Melissa’s story.
When I first met him, I thought he was so cool. He was always showering me with attention. I didn’t get that much, but he was telling me how great I looked, how we were so in sync, and how he could picture our future together.
We quickly started spending ALL our time together and I didn’t really notice that I didn’t see my friends anymore. We moved in together a couple of months after we met. He had great taste and really liked telling me what to wear and then he told me that he liked “healthy”, skinny girls so I had to lose some weight and only eat when and what he said I could. But I thought he just wanted the best for me. I was such an idiot.
By the time I finally saw the red flags I’d been ignoring, he controlled my life and I’d even given him $75,000 that I’d inherited from my grandma. I’d been going to buy a place but he said he’d take care of it. I was massively underweight, walking on eggshells and too ashamed to reach out to any of my friends. I walked out with nothing. Knowing that I had a safe place to go and people to support me who understood how I felt really would make a difference to all women like me.