Yeah, even though there can be real good times, alternating with the bad times, there comes a point where it's just not worth it.

When I moved out after 7 years of him drinking heavily, I thought I'ld hate living alone. It took me all of one week to decide I was a lot happier. Having a peaceful sanctuary of my own was very important to me.

During a time when I was having job instability, he would denigrate me anytime I expressed worry about how a job was going. He seemed to have no grasp of how awful that is to be told you'll probably fail, when you are already terrified of failing.

Times when a person is not succeeding at work is when home needs to be a safe feeling place. He made it so it wasn't.

It was never physical abuse. It was denigration and the utter withholding of encouragement.