Domestic violence survivor tells story for Domestic Violence Awareness Month
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the Barren River Area Safe Space is reminding people in crisis that it is available to help.
Domestic violence is a shockingly common occurrence where someone in a relationship wields power and control over the other person, oftentimes using threats, violence, gaslighting and love bombing to abuse the victim.
But abuse doesn’t usually begin with severe injury – most times, it starts small and escalates.
“The escalation of the cycle of abuse rarely starts off with these explosive physical incidents that people hear about. More often than not, the cycle of abuse starts with unkind words that can be easily just explained away as ‘Oh, they were having a bad day,’” said Tori Henninger with Barren River Area Safe Space.
Elizabeth Wood, a domestic abuse survivor, says she was beaten badly for several years, knocking out her front teeth.
“I had a Folgers coffee can in their closet, and because I hid it, because he knew where I would put my money. And so when we go places, he would make sure I had to get my money out of that can and down to every penny I had. And we went to one restaurant in town, and he ended up didn’t liking that he had hit me so hard in my face that knocked my teeth out,” said Wood.
She felt she could not leave him, because he threatened to harm her family if she did and she was terrified.
“It’s up to you ultimately to be the one to make the decision of, ‘yes, I need to do something for myself.’ So I had to rely on myself solely to be able to come to the conclusion that I needed to leave,” said Wood.
She is free from her abuser now, but the damage still remains.
“Those babies, they’re like my own babies, and I wouldn’t want that for them for nothing. I wouldn’t want them to go through any of that, and I wouldn’t want them to see me go through that. And of course, as they’ve gotten older, I’ve not had the money to get real teeth. I have a partial. So they see you like, why do you not have that? Why do you not have your front teeth Liz,” said Wood.
The timeframe of leaving the abuser is often the most dangerous time for a survivor.
Barren River Area Safe Space offers a crisis hotline where plans can be discussed pertaining to an individual situation to provide the safest and most effective means of escape possible.
“When a person decides that they want to leave an abusive relationship, they have to think about it as fleeing. They have to think about it as escaping. It’s not simply walking out of a room. It’s not simply saying, we’re breaking up. It is having to run for your life,” said Henninger.
For help, you can visit the BRASS website or call 1-800-928-1183 .
