“Let me introduce you to the victim advocate,” offered the policeman who had arrested my husband the day before.
I stopped short. That was the first time that word – victim – had ever been applied to me. I certainly felt victimized. My partner of sixteen years had just abandoned me with a text message, stolen all of my money and then committed bigamy. Yet even though I was still in the acute phase of suffering, I startled at the application of the word “victim.”
Because even though I had been hurt, I did not want to see myself as a victim. Although it felt good for the pain and unfairness to be recognized, the term also made me feel minimized. Read the rest of the post here and learn how NOT to be a victim.
Lessons From the End of a Marriage 