pinkwind
Posts: 367
Joined: 1/9/2005 Status: offline
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Emotional abuse is soul destroying, and having been through a marriage that encompassed physical abuse for some time, but emotional abuse for longer it is the sort of abuse that makes a body doubt themselves the most, robs them of all esteem, and leaves them a wreck without the inner strength to impel the initial steps to leave. It is emotional abuse that saps the life essence out of a person, and the type of abuse that is the hardest to escape from. Everyone understands the imperative for escaping physical harm, because short of locking a victim up everyone they come into contact with sees the abuse writ large on the body. Emotional abuse is invisible for the most part, and insidious with it. i am afraid that apart from being there when she needs to cry, to gather her thoughts, and offering her a tangible way out with somewhere safe to go to there is nothing that you can do to help her. If, given all the times you have talked her through what is happening and the fact that the offer of safety has been made, she does not feel able to pick herself up and move out you cannot force the issue. What it took for me was not only the feeling that i was in danger of impending physical violence but also someone i respected with all my heart giving me a deadline and gently but firmly encouraging me towards the day agreed for the move. i don't know that your relationship with this woman gives you the gravitas to issue that kind of ultimatum and have it adhered to, but it might be worth thinking about and maybe letting her know that from a certain date there will be a room with her name on the door somewhere safe, thus giving her time to plan a dignified and safe escape. Other than that you can only carry on being there, bolstering her flagging self esteem and encouraging her that life would be better away from such an environment. Not what you want to hear, i know, but you are not in a position to make demands of someone who is in even the worst kind of relationship with someone else. All anyone can hope is that she gets the courage to sort her life out for the best.
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