Love shouldn’t feel like walking on eggshells.
Dear Survivor,
At first, it may have looked like devotion. The constant check-ins, the jealousies framed as care, the need to be with you all the time. It felt like intensity, passion, maybe even romance.
Then came the slow unraveling of your freedom.
They made your world smaller without raising their voice. Maybe they said you were overreacting, too emotional, or disloyal when you set a boundary. If you found yourself shrinking to keep the peace, that was not love, it was control.
The scariest part is that it often begins with what looks like love.
That is what makes coercive control so confusing and painful to identify. Abusers can hide behind affectionate words while dismantling your autonomy. And when control feels familiar, it is easy to mistake it for connection.
You deserve to recognize the truth of what you lived through.
Many survivors question whether their experience counts because there were no bruises. But the silence, the fear, and the isolation were real. That is why I created the Types of Abuse Worksheet, to help you put words to the wounds you could not explain.
You are not imagining things.
Blessings and healing,
Catrina
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