Kellie Jo Holly believes leaving her abusive relationship was the best thing she ever did for herself and her children. This episode of HealthyPlace Radio delves into the abuse she experienced during her 18 year marriage, some of the reasons she stayed, and the incentive behind her escape.

There is a mental illness support group for almost every psychiatric disorder or abuse. As a person on the receiving end of verbal abuse for years, attending a support group propelled me forward exponentially and I encourage people to locate a support group and attend it. But sometimes, people are intimidated and do not attend. They desperately want the emotional support, but perhaps stepping outside of their comfort zone is too much when added on top of everything else they're experiencing.

J.D. Smith was in a mentally and physically abusive relationship for seven years. Today she’s a musician and she advocates for battered women. She says her main goals as an advocate are “… to help women get free from abuse and to help them get their self-esteem back.”

Each year, approximately a quarter million people in the United States experience sexual assault and rape (What Is Sexual Assault?). An issue of such great importance is still often misunderstood and the road to recovery can sometimes be long. Our guest, Dr. Kathleen Young, helps us to better understand the process of recovery and why it sometimes takes a long time to recover from sexual assault.

Nothing is impossible to overcome. That is the message that Nikki Rosen wants to share with you. Nikki grew up in an abusive home and suffered years of child abuse. It led her to drug use and engaging in self-injurious behavior at the early age of 12 years old. She spent years on the streets with a drug addiction and an eating disorder, even enduring rape, all of which fed into her belief that she was worthless. But, eventually, she found herself on the path to health and recovery.

"My life was quite unbearable ... I tried ending my life several times at 8 years old," says Paula of surviving child abuse at the hands of her mother, who had Dissociative Identity Disorder. Perplexed by her mother's erratic swings from extreme violence to utter confusion to gentle kindness, Paula didn't understand her mom until she saw the movie Sybil.

As we heard from our guest Kellie Holly last week, verbal and emotional abuse is insidious and destructive. Once you recognize you're in an abusive relationship, what do you do about it? Shelly and Dr. Michael Marshall say putting a stop to verbal and emotional abuse is up to you.

It took Kellie Holly almost fifteen years to realize she was in a verbally abusive marriage, and another three to get out of it. Living with verbal and emotional abuse conditioned her to doubt her instincts, and convinced her that she was the cause of her relationship problems.