@ellie well done ellie, so proud of you fir speaking up
im sorry i Cant write alt text for this even copy and pasting it in makes me feel so fucking gross
please don't ever feel pressured to provide an image description for something like this - it shouldn't be your responsibility to make sharing your story about something like this accessible. it's hard enough to share it.
and thank you for doing so.
@ellie nano wtf.
@ellie I am willing to write alt text if you would like me to
@ellie oh god, that last message was a fucking flashbang. I'm so sorry you went through that :(
@ellie what a disgusting person :/
@ellie who is saying that, I will FIGHT them
@ellie jesus im so sorry you had to go through this :(
@ellie so sorry that you had to go through that ellie :< very brave of you to speak out about all this
I especially concur with the point that its on the adult party to not engage in anything like that, anything else is victim blaming
@ellie That’s totally awful what the heck I’m so sorry this happened to you… You’re very brave for discussing it,,
@ellie i don't know if i wanna boost this because i don't know if you would be ok w that, so i won't. instead, i want to tell you: it's not your fault. healing from this isn't going to be easy, but there is a way out. i say it as a cs harassment and abuse victim myself.
stay safe, ellie.
@ellie *(Saw this via a common friend who can vouch for me. Will share who privately if you like)*
I'm going to address one part of what you've written and do so as a much older, experienced adult. It is to reassure you and to help you & others understand more.
Staying in contact with an abuser is common. It's a way of monitoring the situation in hopes of protecting yourself, even if it puts you more at risk. Not knowing what they're up to is terrifying. It takes time, a lot of courage & even more strength to be able to stop. Don't criticise yourself for the time you took to get there. Recognise how far along the process you are. *(For everyone-ever find yourself doomscrolling trying to assess danger? Similar thing.)*
Those of us raised as girls/women are also conditioned to manage the emotions of those raised as boys/men. Which makes it doubly hard to break off contact when we know they'll react with anger, manipulation, whatever their dangerous pattern is.
I've been physically safe 18 years and haven't had contact with the man who abused me (I refuse to own him through language like "my abuser") for a decade. There was physical violence but the psychological abuse was more frequent and worse. It is still very much a trigger.
From that one of my maladaptive behaviours is if my danger flags are set off by a character/situation in a television series, I *have* to finish it. I'm not in actual danger but it won't leave my brain until I've seen it through. It's that same monitoring for danger thing. Seems silly eh? All I can do is try to avoid, understand, take care of myself.
Hopefully this will help you & others understand a bit more of why it's so hard to break contact even though we need to. You've got this