Dismissed True Stories
Dismissed True Stories is a survivor-led podcast that dares to break the silence around domestic violence, emotional abuse, and toxic relationships. Each episode shares the raw, unfiltered realities of what abuse really looks like. From overlooked red flags to moments of escape, and everything in between.
Created by a survivor-turned-advocate with a broadcasting background, DTS is where stories once silenced are now spoken. Loudly, honestly, and without apology. We’re not here to sensationalize abuse; we’re here to humanize survivors.
You’ll hear from survivors finding their voices, families forever changed by loss, and organizations working to support healing and recovery. Sometimes, it’s one survivor passing the mic to another with a piece of advice that could change or.. save a life.
But DTS isn’t just about telling stories of survival. Each episode's commentary helps you decode your own story, make sense of your experiences, and see the patterns you might have missed while in survival mode.
The tone? Like talking with a trusted friend. No fluff. Just truth.
Whether you're navigating narcissistic abuse, gaslighting, or coercive control or you're in the process of rebuilding your self-worth and healing your trauma this space is for you.
Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is finally tell your own story.
Survivor-led. Heart-led. Truth-led.
#DismissedTrueStories | A podcast for survivors and victims, by survivors.
Dismissed True Stories
Breaking Generational Cycles of Dysfunction: Jenna Finds Peace
Next, we share the gripping account of Jenna’s desperate attempt to break free from an abusive relationship. This story paints a vivid picture of the physical and emotional toll of such trauma, compounded by the indifference of neighbors and the re-traumatization by medical and legal systems. Despite these challenges, the narrative also highlights the cyclical nature of abusive relationships, showing how manipulation and temporary changes can keep survivors ensnared. This chapter underscores the necessity of external support and intervention to help survivors truly break free from their abusers.
Lastly, we delve into the complexities of self-healing and the arduous path to establishing healthy relationships after abuse. Whether it's confronting personal patterns that allowed the abuse to persist or the monumental effort required to rebuild self-worth, this episode captures the essence of breaking generational cycles of dysfunction. The journey towards healing is further illustrated through a key narrative of ongoing marital work, showcasing the profound impact of past traumas on trust and the invaluable patience of a supportive partner. Join us for an empowering discussion that emphasizes the importance of personal growth, acceptance, and the strength found in moving forward for oneself and future generations.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233 OR text begin to 88788
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Come join our community of survivors who are looking to meet someone just like you! See the behind the scenes work that goes into the sisterhood non-profit business, discuss DTS episodes, and of course find your survivor sister.
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Ready to share your story? Send me an email with the main talking points of your experience and I'll reach out to book an interview.
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This episode of Dismissed True Stories is brought to you by Persephoneai. Persephoneai is an innovative and disruptive discreet app where you can more securely stash your evidence of abuse, make static notes, upload attachments, import audio-video files and even request transcription and language translation. Transcription and language translation. Then export your full evidence, report on your timeline, sos the police or even use it in court after your safe exit. You are not alone, and Persephone is here when you don't know who to tell. Find Persephoneai on Google Play or the App Store. In this episode, we will be hearing directly from a survivor as they recount their personal journey. Dismissed True Stories recognizes that discussion of abuse and trauma can evoke strong emotional responses and it may be triggering for some listeners. Listener, discretion is advised. Hey, I'm Elissa and this is Dismiss True Stories the podcast.
Speaker 1:This podcast was born from the idea that when I was a little girl, I wanted to be a war reporter in the sense that I just really wanted to talk about the things that matter in the world.
Speaker 1:And when I ended up walking away from my professional broadcasting career and into an abusive relationship, I realized that victims and survivors really do fight their own wars at home.
Speaker 1:I volunteer with a local domestic violence shelter in my city and as I was putting on a vigil for the lives lost to domestic violence last year, I stumbled upon a story that will forever stick with me.
Speaker 1:I did the research to find this victim's family, since she is no longer with us, and one sentence kept rattling around in my brain Let them tell their story. And while I haven't worked up the confidence to get in touch with her family just yet, I want this podcast to not only be about the survivors who lived and escaped, but the stories from the family members of victims who, unfortunately, are no longer with us. I sat on this idea for almost a year before I decided to randomly make a TikTok video asking for survivors to come forward and share their stories of survivorship, and what happened next was completely and totally unexpected. Women came forward sending me their stories of survival, telling me that they were so sick and tired of being quiet, because what happens so often is that survivors are silenced, people aren't ready or equipped to handle their truth or sometimes simply they just don't want to make the time. But now, on Dismissed True Stories, we're making the time.
Speaker 2:I didn't feel like I had anywhere to go unless I went home to the man who raised me and I knew he would see that as a failure. He wanted me to stay in these relationships pretty consistently. His favorite boyfriends of mine were the most toxic.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Dismissed True Stories. This is episode eight and the second part of Jenna's story. Last week we talked about Jenna's childhood, how she was raised by a narcissistic father figure and how the model of love that she was shown growing up not only the type of love that she received, but the type of love that she was witnessed to and the dynamic between her stepdad and her mom was very toxic. It led to her picking toxic men over and over again in this cycle, or this like repeated pattern of behavior. When she began dating as an adult, she told herself time and time again that this is comfortable, this is what she knows, this is something that she saw growing up, so it's what she felt she deserved. It is so important to, as a child, be able to see and identify healthy love and the ways that are nurturing and help you grow as a person, because when you are modeled this type of toxic love and it's normalized, then it makes complete sense that that's what you're going to go after, because that's the norm.
Speaker 2:And so I think it's important again being raised in narcissism, I obviously didn't have a good compass of what love is. I was shown that love was these big emotions, whether it was the love bombing or the anger. So love is big, it's never these subtleties, it's never safety right, like I was never safe or I never felt safe, and so I was always seeking out relationships that made me feel comfortable, which meant there was big emotions always. And I would say, my first physically abusive relationship I met him when I was 17 and he was 23. And we dated for a very long time. We were together for about five years and it didn't get abusive until about four and a half years.
Speaker 2:My big thing because, again, I didn't have that compass of, like, what's right and wrong my line was, if they put their hands on me, that's when it's wrong. Nothing else is wrong. It's when they put their hands on me in a violent way, and I think that that's also important Um, because, um, I was prone to, uh, being coerced into sexual things that I was uncomfortable with, um and um. So the first time he put his hands on me, um, that was when I was like, okay, this isn't right, I need to start thinking about leaving Um. But it didn't happen again, and so I think I was just like, oh, he was just having a really bad day.
Speaker 2:He did just lose his um father, um, somewhat before that. So I just assumed it was like these heightened emotions. And then, like a week later, two weeks later, he like threw me up against the wall because I came home from work late, um, by like 10-15 minutes, like it wasn't like a big deal, um, and he like kind of threw me up against the wall by my throat and at that point I was like, okay, I've gotta, I've gotta start doing this um, but I didn't know how to do that because we had a lease together. I was so young I didn't really understand all of that and I didn't feel like I had anywhere to go unless I went home to the man who raised me and I knew he would see that as a failure. He wanted me to stay in these relationships pretty consistently. His favorite boyfriends of mine were the most toxic.
Speaker 1:Wanting to leave but having no place to go. She wanted to leave one toxic and abusive relationship, but to do that, that meant that she had to reintroduce herself to another toxic and abusive relationship with her stepfather back at home another toxic and abusive relationship with her stepfather back at home. This is why it is so important for victims and survivors to have such a safe place to heal and to for lack of a better term lick their wounds, because if not, then the cycle of abuse and picking a toxic person because you believe that that's what you deserve will repeat itself.
Speaker 2:So, um, but yeah, I that I ended up leaving. Um, I was single for a pretty long time. I had another boyfriend who, um, I was trying to get him to wake up because we had plans pulled a knife on me, um, and I just kind of stupidly looked him in the face and said if you're gonna do something, do it, otherwise get out of my face. We broke up after that he didn't.
Speaker 1:He didn't do anything.
Speaker 2:No, he was definitely one of those people that I don't think he actually had it in him to do. To follow through on the physical stuff, he just he was a lot of bravado, bravado, like it was just never anything, it was just a lot of bark. But that was kind of where I was living is like these people don't have it in them. The next man is very toxic. We fell in love so quickly and that was just the love bombing and the. He had to be with me all the time and I just thought that was so romantic because nobody's wanted to spend that much time with me.
Speaker 2:And um, we were spending literally every night together. Um, like he swapping houses kind of situation. Um, and we went out. We were having a really good time. Um, we went out, we were having a really good time and I guess I should probably say we had a night where he told me that he had multiple children. He's not, he doesn't have access to because of domestic violence, but he had told me he'd changed and I believed him because he seemed to have his anger under control, because he never got physically intimidating.
Speaker 1:The thing is when you have no one to model healthy love to you and then you finally get it in the form of a relationship where this person feels too good to be true. They are spending every waking moment with you and you feel like it is just this answered prayer. The love bombing stage will feel so good to a person who has never experienced love the way that it should be a healthy form of love. And then all of a sudden you find yourself giving them all of this magic. You're loving their potential because that's what they show you in the beginning.
Speaker 1:But then something seems to happen that kind of rips the rug out from under you, like how she learned that he had kids that he has no contact with because of prior DV claims. She wasn't willing to, kind of like, come out of that false reality that she was living in because everything that he was giving her felt so opposite of what her stepfather growing up had ever given her. She wanted to keep that good feeling, even though from the beginning there were red flags. Were they like felonies? What were they?
Speaker 2:So I never sought clarity. Um, so I never sought clarity. Um, I do know from my understanding neither of his exes followed through on their end of like the court stuff and I don't know what those specifics were. Um ended up coming up in my court case later that mine was going to be the first of this like type of offense, um, and so I was in such a daze like I didn't really know kind of what that meant, what, what was happening. Um, I was just kind of like, okay, um, great um, but he, he was transparent that there were previous issues and like so much that he does not have access to two children, like I said, I just didn't, I don't know I, I he showed me so much of what I thought was love, it didn't matter.
Speaker 1:And then you said that he, that he was the scariest one. So can you walk me through this relationship? Can you walk me through the progression and the things that happened that showed you that he was lying? He didn't have his anger under control?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the first indication but unfortunately I also justified was when we were at the bar and I just like I went to the bathroom and I had to walk past a group of guys and on my way back they were hitting on me. He was also taking painkillers, which I did not realize, and drinking. He got mad at me because the guy hit on me when I was like walking past and like police ended up getting called because the men started getting very crazy and then he berated me on the way home that night. It was my fault that this guy hit on me and that he got angry and then the police got called and then we were asked to leave the bar and he actually threw me up against the fence and I guess somebody had called 911. And I did talk to a police officer and I defended him.
Speaker 1:She defended him, and I want to point out how normal this is in an abusive relationship, because once law enforcement gets involved, you kind of feel this instinctual need to protect them, because if you don't, you know that when you go home it's going to be 10 times worse than it ever has been, because their adrenaline is already so heightened from dealing with the cops that you are going to be the only person that they can take it out on, and they absolutely will. So you feel the need to come and to be the only person that they can take it out on, and they absolutely will. So you feel the need to come and to be the superhero in that moment and to make them look as innocent as possible. You are always playing cleanup crew when you are with a narcissist or an abusive partner.
Speaker 2:My old self described it as it was just minorly physical. Um, he pushed me into the fence because I kept walking away and like I went out and like scratched his face. Um, I don't remember if I meant to scratch his face or what, but like I I did. He had scratch marks, um, and police were called and they showed up and we were like no, we're good. And we went home that night and we pretended like none of it happened and we continued life like none of that happened.
Speaker 2:And like two or three weeks later, when he was preparing to go on his trip to Vegas with his friends, it somehow came out that he cheated on me with his ex-girlfriend and she was pregnant, and so in that moment we were at my apartment and I was like no, like get out, like get, get out of my face, get out of my life, get out of my house, like that's, we're not doing this. Um, and he got mad at me and I, like he got in my face and like I slapped him. Um, and which is weird, a weird instinct for somebody who is very trusting that these people don't get like that. But I just knew this was different and like instinctually, and the second, I slapped him like instantly. All life left him and his eyes just went dark and that was no longer the same person I knew he was. Just you could just see it turn in him. He did like a weird little twitch thing too, um, and he just unleashed on me. He started punching me, kicking me, um, like grabbing me by, like my shoulders and like just banging my head against the floor repeatedly. Um, I got thrown across the room at some point.
Speaker 2:Um, I was unconscious at some point I don't think for very long. Um, I tried to escape um and like got my front door open and everything was like trying to. Literally. I was on the ground, I was trying to pull myself out through the doorframe and I like he dragged me back in. Um, and at some point I don't I have no idea how it ended, but just next thing, I know he grabbed his stuff and he's gone On his. I just heard his motorcycle and at that point I ran outside for my life Because I was so afraid he was going to come back in and like start over again that I ran down my apartment complex barefoot, screaming for help.
Speaker 2:Um, and nobody was answering. Nobody was answering any of the doors, nobody wanted to help in its broad daylight middle of the day. Um, nobody wanted to help and I ended up going back to my apartment buildings. I heard his motorcycle leave and so I was like, oh God, maybe I can at least get back into my apartment and lock the door and like be done with this.
Speaker 2:And this just angel of a woman, um, from my building recognized me and she just was like I are you okay? What do you need? I'm going to1-1. And I was like no, it's fine, I'm fine. I just got to go to my apartment. So I was in such shock and she was like no, sweetie, I'm gonna, I'm gonna call 9-1-1 and like can I call somebody else? And that was kind of just like it. Um, it was just like it was over, just like that.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I have no idea how we went from I cheated on you to that, but unfortunately that wasn't the last time. Um, my sister ended up making me go to the emergency room immediately after that, um, and we filed I filed a police report. I did it. Um went to the emergency room, which was significantly worse than actually living through the assault because of like how many times I had to repeat my story and how many times like I had to like admit out loud what just happened, when I'm still not even sure what just happened.
Speaker 2:Um, you know all of the questions and like all of the photos and like it was very like invasive and necessary, but invasive. And, um, you know, every time you go to a new tech they ask you the same question and like, um, being autistic, I don't, I don't know how to like not just answer the questions like that you're asking, um, and so, when people are like, why are you here? I'm like, oh, uh, I'm here Cause my boyfriend uh, maybe ex-boyfriend, might, I don't know, this guy assaulted me, you know, and I didn't again, I hadn't even had time to process. But actually, interestingly, when my sister picked me up to take me to the emergency room, she said we need to call mom and dad, we need to tell them Because, again, these are patterns and I need to start telling people that I love. And I said, okay, well, let's call dad first.
Speaker 2:Um, he was in Florida taking care of our grandma and he became irate and screamed at me and started blaming me. Yeah, he was like what the fuck are you doing? You're so stupid. How can you even allow that to happen, like to the point where, like I don't even I know I dissociated and I just remember reaching and just hanging up on him and my sister and I like didn't even speak about it because like she knew, like how absurd, like there was just no word. So we just sat in silence till we got to the emergency room, and that was how he reacted to me being assaulted was that was my fault, and so I did it again.
Speaker 1:Okay, explain that what happened.
Speaker 2:I went to therapy, I started addressing things, or so I thought, I thought I was healing. And then, I don't know, two months later I'm in another relationship with another man who has a violent history and I knew that, specifically, he was not violent towards women, according to him. Just you know other men and um, I think I found safety in it, one because he could protect me from my ex Um, but also, obviously, the familiarity of it Um and he, I did not know, was in recovery or was supposed to be in recovery and was drinking again and um, so we're dating, we're going out drinking, we're doing all of this stuff, and I don't even remember what led up to that night. But he was super drunk and started screaming at me over something and jumped out of my car or no, he tried to.
Speaker 2:I was driving, he tried to throw my car in park while we were driving and so I like whipped over and like threw the car, in part because I'm not, you know, I don't want to ruin my car and he gets out and I get out because he's like walking in the middle of the time. They didn't really do much and they said well, you can come back if they start to show up, I said great Cool, I just want to be done with this. And shortly after he kind of crept back into my life and was in that love bombing and showing me I'm sober and I'm so sorry and let me show you I've changed. And he did kind of I mean we went through the cycle right so he did show me he's changed in this moment for the first few months.
Speaker 1:And that's how it goes. The cycle of abuse he's going to pretend to change for only a short amount of time. Because, if we learned anything from Lauren's episode where we talked about the cycle of abuse, they are currently in the reconciliation phase of the cycle. Eventually, tension is going to build and there's going to be another explosion and the cycle then just repeats itself over and over and over again until you break that cycle and that addiction.
Speaker 2:Cold turkey um, shortly after, he kind of crept back into my life and was in that love bombing and showing me I'm sober and I'm so sorry. And let me show you I've changed. And he did kind of I mean, we went through the, through the cycle, right so he did show me he's changed in this moment for the first, you know few months, Um, and we I just kind of was like, well, as long as he doesn't touch me again, as long as he doesn't touch me again. And unfortunately he didn't touch me again, which is why it took me so long to leave. Instead, I just endured more emotional um emotional violence, um more physical intimidation, more throwing of things, more blaming, more.
Speaker 2:I don't even want to say that I never had any of my exes isolate me, because I didn't need to be isolated. I lived in a family that was sick and accepted the abuse and thought it was love. With this man in particular, I remember just thinking like I think I'm going to die if I stay here. And there was no specific thing. He hadn't been violent again, Like he hadn't put hands on me again since that one time, and that was a year and a half before I finally left. But I just knew that key was changing. There was, he was getting darker and I just knew if I stayed I was going to die.
Speaker 1:I just got cold chills because I too have had that thought, just having that gut feeling of he's going to kill me. Was that the last relationship that you were in before you really focused on your own healing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean definitely the last toxic relationship in that way. I think I dated a couple more guys, but as soon as I saw the red flags, I acknowledged them instead of staying in it and powering through. I don't know that I necessarily pick up on red flags as quick as other people. I attribute this one to my lifelong like abuse, narcissistic abuse, but also with my autism. I really struggle reading people and subcontacts, and so I did find myself still seeking out these men that I was seeing signs sooner and like I had the drive to be done. I just didn't know how to be done and so thankfully, that was the most the last toxic, like super toxic relationship and eventually led me to my husband relationship and eventually led me to my husband.
Speaker 1:I love a happy ending. You told me that you know now you are in a healthy and loving relationship, and the cliff notes that you sent me before we sat down for this interview. But you had said that it's taken you a lot of work to get to the point that you are now. So what kind of work have you been doing?
Speaker 2:Well, well, there's been um, tons of work. I mean, you know I mentioned that I've been in and out of therapy my whole life, Um, but this time I'm a little bit more spiritual than I've ever been, um, in the sense that, like, I don't I haven't really defined my spirituality, but I think it's more grounded in trusting myself and trusting the universe and just trusting, like karma, I guess. And just what you're putting out is what you're getting back. And so I think I realized that, like I was holding myself back in therapy because I wasn't, I was cutting out the specific people I was tired of, but I wasn't cutting out the patterns and I say that because I was breaking up with all of these men but I wasn't confronting the person and the things that were making it okay for me to have these people in my life. I needed to start confronting me.
Speaker 2:That was probably the hardest confronting, like, why are you so afraid of being happy? Why are you so afraid of taking a risk? And I mean, ultimately, the answer was I didn't believe I deserved those things. I just didn't. People like me don't get access to those relationships and I don't even know if I believe that healthy relationships were real, I'd never seen them. I just assumed everybody was really good at faking it.
Speaker 1:Jenna says this about how she had to confront herself, and I don't know that I've ever felt more validated, because I have said for a very long time that I believe that there are two different layers or levels to healing after abuse. One is confronting the person, the person who caused you so much pain and trauma and sorrow and despair, and making them the monster in your story. Like I said in episode six, it's easy to have someone to blame, but then there is that second layer of opening the door and looking at yourself and saying, okay, but why? Why did I accept abuse for so long? Why did I think that I deserved it? And for Jenna to say this, talking about it now, I have goosebumps. It's a very real thing that survivors go through in the aftermath of abuse. I remember having the same thought like healthy relationships are just a fairy tale. They're literally just from Hallmark or Hollywood.
Speaker 2:I remember thinking and believing in my heart and soul. If you believe and wholeheartedly trust your man, that means you don't, You're not seeing everything. I 100% believe that, that you're just being duped. There's no squeaky clean men and like and again, I didn't have access to them. I truly, genuinely, I had never seen a good man before. I didn't know what that looked like, so I didn't know that they could exist. The only version of men I knew were people wearing masks.
Speaker 1:Are you finding how long have you been in this marriage now? Are you finding how?
Speaker 2:long have you been in this marriage? Now We've been together. We just celebrated five years back in April, um, so it's been a lot of work. Um, I will not pretend that, um, I was. I was pretty healed on an individual level. I was very comfortable being single, and all of that.
Speaker 2:When we met which was not something I'd ever been going into a relationship before, I was still in that very codependent stage, um, but we I mean, we struggled, I, it was the first healthy relationship I'd been in. So, unfortunately for him, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Um, I was always wondering what is it that you're hiding? Um, what are those like real truths? Oh, okay, you say that, but what do you really mean? You know, and this poor man endured it all, um, and he just kept showing up for me and that was like the thing is like it didn't matter how crazy I was Like, and I genuinely was crazy in some of my moments, justified at times, but just I was crazy. I made myself crazy.
Speaker 2:All of these experiences made me crazy, and this poor man had to just kind of take it and then look at me and then be like okay, well, now that that's done. Like what can we do better? Like what can I do? What do you need? Um, what should I have done to prevent those big emotions?
Speaker 2:Um, and it he just was open and honest and even when I was like really crazy and like I hurt him or I scared him or you know whatever um he was able to come with me with so much love and compassion and be like I didn't like that, but like I get it and it's okay, and like we just got to do better, but like it's okay that you just completely collapsed, it's okay that like you just got so overwhelmed and said all of these ridiculous things and like you're safe and you don't have to do those things. And so it was a lot of work and and then like kind of healing and then kind of going through all of that and him standing by me when I was trying to figure out what it means to not have a father twice. I had to do that twice because I did meet my biological father and he sucked worse than the first.
Speaker 1:A lot of the times it's kind of like a generational thing that is passed down. You know your mom was attracted to these kinds of men. You were introduced to narcissism very early on and through. What did you say about 25 years?
Speaker 2:is when you finally kind of woke up. And now you're breaking the cycle.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of work. I I've always known I was different than my family in so in so many ways, um, and I was always the protector of my family, um, and so, again, when my niece came into this world and I'm seeing all of this stuff that I'm like I don't, that, we're not doing that Like that, no, no, um, we're. Every choice we're all making is for the better of this baby. It has nothing to do with you, me or anybody. Um, and and at that point that was when I was like, wow, this is, this is what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:When we talk about breaking generational curses, it's facing my stuff, right, like I have to face what I went through and all of that achiness I have to start facing, like, the stuff that, like everything above us and our family tree, had to deal with and start healing those pieces of us.
Speaker 2:And unfortunately, like I, fortunately, unfortunately I was the head of that in our family and I started forcing everybody in our family to start facing things.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm so grateful my sister wanted to do that without a lot of push, without any push, um, or, obviously, her daughter, um, I'm so grateful my mom wanted to do better for my niece, even if it meant being around her abuser, um.
Speaker 2:I'm so grateful my mom wanted to do better for my niece, even if it meant being around her abuser, um, and you know I it's just, it's heavy and it's cause it's like you have to explain this to people that never wanted to confront those things, the same things that they were enduring in the same systems that they were enduring, um, and I don't know if you've ever tried to explain to somebody that's something they can't see. But it's like you're crazy, like um, and it's heavy and you just kind of have to be comfortable just being like these are my choices and you don't have to get them, um, you don't have to understand them, you don't have to agree with them, but just knowing and being comfortable with like knowing whatever those things were were wrong and that's been the hardest thing, I think is like just being at peace with not explaining yourself and letting people talk and say what they're going to say and just OK, that's fine and I'm just going to do me and reap the benefits of it while you do what you're doing.
Speaker 1:I've absolutely loved this conversation. Thank you for meeting with me today, but I do have one last question for you, and that is for the victim or survivor who listens to your story, who identifies with anything that you talked about. What advice do you have for them?
Speaker 2:Kind of referenced this earlier. The people, the person that you're afraid to leave, that version of the person that you're afraid to leave, that you don't want to lose, is not the person you're leaving. You're leaving, you want to leave that person, the person you're hanging on for is just their mask.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm Alyssa, the host of Dismissed True Stories, and if you like what you heard today, give me a five-star rating and hit that notification bell, because I do upload every Friday. If you are a survivor or you know someone who this podcast episode may resonate with, I ask that you share this with them. There is nothing quite like helping a survivor or a victim of abuse feel seen and heard and validated. It is extremely healing and helpful to the journey and the process after abuse. If you are a survivor and you're ready to share your truth, please follow me on my socials. I've included them in the footer of this episode. Send me your story, the Cliff Notes version, and I will get back with you. And, as always, thank you so much for being here. The world is truly a better place because you are in it. I'm going to go ahead and do that, thank you.
