My story

I have made poor decisions as a teenager. One in particular was to date and fall for a man that was 4-5 years older than me (or so he said, turns out he was closer to 8-10 years my senior) at 17. I dated this person for almost 2 years. We started dating in July 2001. On Dec 7th, 3 days after my 18th birthday, he hit me for the first time. He cried, pled, and apologized. He said he had just lost his temper and didn’t mean to hit me across the face. I forgave him. I thought I was strong enough to walk away if it happened again. But I wasn’t.  Sadly, this isn’t just about physical abuse. He worked nights and when he’d come home, where I was living with him, he’d expect me to have sex with him. It didn’t matter whether I wanted to or not. He forced me. If you knew me before I had kids, or even before I joined the Army, I was 5’10 and maybe 130-140lbs. During that time, I was closer to 115-125lbs. I wasn’t able to hold food down. I was so stressed from the verbal, physical, and mental