CHARISSE'S STORY
From Silence to Survival
| "I felt like I was looking at a cage nobody else could see."
When people hear the words domestic violence, they picture something loud. Something visible. What they don't picture is the silence.
Charisse's abuse left no bruises. What it left was something harder to explain and harder to recover from. Years of emotional abuse had slowly dismantled her sense of self, her confidence, her voice. Every decision made out of fear. Every move calculated to avoid conflict.
There were nights I laid awake in tears wondering what was wrong with me, where I truly believed that I wasn't good enough to deserve love or affection.
She describes choosing not to have her son stay with her on her days, not because she didn't want him there, but because she was so afraid of making a bad day worse. Little by little, her world got smaller. Her voice got quieter.
The hardest part, she says, was that from the outside nothing looked wrong. When she tried to explain it to people they questioned it or dismissed it entirely. Which made her question it too. Maybe she was too emotional. Maybe she was asking too much. Maybe all relationships were like that.
I felt so lonely, so unworthy of love, so broken inside, that I believed the world was better off without me. With the very last bit of hope I had, I walked into the DVC and explained what was happening.
One step at a time, Charisse decided to change her life.
She wasn't even sure what was happening to her qualified. She just knew what she felt. And what she felt was not good.
The Domestic Violence Center of Grays Harbor was there. They helped her find her voice again. They helped her learn to trust her own thoughts and instincts. They helped her remember who she was before someone else decided to distort her reality.
WHAT CHANGED FOR CHARISSE
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She found her voice again and learned to trust her own thoughts and instincts
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She became a more confident and capable mother to her two boys
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She is currently in the Rent Well program, learning to manage money, pay bills, and make her own decisions.
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She stood in front of a room full of strangers and told her story, because she wanted people to understand what this program means
179
First-time survivors who found help for the first time.
234
People served by DVC last year in Grays Harbor County
They gave me a safe place to breathe, to reconnect with myself and to feel good enough again. They gave me my life back.
Charisse is a mother of two boys, one and a half and seven. She showed up and told her story not because it was easy, but because she wanted people to know what this place means, not just for the families you can see struggling, but for the ones whose pain has no visible bruises.
If you or someone you know needs help:
Washington State DV Information & Referral: domesticviolenceinforeferral.org
National Domestic Violence Hotline (24/7): 800-799-7233