"Survivor.....Surviving One Day at a Time" with Lea

Domestic Violence Awareness Month Interview #3 with Lea

Q: Tell us briefly about yourself (Please include your name and the fictitious name you're using if you are not using your real name in the story)
A: Survivor.....surviving one day at a time

Q: Please share your story: How did your abusive relationship start and how it ended
When I was asked to write my story I sat back and thought about it and realized that it didn’t just begin the day of the attack. it begin years ago with the little things. The cheating, the binging, the emotional abuse I guess you could say the rapes. I was always told a husband couldn’t rape a wife. The constant attention and affection yet making me feel like I would never be worthy of getting it from anyone else. Making sure I knew I would never be happy without him. I had to know I needed him. I would wake up and he would be having his way with me. I felt this odd loyalty because at the beginning I told him as long as he was getting help for his bipolar I would stand by him. He used that against me. there were times where he had reactions to medication and would knock me out. Then he call the doctor and blame the medicine and I will standby like the loyal wife. he blamed everything he did on his mental illness. Summer 2017 he had his first major psychosis. I didn’t even think of it as abuse at the time I don’t know why, but we were out of town and there were drugs involved and what I wanted didn't matter. He made sure to have his way with me in every way. The next day I convinced him to take me home and he was driving 120 on the highway in the rain while I begged him to let me out. He said he ran the show and he would let me out when he felt like it. once I got home I called his doctor and we tried to get him baker acted and the cycle continued for two more years until I filed for divorce for the first time. but for some reason I still felt bad so I was helping him making sure he had a roof over his head so he was staying at an extended stay hotel. The day of the last attack I was over there getting some things and everything was fine. We were laughing and joking and when I got ready to leave he snapped. he said I wasn’t going anywhere and started hitting me. then he was strangling me and I couldn’t breathe. He was making threats and somehow I got the door open and ran down the hall. He grabbed my hair and dragged me back into the room. and there was a knock on the door and he told me to go wash my face because there was blood everywhere. He open the door like there was no problem and the lady at the front desk said there’s been complaints and she needed to bring me downstairs and I wrangled out the door. She locked me in a closet he came out of the room waving a gun and shot six bullets into the door and then dragged me out of the hotel by gunpoint. he tried to carjack a couple and when he pistol whipped the guy I ran for my life. The cops had to tase him three times. He is facing 16 charges but they think he May get the insanity defense and be able to go to a hospital. And he said when he gets out he’s coming after me and he’s going to hurt whoever I’m with and he will never allow me to be happy without him.

Q: Please share your story: How did your abusive relationship start and how it ended
I left a lot out, And I didn’t realize how much I had forgotten

Q: What was your breaking point when you decided to leave?
He almost killed me

Q: What would you say for women who might be in an abusive relationship now?
Pay attention to all red flags