You have helped me on so many different levels. I wish I could shake your hand and thank you in person because you have brought so much peace into my life.Now I understand why I was so restless and unhappy and couldn’t get away from my ex-girlfriend while I was with her.Thank You,Matthew
Thank you for posting the information for men who have or are experiencing abusive relationships. There is not much available for men trying to deal with abusive women, in my situation it is my exgirlfriend who is also the mother of my son.He is two and she emotionally abuses him – I have gotten away from her, and do all I can to help him and spend as much time with him as the courts will allow. Hopefully that will provide some counterbalance.Jon
Just want to let you know how great your site is. Do you have this information produced in hard copy so we can give it out to patients?If not, is it okay for us to print it out and bind it in booklet form? We have limited resources – especially for men so this would be very helpful for us. It is always nice to have something to give to patients. Our Program services a large population of First Nation people, the majority of which have been flown out of their small Northern Reserve to our hospital. They are put up in hotels while in Sioux Lookout and they don’t have internet access there or for most people from the north, in their homes.Thanks for this great resource.Carol MaxwellACT Program Co-ordinatorSioux Lookout
PLLLLLLLLLLLLLEASE tell me how I can contact you! I have finally finished reading all your postings on the battered men site and I’m exhausted, a blubbery mess, but also hopeful and thankful about the rest of my life. Today, in fact, is the one month anniversary of leaving my violent abusive wife. My family, friends and I, across 6 time-zones will raise a toast at 2PM today in celebration.My daughter sent me your site last Spring. My wife actually found the attached site before I did, which unfortunately led to another one of her temper tantrums. Only this week have I been able to, in peace, enjoy every word.Your closing page was my undoing. Thanks for your information and for your love. I have a long way to go, but I’ve begun.Curt
Wow! What a great website. I also found it very interesting that the RVH and Women’s Crisis Centre in Barrie were involved. When my mother left an abusive situation years ago there was no Crisis Centre in Barrie for her to go to. I have an idea who may be responsible for the creation of this web site.I have lived in many places throughout Canada and the United States and have recently left an abusive relationship although not of the physical nature that my mother went through. Your web site was so encouraging and enlighting about the abuse in a non physical manner and how hard that can be to “see” or come out of denial with.I am a firm believer that no one can leave an abusive situation without the support of family, friends, a crisis centre or all of the above. I could not have left without the support of friendships I was able to develop after living in one location for over 5 years coupled with the fact that my children have reached the age of 17 and 18. However, kids are smart and you know there is a red flag when both of them tell you to leave their father.I think a place for people who are considering leaving or have left to communicate would be a good idea.Thank you for doing such a great job and making the web site feel like a safe place to be as well as providing great iformation.debi
Dear Executive Director,I’m sorry I cannot address you in a more friendly manor but I was not able to find your name on your site. I just wanted to say how wonderful the Heart 2 Heart site is. I am a survivor of abuse myself and a recently graduated student of Community Support Work. I have been volunteering at my local womens shelter, (The Xolhemet Society) for some time now and have just completed a practicum there.I will be going back on the 26th of this month to present my project. I will be leading a group session about mental abuse and it’s effects on self esteem.I was so happy to find this information on your site as it covers so much of what I have experienced and wanted to share. I know that this information will help the clients at both the first and second stage houses of the Xolhemet Society in their healing processes,and wanted to thank you in advance for that.You are doing very important work here and touching many lives.SincerelyAngie W
I’m awake late at night in my new apartment (a month after leaving a batterer). I just read “Why doesn’t she leave,” and I wanted to thank you for writing it. I am trying to figure out how I got into it, why it took me so long to get out, and, of course, how never to get into a situation like that again.I really was one who thought it could never happen to me. It’s hard to imagine before you see it up close just how insidious the process is. I don’t even know yet how I am scarred or how to begin to heal. It has taken so long to just come to grips with the fact that I had to leave no matter what the cost or consequences.K
I stumbled upon your Heart 2 Heart site and thank goodness!I’m going thru a bitter divorce of my wife of 17ys who has been an abusive partner. It crept in like fog under a bridge. I started having anxiety and depression 6-7 years ago and now I know exactly why. I believe she has BPD…her father was bipolor. If it were not for an recent affair and adultry, I would probably still be in denial myself that I was being abused. I wanted to fix it all.Your site has given me so much insight into what I was dealing with and how much anger and rage I have internalized. A sick person can kill you softly. I’m working on repairing my self esteem now. Thank you for a great site.Ed
Thank you for your Web site. I left my abuser after ten times, five months ago. I was only with him for one year if you can believe it, but it affected me.I finally relocated to a different state and life is good here and I feel happy. However, I often feel waves of grief and loneliness and miss him a lot. I never told him I was leaving and feel guilty, as he was in Jail at the time for a violation of probation. Something just snapped in me and I had to leave.It all worked out so well and that was amazing to me. I sometimes am fine, but then I get very emotional and want to contact him. He got out of Jail in March and I did call him several times and hung up. One time he answered and he sounded as usual, angry. I blocked the number each time. I asked for him another time and then hung up. I just wanted to know if he was ok for some reason. His Mom went to get him after I asked for him and I hung up.Its been three weeks and I have not called again. I wonder sometimes how I actually left and why am I so happy at times. I still care for him, but I also get angry at him when I recall the terrible way he treated me. I am strangely upset too, because he has not even tried to locate me and he said he loved me so much and wanted to marry me. I wonder why he just forgot about me so easily. Is this normal to feel this way?Thanks so much,Melanie