With a concrete escape plan, I could have avoided many post-relationship traumas. — Readers please note: this story includes a discussion of domestic abuse. If you feel that you may be in an abusive relationship, seek help. The National Domestic Violence Hotline can help victims and survivors. Leaving my abusive marriage was both the most painful and the most courageous thing I’ve ever…

The right plan will save you from additional and avoidable trauma. — Leaving an abusive relationship isn’t as simple as breaking up. Statistics show that the greatest chance for physical violence between intimate partners is immediately after the relationship has ended, which is why you need a well-thought-out plan before severing ties. Here are five things you can do to get started: 1. Gather evidence of the abuse.

Divorces and break-ups can be messy enough on their own, but when children are involved, there arises a whole additional slew of issues around determining custody and visitation. Often during the relationship, one parent was decidedly less interested in child-rearing responsibilities. Sometimes, a parent was completely absent, or abusive, or…

Relationships end for all sorts of complex reasons, but abusive ones tend to go out with a bang rather than a fizzle — not so much a ‘misalignment of your astrological planets’ as a collapsing star creating a supernova-grade explosion of emotions. …

I haven’t met my ex-husband’s new girlfriend. In fact, I didn’t even know she existed until I learned about her through a third party, but that’s hardly unexpected. My ex wasn’t good at a lot of things, but he excelled at secrecy. I imagine our relationship is somewhat of a…

Joint custody after divorce is difficult under the best conditions, where communication between both parties is plentiful and respectful, everyone’s in agreement about the terms, and trauma from the relationship’s dissolution is no longer having a heavy impact on either parent or child. But the conditions of a dangerous, global…

As the world grapples with the outbreak of the covid-19 virus and governments move to take extraordinary measures to prevent its spread, one of the many social symptoms is the rise of domestic violence, particularly in the United States. The reasons may seem obvious for those whose lives have been…

Most people who’ve been in an abusive relationship before are already aware of the fact that they’re more likely than others to enter into another one. A lot of times we chalk it up to poor decision making skills, a lack of example-relationships (whether our own or our parents’), or…

For women in abusive relationships, living in a perpetual state of fear can become an everyday reality. When that’s your normal, it’s easy to engage in a behavior that feels proactive, but is actually incredibly harmful: moving the goalposts. Romantic relationships rarely start out as abusive. You were likely drawn…