A new start

A friend has left her partner, after twenty years.

'A hard decision?' No, she replied. 'Any doubts?' None at all she said.

She looks rejuvenated, literally like a weight has dropped from her shoulders, and is happy again regaining control over her own life. A transformation almost.

Abuse can take many different forms, be it subtle or aggressive, but it always has an extremely negative outcome for the victim. The evidence of a lowered self-esteem was there to see if you looked. Comfort eating,mood swings, excessive alcohol consumption, prescribed substance abuse and later, diagnosed depression all pointed to something very wrong. Yet no-one asked the hard question 'Why'?

As friends should we barge in, or should we be quietly supportive and wait until they are ready to take action? Could we really change events or is it up to the person to make those choices when they are strong enough to take charge themselves?

We seem, these days(even with our friends) to keep people at arms length. Have we, as a society, always been like this or is this a recent change? If the situation had worsened for my friend would anyone have intervened?

I like to think that someone would have.