To get help and support either getting out of an emotionally abusive relationship, staying out of one, healing from it, or all of the above, a first step is most typically asking for some validation, help and support, and to do that, we have to tell who we’re asking what’s been happening to us. Too, sometimes, the only way we can get to even just telling ourselves the truth, so that we can start to take any steps, is by telling it to someone else.
Besides the help I’ve provided to people through Scarleteen over the decades I’ve worked here, I’ve also had to make disclosures like this myself, have guided people close to me through this process, and I’ve often been the first person people have told. My hope is that my experience shared in this series can help you choose who to tell, figure out how to tell in a way that works best for you, how to respond to some commonly crummy reactions as well as some decent ones, and where to go from there.
