Welcome back to the peripheral. And sometimes we ask, why don't they leave? We can all sit back

in our comfortable lives and question other people's decisions, especially when it comes to

relationships. We think we know what we do if we were put in that situation, or if we've walked in someone else's shoes.

But I don't think we do.

It's easy to say everyone is accountable for their own actions,

but what if those actions have been molded and manipulated by someone

who has broken you down, stripped away your identity,

and made you believe that you deserve

all of the terrible things that they've said or did. My guest today paints a very clear

picture of a cycle of abuse that she's endured and how it affected her judgment of others,

and more importantly herself.

Well, my name is Caitlin and I met my best friend, my junior year high school.

He turned out to not be my best friend. And I just want to share my story about how I got away, like things that happened and how I got away from him.

And I really want to talk about the situations with the law enforcement that the good and the

bad and the ugly as far as all that goes.

So how did you meet him?

A friend of mine actually was, it was set up as a blind date.

She, we were in high school.

She wanted us to meet and wanted us to go on a blind date.

And she didn't think we were going to hit it off, but we did.

And we, we seemed inseparable.

Like, my family loved him.

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