Welcome to Betrayal Trauma Recovery. This is Anne. I went to an event the other night and I saw an old friend and she and I went to college together and at that event I learned that she had been through the same thing that all of us have who listened to this podcast. So I'm going to call her Diane. I have not heard her story yet.

So to all of our listeners, you will be hearing it just as I am hearing it after not seeing her or having contact with her for what has it been? 20 years? Yeah, 20 years exactly.

Okay, so welcome Diane.

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here with you.

When we knew each other in college, you had a one-year-old daughter?

Yes, we'll see 23 now, so she would have been,

yeah, I guess, two and a half and we were, yeah.

And we graduated together in education

and we were going to become teachers and we both did become

teachers. So let's pick up there because that's the last time I talked to you. So

tell me about your relationship and what you were going through after you

graduate from college. Did you know at that time that you were in an abusive relationship?

So my story is kind of funny because I was with the same man

for 23 years.

Right after I graduated from college,

I had another child, and then we actually got divorced.

And at that time, I did not know of his addiction or what was happening with him.

And then we actually got remarried. I remarried him because he came back to me and then we were together for another 17 years and in the last two years, I found out everything.

So for that entire 17 year period,

he was the sex addict and he had multiple things going on.

But it didn't come to a head

until about a year and a half ago.

...