Confession: I'm in an abusive relationship...

which I’m finally going to change.

Sure, we all know the classic signs of physical abuse – the neighbor lady with unexplained bruises, black eyes from “walking into a door”, and even cuts and scrapes.

But emotional abuse is insidious and can be just a damaging.  My “partner” has been abusing me for quite some time now. It sort of crept up and continues to escalate. I’m at my wit’s end and ready to end it all. 

It started with him accusing me of being “unresponsive”, and so he would be unresponsive in retaliation.  So far he hasn’t attacked me with weapons, but routinely keeps me from eating or sleeping. He often even locks me out of my own home.

On the bad days he’s possessive and very unpredictable, which causes me to be irritable and nervous.  He spies on me and watches where I go, and refuses to let me see my friends and family. He routinely ignores my most simple requests or makes me wait, and wait, and wait until I give up in frustration – classic narcissistic/passive-aggressive behavior. 

And then, and then – when I’m completely demoralized and unhappy, he apologizes and like a true abuse victim I think, “Wow, this is the guy I used to know and things will be okay from now on.”

No. They. Won’t.  

I’ve finally reached out for help since I’m unable to fix this on my own. 

Tomorrow, my computer will be enrolled in a counseling course designed to root out the causes for his dysfunctional behavior.  Will it work?  Maybe. Maybe not.  He has one chance to face his problems head on.  If he doesn’t comply, it will end in divorce and I will be free to marry a new hard drive.  

Be back as soon as possible. Thank you for understanding.