Survivor story #2-Six years sober, with two happy children.


"When I was 18, I meet a man who was a few years older than me. He was friends with my stepdad from work. He took me out on my first actual date. When my mom found out I was on a date with this man, she called me in the middle of the date and kicked me out of the house. The guy was friendly and offered me to stay with him, and I was stupid and moved in with him. As time went on, I noticed the few signs here and there. About 5 months in he introduced me to a drug that in the end, ruined my life. I was hooked, and it got bad. Time and time again, I tried to stop and get sober. That’s when it got bad. When he realized that me sober didn’t allow him to control me, he took to force. There were days where he would leave the drug home for me, and if I didn’t take them by the time he got home, he would burn me and hit me. I remember trying to fake that I took them and flush them instead but he always knew when I didn’t take them. I decided to leave many times. About a year into the relationship, I found out he was cheating on me and I got so upset I left. I knew to myself that I wouldn’t got back, or so I thought. 3 weeks after I left, I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. I stupidly told him cause growing up as I did without my father in my life fully. I swore I would never deprive my children of there father. A few weeks before October 27th, I went back to him. It was the worse decision of my life. That night on October 27th, my daughter's father came home late and woke me up. To this day, I still can't sleep in a bed by myself. I woke up to my daughters father with a knife to me. He knew my weaknesses. He keep cutting me until I would do the drug that I was at that time almost 9 months sober from. i held off as long as I could but I couldn’t stop him no matter what I did. It didn’t stop there after he saw the cut he had left he resorted to burning me like he had done many times in the past to make me use. I remember one day he was so strung out, and he got mad at me cause I wouldn’t go get him something from the gas station, so he threw me on the floor and started to kick me trying so hard to kick me in the stomach. I tried leaving time after time, and he always promised he would change; he didn’t mean to that he loved me. I kept going back no matter how bad it had gotten no matter the fact that he was risking my life but also my child's. On November 24th, while lying in bed I felt like I had peed myself and turned out It was actually my water breaking slowly. I told my daughter's father, and instead of taking me in he told me to call my mom so I did.  That was honestly the best and worst thing that happened. Due to the drugs that where in my system the courts placed my daughter with my mother and I went with my mother and lived with her. That day that he did that to me I realized I was better than that. I did end up going back one last time to my daughters father but I didn’t let him force me to do anything I didn’t want to any more yes it was hard. But I knew that I was strong enough I hit that point in my life that I was better than he made me out to be. April 9th, I was on the way to go do a visit with my daughter. Through the courts, both me and my daughter's father were made to do drug tests to see her and if we didn’t pass them we wouldn’t be aloud to see her. I did everything in my power and I stayed sober. But on April 9th my daughters father said he wouldn’t come to the visit. I pushed and pushed to try and figure out why and he wouldn’t tell me. I remember getting home after and he had told me he would tell me when I was home. Well that never happened he tried to distract me like he used to do. He wanted to go fishing and right there I knew that he was using that he was trying to do everything to keep me from finding out. That something that changed in me when my daughter was born gave me the strength to see through him. The clarity of being sober helped also. But that day I told him that I wasn’t doing it any more and it didn’t end well. Due to the past I was smart about it. I called my mother before I told my daughters father that I was leaving and waited until she had got there. He went ballistic told me I wasn’t going to leave but due to the fact that he wouldn’t hit me in front of people I knew he couldn’t stop me. that day I put myself into a domestic abuse shelter. It saved me if it wasn’t for the people I meet while I was there I don’t think I could be where I am today. I am now 6 years sober I have 2 children and I am happy with my life I work full time, I am currently just starting to go back to school. In a few short months, my daughter will be moving back full time with me."


 Image source:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/235594624238137889/

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