If you have to ask if it’s abuse, it probably is.

I see a lot of women on here posting and asking if they should leave their husbands.

I was once like you. I was with a man, met him at 19, and he would beat the daylights out of me. I mean dragging me by my hair, spitting in my face, name calling, slamming me into walls, punching me in the stomach and even sexually assaulting me.

I never said anything to anyone. They all knew he had a temper, and asked why I stayed. I couldn’t say how bad anything was out loud because then that would make it real. And I’d have to realize that I turned into the women I swore I would never ever be.

He was in the military, so we almost broke up but he got orders overseas. I followed. That man had me right where he wanted. No friends. No family. On a foreign island in the middle of nowhere.

I told him I wanted to leave. He would not let me. My parents wouldn’t fly me home. I was stuck. So I finally told him he had to buy me a ticket or I’d tell his command (they had already been involved for other domestic violence issues)

He bought me my ticket and the day of my flight he wouldn’t let me pack and beat me up pretty bad. Got to the airport and he tried to wrestle me for my phone because he had bought it. He took it and smashed the screen. I took it and ran to the airport gates.

He kept calling me but I never answered. That’s the last time I saw him. Almost two years ago now. I still think about him and what he put me through every single day.

But I do forgive him.

Now my message is to all the people who are posting screenshots of their significant others just being absolutely vile and disgusting and rude or cheating on them or just treating them with anything less than the upmost respect: RUN. GET THE HELL OUT. LEAVE. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. YOU DO NO DESERVE THAT.

Running to those airport gates was the best decision I ever made.