beautiful but the price of existing conciously is to suffer sometimes. It is the modern notion of utopia, the concept of "perfection and happiness" driven by popular culture and social media that makes people think otherwise.
We have suffered mentally, physically and existentially for many, many millenia - and we managed to build a civilization with amazing achievements in arts, science and social development. Every generation sees the world falling apart when they grow old. Yet, we are further than we ever have in equality, honesty and compassion. Perfect? No. But better than 100 years ago, so much better than 500 years ago.