Military Marriage Abuse: Elizabeth's Story [336]

Flying Free

Natalie Hoffman

Emotional, Narcissism, Christianity, Abuse, Religion & Spirituality, Spiritual, Christian, Self-improvement, Education, Divorce, Marriage

5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ever wondered what it’s like to be married to someone who swears allegiance to both their country and their ego? Meet Elizabeth, a brave survivor of emotional, spiritual, and psychological abuse within a military marriage. Spoiler alert: It’s not all flag-waving and family barbecues.

Key Takeaways:

Abuse in Uniform: Elizabeth shares how military culture and constant relocation masked the escalating abuse in her marriage.
Gaslight Central: Her husband weaponized patriotism, shifting blame and memory-wiping every argument like a bad magician.
Mother of All Burnouts: From managing everything—including his moods—to finally realizing she wasn’t the crazy one, Elizabeth walks us through her awakening.
Mini Steps, Mega Impact: Discover how moving into a different bedroom and refusing to play the smiling spouse at a promotion ceremony were small, powerful boundaries.
From Silence to Sisterhood: Elizabeth’s healing journey took off with Flying Free, and she’s now part of our “veteran” squad of badass women who got out, stayed out, and grew like weeds in springtime.

Read the full show notes and/or ask Natalie a question here

Related Resources:

Listen to some of our other recent survivor stories, including Lisa’s story and Erin’s story.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, this is Natalie Hoffman of Flying FreeNow.com and you're listening to the Flying Free
0:07.8	podcast, a support resource for women of faith looking for hope and healing from hidden
0:14.2	emotional and spiritual abuse. Welcome to episode 336 of the Flying Free Podcast.
0:24.3	Today I have with me, Elizabeth.
0:26.9	She is a survivor.
0:28.7	She's been in our programs for, I looked on the back and I don't know if you came on before
0:33.0	this, but I have certain records and I only looked on one of our platforms, but it looks like you joined
0:38.3	in 2020. So that's like four and a half years ago. Was it sooner than that? That's correct. It was
0:44.6	during the springtime opening in 2020. Okay. Wow. So that was COVID year. Did that have
0:51.4	anything to do with it by any chance? curious uh it started it and i think it
0:56.2	accelerated it okay yeah i i there that was a huge growth year for flying free and i think it was
1:03.9	because people were in their relationships and just going oh my gosh now they're with them you know
1:10.7	24 seven and going i don't think I can
1:13.5	sustain this. Yeah, a lot of mental health breakdowns happening during that year. Well,
1:19.1	we're going to dig into your story. So first of all, I want to thank you for being willing to
1:23.3	come on here and share your story. You know, sometimes it's a very vulnerable place to be. Do you feel like
1:28.3	you're ready to share your story? I do. Thank you for having me. It feels, it feels like sharing my
1:34.9	story. I'm on the other side. Yes, you are on the other side. You are. I mean, there's always,
1:40.6	you know, we're always growing, right? and then we cycle back and we look through things and
1:44.6	we have to relearn things i feel like that's at least that's what's happening with me all the time
1:48.3	i mean i just went through my second divorce so so there's definitely a little looping going going on here
1:54.6	but we're going to talk about your story today why don't we start with um you sharing how and when you first noticed that there was something
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Natalie Hoffman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Natalie Hoffman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.