Physical violence

Being physically hurt by a partner or someone you were in a relationship with

Being hit, choked, restrained, or physically harmed by a romantic or sexual partner. This includes relationships where it only happened once and relationships where it happened so regularly it started to feel like the weather.

Violence from a partner comes wrapped in love, apologies, and good days, which is exactly what makes it so hard to name and so hard to leave. If you stayed for a long time, you are in the majority, and staying never made it your fault. People here understand how it starts to feel like the weather, because they lived under the same sky.

What can follow an experience like this

No two people carry the same experience the same way. These are some of the effects that people with this experience often describe. Having some of them, all of them, or none of them says nothing about how real what happened to you was.

Anxious attachment Holding on hard. PTSD After certain experiences, the brain can get stuck, replaying what happened through flashbacks, nightmares, or sudden intense reactions to things that remind you of it. Hypervigilance The nervous system that learned to scan for danger all the time. C-PTSD When trauma happened repeatedly, over a long time, or at the hands of people who were supposed to care for you, the effects go deeper than a single event. Trust issues Trust that was broken, repeatedly, by people who were supposed to be safe. Insomnia Difficulty falling asleep. Startle response The nervous system calibrated to danger will flinch at sounds, movements, or surprises that others barely notice. Shame Not guilt about something you did.

Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and nothing here decides what is wrong with you, because nothing is wrong with you. Something happened to you. This page exists so that when you are ready, you can find people who understand it from the inside.

You do not have to carry this alone.

Bridge of Hope Recovery is a free, anonymous, peer-led fellowship for trauma survivors. Meetings run throughout the week by phone, by video, and in person. No cost, no waitlist, no one asking for your real name.

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