When my second marriage began to unravel after I thought God gave me the love of my life – I was afraid, confused, and utterly lost. After becoming physically ill and heartbroken with the stress of, what I later understood to be, emotional abuse I finally broke free after years of trying to help us and change him. It was time to save myself and save my girls from losing their capable and up until then peaceful mom.I often felt dismissed, was left alone a lot and started to feel taken for granted and that I didn’t have a real partner. Trying to share with him what I was concerned about or feeling, in an attempt to relate, was consistently taken as criticism.This would bring the shaming, blaming or gaslighting — a term I didn’t even understand at the time, but became very familiar with. I questioned was I the crazy one here, but my gut told me I was not. I was up against too much and I was desperate for answers.It was maddening and felt like I