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Even victims of the worst kind of abuse are oftentimes unaware they’re victims.

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Then I breathe. I’m awake, and you being asleep is just the calm before every storm. Why am I not used to this yet?

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Draw the line, enforce your boundaries, limit contact, be mindful of your energy, and finally leave if need be.

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You dismiss the pain and just hope that things can go back to what they were at the beginning.

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I’m choosing to believe that. After my abuse, I can have a healthy relationship.

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I remember the first time my body tried to tell me something.

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One of the most frequent questions someone asks me in response to talking about being abused is “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

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Abuse teaches you to defer, to keep your head down. It’s no surprise to me that he hasn’t thrown her things out of the window in a rage.

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We want to believe that this sort of thing happens in every relationship. We tell ourselves we’re just so in love and with every passionate thing, there’s bound to be blazing fights.

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Each time I type out my story, I refrain from publishing it out of fear, doubt, victim’s guilt.