I think some difficulty arises from the broad definition of "survivor" and broad range of reactions from the people who had that experience. For myself, I don't consider myself a "survivor" and would never describe myself as such. I am not against anyone else using the term if they think it fits, I just don't believe it fits my personal experience. I rarely talk about my childhood experience with my partners. There are a couple of places it has come up and I do explain the situation so it does not become a bigger deal than it should be. But other than that, I find other people to over-react to the description I give, and I think that is more their over- active imagination than having anything to do with my personal experience.
I think breaking up with anyone by email to be the height of cowardice.