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Message: <blockquote data-quote="OptimisticRealist" data-source="post: 1694476" data-attributes="member: 49859">I witnessed her being abused multiple times but froze. Didn't do anything. She was too afraid to be by herself so I stayed at her apartment with her, but he took the keys and would come in all hours of the night and pull her off the couch to force her to talk to him. I would hear her crying, begging him to leave her alone, but I froze. He then completely isolated her from everyone. She wasn't allowed to see or speak to anyone he didn't approve of. He went through her phone. Kept her purse and keys to the car so she couldn't leave. Told her he was going to blow my head off. Fast forward a couple months. She took a risk and got in touch with me. Made plans to leave him for good. I helped keep her safe. He stalked my house, my mom's house, had a gun, told another of their mutual friends he was going to kill me. We stayed in random hotels that no one knew about except my parents. She was too afraid to let me work alone (I do lawn care) so she would sit in the car and keep watch while I worked in case he found me. My symptoms didn't appear for months, until I randomly saw him in public. Had a full on panic attack an hour later, or a series of panic attacks that lasted about 2 hours. Then came intrusive thoughts. Searching the roads for cars like his. Replaying what I saw over and over and over. Guilt over my freeze response. Guilt over not getting her out sooner. Etc etc etc. There's way more, but that's the nutshell version.This started in late December 2018 btw. She successfully left in late May 2019. I didn't start experiencing symptoms until Sept/Oct, and didn't know what was happening with me. Got my hormones checked, bloodwork, etc. Thought it was physical stuff, until the first time I felt like I was reliving what happened and couldn't snap myself out of it. The image of him standing over her at 430 one morning just staring at her after using the key to get into the apartment, while I pretended to be asleep on the couch, never leaves my mind. He yanked her off the couch after a while from a dead sleep and pulled her outside. I froze. Again.</blockquote>

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