What Domestic Violence Did To Me
There was a time when I was happy, healthy, whole, and fun-loving. Before domestic abuse, I had hope. Even during the hardest times, even while living with HIV, I believed there would always be a brighter day ahead. Fifteen years of abuse left me a shell of who I once was, and I grieve that person every day. Undoing the damage and conditioning he inflicted has been incredibly difficult. I tried to numb the pain through drug use, but that only created another problem. I am now in intensive outpatient therapy for CPTSD and addiction, and it is helping. I highly encourage IOP to anyone who can access it. For 15 years, I minimized what was happening. The abuse was a gradual process of grooming and control. Before I realized it, I was financially trapped with someone who monitored and controlled nearly every part of my life. He followed me to work, put up cameras in the house and outside the house. After my parents died, that trap felt inescapable. Eventually, the ab...