{"id":18757,"date":"2024-02-01T15:28:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T22:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakthesilencedv.org\/?p=18757"},"modified":"2024-05-13T16:03:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T23:03:00","slug":"breaking-free-from-abuse-my-story-of-survival-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakthesilencedv.org\/?p=18757","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Breaking Free from Abuse: My Story of Survival and Hope&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wanted to tell my story. No one knows it has happened to me but I want to write this for someone who may be experiencing the same thing. I started a relationship 3 years ago and the first time I noticed violence was on a grocery trip. Seems simple enough, but we got into an argument about which direction we should go. The next thing I know he is screaming at the top of his lungs making a threatening notion towards my face and instead of hitting me he choked me. After that first initial abuse, I should have left and never turned back. Now the abuse was not every day maybe every three months or so our entire relationship it probably happened 10 or so times. Many times he would choke me, drag me around, push me, threw everything, broke stuff and screamed. It escalated over time, getting worse and worse. The last time it happened I thought he was going to kill me. He grabbed a knife and threatened me, he punched me and held me against my will. I knew if it happened again he would kill me, so I waited grabbed my cats and my stuff and never looked back. My advice to anyone dealing with violence in a relationship, your best bet is to leave before you are years in. Even if it changes you will always wonder. Will he kill me? Your life and you are worth more. I promise it will only get better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wanted to tell my story. No one knows it has happened to me but I want to write this for someone who may be experiencing the same thing. I started a relationship 3 years ago and the first time I noticed violence was on a grocery trip. Seems simple enough, but we got into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":18184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,344],"tags":[92,161,162,90,665,116,117,115,374,128,34],"class_list":["post-18757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-break-your-silence","category-survivor-stories","tag-abuse","tag-break-the-silence-against-domestic-violence","tag-btsadv","tag-domestic-violence","tag-eltmpl","tag-emotional-abuse","tag-physical-abuse","tag-survivor","tag-survivor-stories","tag-trauma","tag-verbal-abuse"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Breaking Free from Abuse: My Story of Survival and Hope&quot; - Break the Silence Against Domestic Violence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover a survivor&#039;s courageous journey through an abusive relationship, offering valuable insights and advice for those facing similar challenges. 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