WS Chronicle

I am a victim of domestic violence. It took me four times to realize enough was enough and I finally left him.

The first incident happened when he was drunk and got jealous because a guy friend had messaged me, so he choked me to where I couldn’t breathe and I blacked out.

The second time we were hanging out at a bar and he got drunk and jealous and then managed to jump out of my Jeep while it was still moving. He grabbed hold of my throat and bit me on the neck and then threw his phone at me.

The third time was the night he raped me and punched in the face and made my nose bleed, then locked me out of the house and made me sleep in my Jeep with just a blanket, although it was freezing outside.

 He isolated me from my friends and family and we would always do what he wanted to do and nothing that I wanted to do. But the last time was probably the worst of all.

Everything was going good, we were out with friends having fun, riding the bike and enjoying ourselves when he started to drink heavily. He shoved me in the bar and then it escalated outside, where he wouldn’t let go of my arms. Because he was holding on to them so tightly, it left red marks and a bruise. When we got home, he pushed me to the ground and dragged me across the floor and I got a carpet burn on my knee. He raped me because I wouldn’t give him sex and pinned me to the ground. He threw his phone at me and it hit me in the jaw and bruised it. He threw my laptop across the room and it hit the TV stand and shattered. He dropped the TV and pushed it over, shattering it. I tried to leave and he blocked the door, keeping me from leaving. He took my phone from me when I tried to call my dad to come get me, by threatening to drop it in the water or shatter it.

I had had enough. After I left him, it was difficult for me to move on. I couldn’t trust anyone, was always looking over my shoulder, cried myself to sleep almost every night. I suffer from PTSD and most nights I couldn’t sleep or I would have nightmares, worried that he would come back and find me and this time kill me. I tried to kill myself because I felt like it was my fault that I put my friends and family through this situation and that I had disappointed them. 

Now I am doing a little better, I live on my own, and pay my own bills. I see a therapist about every month, along with support from Eliza’s Helping Hands and friends and family. Taking it day to day and focusing on myself, I am getting better and healing from the experience I endured for 7 months.