I love this.  

I completely agree that an abuser will tell you every sordid detail of their traumatic past to get their victims to understand their motives and prove that it wasn’t their fault they are abusive, they just can’t help it…and that’s absolute bullshit.  

It’s a choice to perpetuate the cycle of abuse and violence.

It’s a choice to raise your hands in anger against your partner.

It’s a choice to spit insults at your partner.

It’s a choice to slam things and punch walls to intimidate your partner.

These tactics listed above are all abuse…not triggers to abuse, not predispositions/preludes to abuse…they are abuse.  Straight up, 100%.

I was choked out by a live in partner in my early 20’s.  He could have killed me for all he knew, right there on the living room rug. When I woke up, he was in the shower, sitting in the corner of the tub, crying.  Ain’t that just too precious??  Jerk.  He wanted me to understand that he hit because his dad used to hit him and that’s all he knew.  Be that as it may…and it was the god’s honest truth…but it wasn’t my fault he made that choice.  He was angry at me for telling him to move out.  Like I owed him something, salvation or enough love to “fix” him or whatever.  No.  I owed myself the dignity of leaving the relationship. Four years completely wasted, save for that final lesson.

I was abused and survived plenty of trauma in my life.  I did not choose to continue that cycle.  I chose to break the cycle with my own children and in my current relationships.  I don’t hold people emotionally hostage or act out so they are physically threatened.  I made the choice to be better to others than what was done to me.

THAT is where my power lays.

This used to be me too.

For a long time, I was caught in a cycle of abandonment and intense attachments. I was either bigger than God or smaller than a speck. The mania and depression swinging back and forth like a pendulum. I was convinced that there was nothing I could do about it because I had bipolar depression and my brain was misfiring on the neurological level, causing all sorts of issues with my mood and personality, which was only exacerbated by my addiction and self harm issues. I thought it was all hopeless. I was almost resigned to a life of manic highs and depressive lows, usually cycling to the beat of my romantic and sexual life. But I had an imbalance of chemicals…it wasn’t my fault.

Then one day I watched a documentary about the mental health system of care in America. I watched as they discussed the true nature of psychology…as a pseudo-science rather than a branch of true medical science, reinforced by scientific evidence of any real merit. There are no blood tests to diagnose depression, let alone bipolar depression. There is no oral swab to check for borderline personality disorder. The only type of true scientific research that shows reactions for mental health issues are things like seizure disorders and schizophrenia. Most of the other major mood and anxiety disorders are presenting on scans just like addiction. The brain IS rewiring itself but that’s in response to external stimulation, not some internal brain chemistry already in affect. We are programming ourselves to be depressed and anxious and addicted.

We program ourselves, slowly over time. Avoidance of this issue and exhibiting addictive behaviors because of that issue make us retreat into depression and the cycle continues on, ad nauseum. It’s up to US to break that cycle. We can reprogram ourselves to become more self aware and to start taking personal responsibility for our actions and choices. Once you begin to LIVE your life, to actually feel and experience your emotions without pills, booze and whatever other distractions you’ve personally come to enjoy. It fucking hurts to feel sometimes. Other times, it’s scary and uncomfortable. But sometimes it’s wonderful. The payoff to happiness is slow going. One little accomplishment leads to the next and your character builds upon that success. So many people are asleep nowadays. They are intentionally ignorant to the state of the world, the state of the country, the state of their state and the state of their own bodies. Apathy is easier than proactivity…it’s easier to keep repeating the same old cycles and patterns than it is to break free of all those old paradigms and start something new.

They say the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. The unknown scares the fuck out of almost every one of us and that’s what manifests itself into depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders as we desperately try to control things we cannot possibly control.

All we can do is control our thoughts…and by doing that, we control ourselves, no matter the situation.  We can reclaim the power and rights to our own spirits, minds and bodies, to once again become free and unburdened by the weight of society’s cycles of depression, anxiety, fear, trauma and all types abuse.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

~Beautifully Broken~