was with my ex for five years. Never once did he explicitly tell his family that we were together, which is fine because it's not on me to expect someone to come out, but we shared a room in his parent's house for three months when a job offer was pulled out from underneath him. His forbid me from going to my best friend's birthday and visiting for pride a couple states away because he hated another one of my friends for telling me that i probably had been cheated on.

I stayed with him because of money. I had moved halfway across the country, away from my family with no degree because my ex was the one who made a majority of the money.

Out of it now, i can understand how abusive he was (emotionally and physically), but i was blinded by my first relationship and thought it was love.