Sarah Wilson

I would say, though, more than anything, those early signs are more visible to people on the outside than they are often to a person inside of a relationship.

Yeah, it's interesting.

So there's actually been some research that has shown that domestic violence actually increases when a woman is pregnant.

It's wild to me to think about that.

But if you think about it, if...

If the relational dynamics are often about control, as someone who's experienced pregnancy, you have very little control of what's happening in your body.

And I'm sure within the dynamics of the relationship, that is present as well.

Yeah, I think kind of thinking about that question of are women going back or is something drawing them back?

You know, Andrew just spoke about how her identity and worth as a woman was so beat down that she didn't think she was worthy of anything better than that, right?

And so thinking about really the isolation and also –

Angie hasn't really spoken to it, but the financial abuse is huge.

One way of isolating is essentially controlling finances, right?

So if you don't have a pathway, if you don't have money, then if your option is...

living in a car or being back in a house that's unsafe, maybe the house doesn't sound so bad at this point.

I can think of, we had a resident many years ago who was, her stepfather was her abuser.

And she actually viewed the abuse as just heartbreaking as he's not charging me any rent.

And so these are the stories that women tell themselves, the stories that we tell ourselves that we think that we're not worthy of anything more than this.

And so the, what is that phrase?

Like the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.

Like the known chaos, being in that environment actually feels sometimes more safe than stepping out into something that's completely unknown.