Break Your Silence

Breaking Free of DV and Rebuilding Self-Worth

By Anonymous Survivor

**The following is written by a survivor of domestic violence (DV) and abuse. Names have been changed to protect all involved.**

The repair of the abuse is never fully done because the damage is too unrepairable. All in all, the mental, or physical abuse stays with the survivor for life.

Future relationships will be affected by the triggers of the survivor. The relationship will usually suffer. To the extent that the relationship cannot sustain the distance due to the strain from past DV.

Any Trigger of DV

Any reminder from the abuse experienced from the past haunts the survivor. Even with years of counseling, or validation cannot even repair the survivor.

The abuser will seek his prey and continue to trap his victim like a spider to his or her web.

Controlling Behavior

This is common and happens from right under your nose, you realize sometimes, but you are still trapped in the trauma as a survivor of DV.

The survivor denies the behavior hopeful that this is in the imagination. Therefore excuses this behavior, breaking the pattern of past mistakes unconsciously still making the same mistakes.

Trying hard to break the pattern and falling into the same hole of falling back into the arms of the abuser.

Saving Yourself Eventually

The survivor will always save themselves from DV eventually. However, it will be with shorter bursts and recognizing this behavior with education and knowledge through life experience hopefully.

Protection and self-preservation are the way the survivor learns to carry out their lives. When they take a risk of letting down their guard, and being taken advantage of again, they will shut down swiftly. Blocking the opponent to harm their self-worth that took so long to rebuild time after time.

In a nutshell this is a summary of the life of a survivor of domestic violence, I’m like a bird, I only fly away, I don’t where my soul is.

Check These Resources:

Support Line

Other Resources and Information:

break the silence against domestic violence
BreakTheSilenceDV

Break the Silence Against Domestic Violence (BTSADV) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting survivors of domestic violence beyond crisis. BTSADV focuses on long-term healing through financial assistance programs, scholarships, survivor retreats, advocacy initiatives, and a national support line. The organization works to amplify survivor voices, raise awareness about coercive control and systemic failures, and help break generational cycles of abuse through education, outreach, and community engagement.

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