Where does Caring Unlimited come in?  

To those of you who are reading this; who have never seen your loved one flip before your eyes from being your rock, your protector, to someone you fear will murder you, you might find domestic abuse unbelievable. Most people who have never experienced abuse will be shocked, they will blame the victim, they will send the victim back to work things out with their abuser.  

Abusers select victims. They groom victims. They ask you all your secrets and use them against you. They tell you your best friends are bad for you, that they aren’t true friends. They wait; eventually your friends no longer show concern for your situation, and write you off. Abusers punish the slightest deviation from their demands until you no longer try to do anything but what they want. They wait until they have already murdered you in spirit.  

This is where Caring Unlimited comes in; because the abuser has found a way to seep into every sacred part of your life. He calls your boss, he gets you fired, he cheats on you, and convinces your family everything is your fault. That if you would only get with the program, he would go back to being nice. You try to get with the program because reconciling a relationship seems like the best and easiest path. You don’t realize until it is too late that his program is to project everything onto you and blame you for it. You have no one to call, nowhere to go. Your family and your friends can't or won't help you because they gave up long ago, or because they recognized this person is dangerous. Carling Unlimited bridges the gaps the abuser created in your life. You start to find a sense of self and the abuser no longer recognizes you as a target because you are stronger than you were before. You take a step back when the abuse starts to creep in. The abuser is left with two choices to change or find a new target. They find someone new and start over, and domestic abuse goes on and on. 

This story was submitted and is published anonymously as part of Caring Unlimited’s 8th Annual Survivor Stories Project; a program of Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2020.