That is one reason why it's so disheartening that there is such a small chance they will escape their situation even once they have left their abuser. Or, to use the correct terminology, their dickwad less-than-human waste of space that should be thrown in a hole and left there. That was always hard to fit on the forms.
When you are devoting your time to helping people get out of abusive relationships, it is maddening to know that 85 percent of women who leave their abusers will return, some of them as many as seven or eight times. You'll see women using the shelter like it has a revolving front door. And there is nothing you can do to stop it, since chaining them up is probably a step further than even their asshole husband or boyfriend went.
At least until that inexplicably popular intimate partner abuse how-to guide gave him ideas.
Reconciling is part of a pattern in abusive relationships: The abuser will finally do something so terrible that the woman leaves. Then, once she is safe, she stops being angry and starts feeling like she overreacted or worries that her abuser can't live without her. If she does contact him, he will enter what is called the Honeymoon Phase of an abusive relationship, where he'll shower her with gifts and promise everything's different now, which, as far as biggest lies ever, is right up there with "I am not a crook" and "Read my lips: No new taxes." Then that phase ends, the hitting starts again, and the woman is back in your shelter.
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