Verbal Abuse Recovery
What happens when a place that should remain neutral becomes part of a high-conflict family dynamic? In this episode, I look back at my daughter’s school experience, blurred boundaries, triangulation, school accountability, and what I understand differently now about protecting children from adult conflict.
Here’s a strong excerpt that fits the article well: What happens when a place that should remain neutral becomes part of a high-conflict family dynamic? Looking back at events I documented while my daughter was in elementary school, I explore blurred boundaries, school involvement, manipulation, triangulation, and what I understand differently now about protecting children from adult conflict.
Is This Abusive? Explores emotional abuse, verbal abuse, gaslighting, coercive control, relationship warning signs, and recovery. Through personal experience, reflection, and practical insight, the podcast helps listeners recognize unhealthy patterns, trust their own perceptions, and better understand what may be happening in difficult relationships.
Gaslighting can slowly make you question your memory, instincts, and even your own sense of reality. In this personal reflection, I look at how repeated denial, blame, and distorted versions of events affected my ability to trust myself, and how documenting what happened became part of finding my way back to my own voice.
This episode explores how abuse was understood, or left unnamed, across three generations of women. From a grandmother with few options, to a generation taught that abuse meant bruises, to the growing language we now have for verbal abuse, coercive control, and emotional harm, this conversation looks at what women were taught to endure and why naming these patterns matters.
This episode explores the subtle warning signs that can make an unhealthy or abusive relationship difficult to recognize. From walking on eggshells and questioning your own perspective to control, isolation, blame, and intimidation, the focus is on patterns that may seem small individually but become more concerning when they happen repeatedly over time.
Abuse does not always begin with something obvious. Subtle patterns of control, criticism, intimidation, isolation, and manipulation can build slowly over time. This article looks at warning signs that may be easy to dismiss individually, but deserve attention when several begin appearing together.
There are times in life when even small misunderstandings can feel much bigger than they normally would. It may not be because the issue itself is enormous, but because your emotional reserves are already being used somewhere else. Right now, much of my energy is going toward my mother and everything that comes with loving... Continue Reading →
When I look back through the women in my family, one thing becomes very clear to me: abuse did not suddenly appear in my generation. What changed was our ability to recognize it, name it, talk about it, and eventually do something about it. My grandmother lived in a time when a woman could have... Continue Reading →
There is a particular kind of conflict that feels especially unsettling. It happens when someone finally tells you they have been upset with you for a very long time, not a few days or a few weeks, but months, maybe even a year. Suddenly, you realize there has apparently been a running list of things... Continue Reading →
If you read my previous post, you know that my mother was recently diagnosed with cancer. I traveled to be with her, and while helping her sort through her home and prepare for what comes next, I found myself returning to this old blog. Maybe there is something about sorting through a lifetime of belongings... Continue Reading →
I wasn't expecting to write this post. Although my mother and I have a difficult relationship, we do not have a abusive relationship. A few days ago, my mom had a CT scan after losing a significant amount of weight and simply not feeling well for quite some time. She had been tired for months.... Continue Reading →
Last Thursday, the boyfriend came by to announce his intention to propose. He wasn’t asking for our permission but merely letting us know it was happening on Sunday (yesterday), with only three days’ notice. He said he was worried I or my mom might “spill the beans” because we talk a lot.
