“‘I don’t look the same as when you last saw me. I’m not doing too well,’ I said. My face was a mess. I had cuts and blood in my nostrils. In that coffee shop, I sat across from him crying. I was scared of telling anyone.”
‘I bumped into an old childhood friend. ‘What have you been up to?’ ‘I’m in rehab.’ I laughed, thinking it was a joke. Soon after, I asked him to meet me. I warned him about my appearance.’
‘He pushed his way in. ‘Sit on the couch!,’ he demanded. He told me he was going to stay all night. I begged him to leave. Then he came up with an idea: ‘I’ll leave if you have sex with me.’
“When he was finished, he uttered the words, ‘You didn’t think I was actually going to leave, did you?’”
‘I woke up handcuffed to a hospital bed covered in my own vomit, dirt and mud caked in my ears and under my perfectly manicured acrylic nails.’
“I made a phone call that no mom ever wants to get. Within an hour, my mom was at my apartment and I will never forget the look of absolute terror on her face.”
He is a ‘great guy, a great husband and father – how could he have done this!?’ It’s because he did it when no one was looking.
“I have LIVED this. When I left, everybody was surprised. This is going to sting – not just a little. But a lot. The man you love… Does he call you a b*tch? A whore? That’s not love.”
10 things that helped when my son told me he had depression
“This time two years ago, my teenage son walked into my room and simply asked, ‘Mom, can we talk?'”
‘You seem like you’re having a really hard time with this.’ Tears poured down my face as I said, ‘I am. I’m so sad and I don’t know WHY.’
“Postpartum depression is a hard thing for women to talk about. I thought to myself, ‘Shame on you for feeling sad. You have this beautiful, healthy baby boy – you have nothing to be sad about.’”
‘I became pregnant. I was terrified. A dark shadow came across his eyes. He knew I was even more trapped in his spell.’ Teen mom’s incredible story of survival with her baby born from ‘the devil himself’
“Don’t ever let someone think they have control over you. Don’t ever be a young, terrified version of me. You are strong. You are fearless. I believe in you. Believe that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Run and find it.”
‘I found ‘employment.’ It was anonymous web cam sex with strangers. Anything I had to do to support the habit had to be done. I used my own daughter as a pawn.’
“When we got ready for the ceremony, my sister put on her wedding jewelry, and in a split second, I saw her turn, and I swiped her gold necklace. On her WEDDING DAY. I pawned it, and knew I was good for another day.”
