How do you wish your friends and family responded to your situation with an abusive partner?

Hey my love. I had something similar occur to me at the start, with friends saying “I told you so”/“Just report them”/“I’m done talking about it”, etc. This will escalate to friends storming out of rooms while you’re crying and friends making you feel guilty - making you feel like you’re the person causing your abuse and that you’re the one continuing it by not leaving. When your friends openly express feelings of frustration with you and constantly excuse it with “I’m not angry at you, I’m angry at {abuser}”, it feels as if they extend the abuse you’ve been exposed to. They become toxic themselves.

Please distance yourself from these people. They may mean well but I don’t want you to experience further pain from misguided actions. It’s normal for friends and family to feel anger at the abuser, to feel pain and frustration, confusion, but they must process those feelings in private rather than make you bear the responsibility of trying not to upset them when you’re struggling to listen to their demands to leave, against the responsibility of processing your OWN trauma. Little do they know that escape/leaving has statistically been proven to be the point where the abused is at the highest risk. It’s something that needs to be done carefully.

Feel free to PM me if you ever need.

/r/abusiverelationships Thread Parent