March 25, 2025

61-Domestic Violence AUTHOR and WARRIOR: Emma Jean Rowin; Part 3

61-Domestic Violence AUTHOR and WARRIOR: Emma Jean Rowin; Part 3

What happens after you leave an abuse relationship? The movies would have you believe it's all sunshine and roses once you escape, but the reality is far more complicated. Author Emma Jean Rowin returns to share the final chapter of her journey, reading from her powerful memoir "When Things Collapse" and exploring the complex aftermath of domestic abuse.

Emma Jean opens with a reading about "The Work of Letting Peace In," describing how survivors often develop hypervigilance as a protection mechanism. This overwhelming need to control one's environment—especially for parents trying to shield their children from further harm—becomes its own struggle that requires intentional healing.

One of the most profound revelations in our conversation is how both of us believed we were "too smart" or "too strong" to be abuse victims. This common belief actually makes us more vulnerable, as it prevents us from recognizing abuse for what it is and seeking help. We discuss how abuse creates neural pathways that trigger unexpected reactions in future relationships, requiring conscious reprogramming through therapy and self-awareness.

"If a person's good side is very good and their bad side is very bad, you have to let go of both," Emma Jean shares, highlighting one of the most difficult aspects of leaving—the uncertainty about whether those good moments were real, and learning that ultimately, it doesn't matter. The intensity that many survivors become accustomed to in relationships is not healthy, though it can take time to understand that peaceful relationships are actually the goal.

While the journey after abuse isn't fair and requires tremendous work, the peace and freedom are worth it. There's a special appreciation for autonomy that survivors develop—the ability to make decisions without fear, to experience calm without walking on eggshells, to simply be. If you're on this journey, remember that all your feelings are valid, healing isn't linear, and you are never, ever alone.

Emma Jean’s 1in3 bio: https://www.1in3podcast.com/guests/emma-jean-rowin/

Link to “When Things Collapse”: https://a.co/d/8wTUZ1W

1 in 3 is intended for mature audiences. Episodes contain explicit content and may be triggering to some.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need help right now, call the national domestic violence hotline at 800-799-7233 or text the word “start” to 88788.

Contact 1 in 3:

Thank you for listening and please remember to rate, review & subscribe!

Cover art by Laura Swift Dahlke
Music by Tim Crowe

Chapters

00:46 - Introduction to Post-Abuse Recovery

01:36 - Reading: The Work of Letting Peace In

06:26 - Understanding Abuser Behavior

10:17 - Letting Go of Both the Good and Bad

14:53 - Breaking Free From Relationship Intensity

24:43 - The Journey of Healing and Therapy

35:31 - Finding Peace and Celebrating Progress

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.145
Hi Warriors, welcome to One in Three.

00:00:02.145 --> 00:00:03.467
I'm your host, ingrid.

00:00:03.467 --> 00:00:12.382
In the last two episodes, we followed Emma Jean Rowan's journey through an abusive relationship from its onset to the depths of the turmoil.

00:00:12.382 --> 00:00:28.928
Today, after sharing one more excerpt from her book when Things Collapse, we dive into a conversation about the thoughts and beliefs we each had held regarding our personal experiences with our abusers, both during and after the relationship.

00:00:28.928 --> 00:00:30.411
Here's Emma Jean.

00:00:30.411 --> 00:00:35.963
Hi, emma Jean.

00:00:35.963 --> 00:00:39.871
This is episode number three and this is a very important episode.

00:00:39.871 --> 00:00:44.990
The other two were important as well, but this one we're going to talk about what happens once you are out of the relationship.

00:00:46.051 --> 00:00:50.220
Okay, yeah, I'm excited to talk about this.

00:00:50.220 --> 00:01:10.608
So I'm going to start with one of the later, one of the last chapters in my book, where I'm discussing after I've left, the final time and how, that kind of how that manifests itself and how that manifests itself, because what I want people to know is that you don't just get out and suddenly it's not like a movie where it's all rainbows and sunshine.

00:01:10.608 --> 00:01:14.528
There's work to do afterwards, and for me, I had quite a bit of work to do.

00:01:14.528 --> 00:01:19.350
So this chapter is called the Work of Letting Peace In, and I'm going to read an excerpt.

00:01:20.650 --> 00:01:33.236
The obvious gift of severing our lives from Alec is that, for the first time in a decade, I gained the ability to control my own peace and the peace of my children, and peace is a cherished gift for those who have been deprived of it.

00:01:33.236 --> 00:01:38.977
The unexpected caveat of controlling my own peace is that I can't stop myself from doing just that.

00:01:38.977 --> 00:01:41.638
And overnight, a meddling monster is born.

00:01:41.638 --> 00:01:50.521
This meddling monster thrives on the belief that Ava and Cal have already been through too much for one lifetime, have paid their allotted dues to tragedy, so to speak.

00:01:50.521 --> 00:01:56.382
So, with clear purpose, I set out to shield them from any potential new strife for the length of their days.

00:01:56.382 --> 00:01:58.750
This manifests in a number of ways.

00:01:58.750 --> 00:02:06.828
I interview my children for pain daily, checking in constantly to see how they've been treated at school by classmates, friends and teachers.

00:02:06.828 --> 00:02:23.347
This information helps me predict which outside forces might pose the threat, the next threat to them, and once I identify those threats, I try to head them off at the pass, making phone calls to schools and parents like some sort of overprotective parental goalie keeping my children's pain score at zero.

00:02:23.347 --> 00:02:29.891
Dare to come near my children with anything other than love and light and I'll knock your block off promptly with my mom cleats.

00:02:30.941 --> 00:02:34.969
My counselor, judy, calls this compulsion to control hypervigilance.

00:02:34.969 --> 00:02:41.051
She explains that, ironically, this type of controlling parenting has the potential to hurt my children over time.

00:02:41.051 --> 00:02:48.145
This perks my ears and propels me to do the work, but the tentacles of the hypervigilance monster are deeply anchored within me.

00:02:48.145 --> 00:02:55.269
It takes years of regular counseling for me to grasp the less is more concept of applying my input to my children.

00:02:55.269 --> 00:02:58.623
Putting it into practice, though, is another beast entirely.

00:02:58.623 --> 00:03:06.443
Judy explains that my checking behaviors are like a shot in the arm to a drug addict that quell my cravings to control my own fate.

00:03:06.443 --> 00:03:12.669
The withdrawal I feel in letting my children live their own lives and make their own decisions is physically painful at time.

00:03:12.669 --> 00:03:16.382
But I keep trying and failing, hoping it will become less difficult.

00:03:16.382 --> 00:03:25.372
Judy claims that practicing mental habit changes over time, reprograms my neural pathways and eventually it will become easier until it feels automatic.

00:03:25.372 --> 00:03:27.766
I buy into this concept hard.

00:03:27.766 --> 00:03:34.448
The work of unraveling oneself is not easy, but I refuse to get this wrong for my children after all we have overcome.

00:03:35.469 --> 00:03:40.448
In the midst of this work, I also toil with guilt over leaving Alec behind in his chaos.

00:03:40.448 --> 00:03:44.568
Where does Alec's mental illness end and his humanity begin?

00:03:44.568 --> 00:03:48.103
Is his anger really just anger, or is it also hurt?

00:03:48.103 --> 00:03:50.688
Could he have gotten better if I hadn't left him?

00:03:50.688 --> 00:03:53.420
If so, am I to blame for his demise?

00:03:53.420 --> 00:03:58.793
Often, when my happiness glows brightest, the shadow of guilt it casts is the largest.

00:03:58.793 --> 00:04:01.865
Judy explains this as survivor's guilt.

00:04:01.865 --> 00:04:05.072
You took the lifeboat and left, she tells me.

00:04:05.072 --> 00:04:07.444
Where would you and your kids be if you hadn't?

00:04:07.444 --> 00:04:16.812
There is an obligation that pulls at us as women, programmed into us through our motherly instincts to nurture, to console, to rescue what needs our healing.

00:04:16.812 --> 00:04:22.100
For me, an empathic heart gives me a window to the inner child of some of the most hurt humans.

00:04:22.100 --> 00:04:27.245
I see it all around me, the disappointed youngster inside every adult's outer struggle.

00:04:27.245 --> 00:04:36.240
It's the same window through which I saw my father and the hurt child inside of him, teaching me to pity males and forgive them endlessly for their angry behavior.

00:04:37.142 --> 00:04:40.932
The origin of an individual's mental illness isn't a black and white matter.

00:04:40.932 --> 00:04:45.509
Was it drug use that led to the onset for Alec Conspiracy theories?

00:04:45.509 --> 00:04:49.788
Or was it his family history that led him to the drug use and the conspiracy theories?

00:04:49.788 --> 00:04:56.052
We can never say for certain which combination or succession of these factors caused his devolvement into darkness.

00:04:56.052 --> 00:05:02.742
A chicken and egg scenario that cycles unsolved and clouds the barriers between what should and shouldn't be forgiven.

00:05:02.742 --> 00:05:09.613
Alec's childhood trauma isn't his fault, nor is his genetic predisposition toward mental illness.

00:05:09.613 --> 00:05:19.252
But today I would tell my younger self that just because you can see the origin of a person's brokenness doesn't mean you're bound to endure the suffering it creates without end.

00:05:19.252 --> 00:05:25.100
We each have a choice in what we take on through compassion, and its extension cannot be without limits.

00:05:25.100 --> 00:05:38.310
After all, we each have our own inner child to comfort, our own peace to protect and our own lives to experience, and regardless of the cause of a person's affliction, we cannot rescue someone who won't help themselves.

00:05:39.821 --> 00:05:41.504
That was another page that I had marked.

00:05:41.504 --> 00:05:47.803
You read the two pages that I had marked so that I was like, oh, that's really important.

00:05:47.803 --> 00:06:04.495
That was one thing that I struggled with for a while was trying to figure out what caused the abuse in my abuser's head, you know, and was he conscious about it?

00:06:04.495 --> 00:06:05.446
Was it something that he wasn't conscious about it?

00:06:05.446 --> 00:06:05.519
Was you know, and was he conscious about it?

00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:06.434
Was it something that he wasn't conscious about it?

00:06:06.434 --> 00:06:06.733
Was he?

00:06:06.733 --> 00:06:08.396
You know so many things.

00:06:08.456 --> 00:06:31.125
And then I finally was able to get to the point, with a lot of therapy, of why are you going to bother yourself with figuring him out when you have to figure yourself out and you know, identify Like not that it was my fault that I ended up in a relationship like that, but do I have any characteristics that made me more susceptible to fall prey to that?

00:06:31.872 --> 00:06:46.843
And you know, we've mentioned it in the previous episodes is the self-love, and I don't think I loved or respected myself enough and perhaps if I did, I wouldn't have carried on with that relationship for as long as I did.

00:06:46.843 --> 00:06:48.891
I wouldn't have carried on with that relationship for as long as I did.

00:06:48.891 --> 00:06:55.235
The other thing that I've read is that abusers abuse because they're abusers.

00:06:55.235 --> 00:07:15.291
It might be mental illness, it might be their childhood, it might be a combination of both, it might be substance abuse, but there are plenty of people that have had bad childhoods, there are plenty of people that have been through each of these or all of those items and they choose not to abuse.

00:07:15.291 --> 00:07:19.675
So abusers abuse because they are abusers or they're abusive.

00:07:20.336 --> 00:07:21.838
And also some abusers.

00:07:21.838 --> 00:07:27.103
Many abusers are able to control themselves in all other public aspects of their lives.

00:07:27.244 --> 00:07:38.939
So there is a choice there, right there is yes, and that's something that I read really recently I think, on Instagram, where I get a lot of, but that was really important for me to see that.

00:07:38.939 --> 00:07:39.841
Oh, that's right.

00:07:39.841 --> 00:07:51.072
You know, he could be really nice when my family came over, but not when it was just us alone, and I think that's that's, you know.

00:07:51.072 --> 00:07:55.302
And the other thing is, you know when I would sit and ruminate and oh, you know what did it mean?

00:07:55.302 --> 00:07:58.175
You know, were his good times good?

00:07:58.175 --> 00:07:59.660
Were those real?

00:07:59.660 --> 00:08:01.505
Did he really love me?

00:08:01.505 --> 00:08:09.485
And I can't tell you how many times I would lie awake at night thinking about those things, both when I was with him and then after, and I mean even just years ago.

00:08:09.485 --> 00:08:12.372
You know, you wake up in the night sometimes and think I can't believe.

00:08:12.392 --> 00:08:19.074
I can't believe this happened you know, and the answer I've settled on is much what you've just said.

00:08:19.074 --> 00:08:21.841
Through therapy you learn it doesn't matter.

00:08:21.841 --> 00:08:39.240
It doesn't matter what the meaning is of those good times, because something I tell my kids all the time, since before they were dating, is if a person's good side is very good and their bad side is very bad, you have to let go of both.

00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:45.817
It doesn't matter what is the truth of that good side, it becomes irrelevant.

00:08:45.817 --> 00:08:50.475
Just like we were saying about a nuclear family You're no longer allowed to be in a nuclear family.

00:08:50.475 --> 00:08:57.278
If you're an abuser and if you have a terrible side to you, then I no longer have to sit and factor that in.

00:08:57.278 --> 00:09:05.471
I shouldn't, because if I'm doing that and I'm ruminating on that, I'm opening myself up to ask myself should I have compassion for you?

00:09:05.471 --> 00:09:12.442
And the moment something is unsafe, you don't receive any more compassion from me, because that makes me unsafe.

00:09:13.671 --> 00:09:24.799
That is such good advice because the bad behavior they can be, and there usually is a huge sway from one side to the other when they're good, they're really good.

00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:27.777
You feel like you are on top of the world and you're the most important person.

00:09:27.777 --> 00:09:28.496
In the other, when they're good, they're really good.

00:09:28.496 --> 00:09:30.845
You feel like you are on top of the world and you're the most important person in the world.

00:09:30.845 --> 00:09:37.385
But then when it's bad, it can be really bad and no, you don't get to pick one and that's what they're going to stay with.

00:09:37.385 --> 00:09:40.496
It's the same person you have to drop all of it.

00:09:40.798 --> 00:09:51.484
Yeah, you're right, because an intense person tends to be intense on both sides of that spectrum and again, I think I was attracted to that because I didn't see that with my parents.

00:09:51.484 --> 00:10:03.581
What I have learned is that it would be better to have a five on the negative side and a five on the positive side than two tens, because you're you're living.

00:10:03.581 --> 00:10:05.533
You can't live with a 10 on the negative side.

00:10:05.533 --> 00:10:06.602
You can't live with that 10 on the negative side.

00:10:06.602 --> 00:10:09.837
You can't live with that kind of intensity towards the negative.

00:10:09.837 --> 00:10:20.143
And so maybe, maybe if you have to seek out relationships, that it took me time to understand that that tumultuous feeling wasn't normal.

00:10:20.302 --> 00:10:54.721
I was used to that and I also used to think, especially in my relationship now, when Scott and I first started to date, I would push his buttons when things got too calm, because once the honeymoon period was over, I think deep down I had a fear that if we didn't have intensity, he would be bored of me, because I had always been with sort of these really cocky, confident guys who loved the excitement in a relationship and loved the intensity, whether it was good or bad.

00:10:54.721 --> 00:11:05.863
It's very freeing to learn, to accept, to be with someone who can just allow you to be peaceful and calm and love you in that calmness.

00:11:05.863 --> 00:11:07.812
That's what we should be reaching for right.

00:11:07.812 --> 00:11:09.254
Yeah, because that's healthy.

00:11:09.855 --> 00:11:10.378
That's healthy.

00:11:11.058 --> 00:11:12.381
I did not know that before.

00:11:13.289 --> 00:11:32.969
Yeah, those waves are a way to keep you unbalanced and then for them to be able to maintain control over you, because you're so unsure of which direction you're going to go, because at some point there's a little bit of a predictability to their mood swings, and then at some point there's no predictability.

00:11:32.969 --> 00:11:44.600
Something that would not have bothered them before is now creating this massive explosion, and I remember saying at one point to my abuser I'm like, can you just be an asshole all the time?

00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:46.354
That way I know what to expect.

00:11:52.070 --> 00:11:56.948
Yes, yes, and you get into the habit of walking on eggshells and at some point it stops working because you can't predict, like you're saying, it's something out of left field.

00:11:56.948 --> 00:12:04.360
I would have never thought that that would set you off, but it did, and all these other things that I'm tiptoeing around and that's what.

00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:07.163
I don't know what that is.

00:12:07.163 --> 00:12:07.663
I guess it's.

00:12:07.663 --> 00:12:09.913
Is it a need to release an explosion?

00:12:09.913 --> 00:12:11.115
Is it asserting control?

00:12:11.115 --> 00:12:12.038
I don't really know.

00:12:12.038 --> 00:12:13.241
I don't know why it's that way.

00:12:14.389 --> 00:12:32.811
I feel like it has to be, and I don't know if it's again, I don't know if it's a conscious need or a conscious thing to do to maintain control, but I do feel it is to maintain control because, you know, if you just rip the rug out from somebody, you're going to be like, okay, that never was an issue before and now it is.

00:12:32.811 --> 00:12:50.139
So now I have to be even more on edge and more prepared for anything, and it just it confuses you too, because, at you know, some of them will twist it of like, no, you're exaggerating, that actually didn't really happen, or they'll forget what are you talking about?

00:12:50.139 --> 00:12:51.956
I don't remember that happening.

00:12:51.956 --> 00:12:54.956
Yes, yes, it makes you feel like you're crazy.

00:12:54.956 --> 00:13:03.284
And then you're just even more stuck in that relationship, because now can I even turn to somebody to talk to them about this?

00:13:03.284 --> 00:13:07.317
Are they going to think I'm crazy or are they going to take his side?

00:13:08.210 --> 00:13:35.354
Yes, I know when you wrote about talking to your mom and how you were reluctant to tell your family and I think that's something that a lot of victims feel too is because if you get certain friends involved or your family involved and you start telling them like, oh, he did this, you don't want them to cast this judgment, because how are you supposed to take him back?

00:13:35.354 --> 00:13:37.500
They're going to be like you need to get rid of that guy.

00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:38.991
Yeah, how are we going to sit?

00:13:39.033 --> 00:13:40.777
at a barbecue together next week.

00:13:40.777 --> 00:13:45.015
If I've told you that he calls me a bitch you don't want to cross.

00:13:45.015 --> 00:13:46.219
It's really it's.

00:13:46.219 --> 00:13:47.971
You don't want to cross that threshold.

00:13:47.971 --> 00:13:52.822
And I waited way, way too long to cross that threshold.

00:13:52.903 --> 00:14:15.000
And once I did, um, I remember seeing the look on my family's faces and my girlfriend's faces when I was just telling them I was giving them just a little bit of a watered down detail, thinking I'll just see what they think of this, and telling them something, and then looking at me and saying that's not okay and thinking, oh no, that's not the worst of it.

00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:16.020
You know that's not.

00:14:16.020 --> 00:14:20.104
But and that's some advice that I would give to people now is don't hide.

00:14:20.104 --> 00:14:29.173
I mean, I'm not saying, you know, constantly be complaining about your spouse or your partner, be complaining about your spouse or your partner.

00:14:29.173 --> 00:14:52.642
Certainly I uphold my partner and I, um, and you know I respect Scott and I don't go around telling people every argument or disagreement we have, but I don't, I would never again hide the bad behavior from my closest people, from my mother, from, uh, my best friend, because it put me in a position where I wasn't reading things from an outside perspective and I needed that outside perspective to see the truth of what I was in.

00:14:53.690 --> 00:14:55.134
Yeah, and I mean you're.

00:14:55.134 --> 00:15:03.125
Also, if you are reluctant to tell somebody what's happening to you, there's that it's already a voice inside of you saying you know, this is really not okay.

00:15:04.091 --> 00:15:10.221
Because, if it's, if it's something like oh my gosh, we had an argument about what we were going to watch over Netflix and he chose this.

00:15:10.221 --> 00:15:15.018
Of course you can tell your friends that and they're going to be like, well, I would have chosen that too, or whatever.

00:15:15.018 --> 00:15:16.562
It's not that big of a deal.

00:15:16.562 --> 00:15:21.140
But if there's something that you're reluctant to tell somebody, that's your gut.

00:15:21.140 --> 00:15:24.056
Telling you this is really not okay, and you know that.

00:15:24.596 --> 00:15:25.980
Yeah, you're right, you're right.

00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:30.557
And ultimately I think that deep down we do know in our gut that it isn't okay.

00:15:30.557 --> 00:15:31.802
Because you're right, why wouldn't we?

00:15:31.802 --> 00:15:33.952
Why wouldn't we say it out loud?

00:15:33.952 --> 00:15:42.034
Then it's just, it's hard and you really you don't want to immerse yourself in sort of that isolation.

00:15:42.095 --> 00:15:45.942
And I was also a stay at home mom, so I wasn't going to an office anymore.

00:15:45.942 --> 00:15:48.451
I wasn't bouncing it off of my coat.

00:15:48.451 --> 00:15:51.581
You know it's a normal thing for a coworker to come in in a bad mood.

00:15:51.581 --> 00:16:15.126
I think and say, ah, you know, he drove me crazy today and I'm mad at him, and if it's the kind of fight that's, that's not a big deal, then everybody can laugh at that, right, right, I wasn't bouncing anything off of anybody and so I was living in my head and so by the time I got out, I didn't know how to properly tell the story to myself, to then understand I should have left.

00:16:15.126 --> 00:16:18.235
I knew when it came to my children, I knew that story.

00:16:18.235 --> 00:16:22.332
I knew they shouldn't be exposed to this, but it took me a long time to understand to myself.

00:16:22.332 --> 00:16:24.297
You deserve pity for what happened to you.

00:16:24.297 --> 00:16:30.254
Maybe not even until I read, wrote this book Did I understand that I was.

00:16:30.254 --> 00:16:34.241
I was a victim of abuse, which is crazy.

00:16:35.083 --> 00:16:35.544
It's crazy.

00:16:35.544 --> 00:16:55.399
It is and it isn't because I think that you, that tumultuous life that they have, you living, the gaslighting, everything you don't, you don't understand, understand or you're so confused that it's difficult to actually put these into a definition and to be able to label it.

00:16:55.399 --> 00:17:15.210
For me, I knew in the back of my mind what was going on and I didn't want to admit it out loud because I was like, if I say what's happening to me, then I'm a victim of abuse and I'm too smart to be a victim of abuse.

00:17:15.210 --> 00:17:17.218
That's not what's happening.

00:17:17.218 --> 00:17:28.325
And so it took a really long time before I could actually finally come to terms with what was happening and actually put that label.

00:17:28.325 --> 00:17:43.051
And I think that's a massive step is for a victim to admit they're a victim, and that's when you make that transition of victim to survivor, because once you're like, okay, I'm a victim, I don't want to be a victim anymore.

00:17:43.712 --> 00:17:44.575
I need to get out of this.

00:17:44.575 --> 00:17:48.744
Yeah, there's almost an imposter syndrome about it.

00:17:48.845 --> 00:17:49.065
Yes.

00:17:49.730 --> 00:17:54.823
And I had said that to my best friend after I wrote the book.

00:17:54.823 --> 00:18:04.804
And then in talking about you know, am I going to talk to this advocate, about you know helping get this book into the right hands?

00:18:04.804 --> 00:18:10.740
And I said it's weird, like, can I call myself a domestic violence victim?

00:18:10.740 --> 00:18:18.336
And she said leave it to a woman to ask herself have I been through enough trauma to qualify?

00:18:18.336 --> 00:18:25.376
And she said anyone who reads that book would say of course, and most people would say this is much worse than I even knew.

00:18:25.376 --> 00:18:28.563
But there's something about us and I think it's kind of what you've hit on.

00:18:28.563 --> 00:18:30.317
I thought I was too smart for that.

00:18:30.317 --> 00:18:35.040
That same quality of thinking I was too smart for that allowed me to absorb it.

00:18:35.040 --> 00:18:35.903
I'm too strong.

00:18:35.903 --> 00:18:36.954
This isn't going to hurt me.

00:18:36.954 --> 00:18:44.084
So maybe if I saw another girl's husband treat her that way, she would be an abusive victim.

00:18:44.084 --> 00:18:46.519
But if it happens to me, I'm strong.

00:18:47.609 --> 00:18:51.078
So it's not the same, doesn't hit me the same, you know, yeah, and I mean I would.

00:18:51.078 --> 00:18:56.801
I would turn things on myself like, okay, I can get mouthy sometimes, so may I probably said something that set him off.

00:18:56.801 --> 00:19:07.905
You know, yeah, you know I'm a strong, independent woman and sometimes it's hard for somebody to take, you know, and yeah, that's problematic right, because I felt the same.

00:19:08.029 --> 00:19:09.432
I'm an assertive person.

00:19:09.432 --> 00:19:22.635
I was raised by a woman who, you know, had feminist values in the home and I think during all the time that this was happening to me, I think I still was out in the world saying I'm a strong woman, you know, strong, independent woman.

00:19:22.635 --> 00:19:31.412
And all the while letting myself endure these things and not really feeling any pity for myself.

00:19:31.412 --> 00:19:38.815
Just, this is that's my life, I'll get through it and really just trying to practical, practical ways to just keep getting through it.

00:19:38.815 --> 00:19:40.699
And that's not.

00:19:40.699 --> 00:19:42.583
That's not the strong woman I was.

00:19:42.583 --> 00:19:44.634
I was trying to project.

00:19:45.236 --> 00:19:46.479
Right and I have.

00:19:46.479 --> 00:19:52.258
So one thing I wanted to go back that imposter syndrome I was actually talking to a friend about.

00:19:52.258 --> 00:20:07.175
He had come upon my podcast and it's somebody that's from my hometown and so we were messaging about stuff and I said sometimes I feel like I'm a fraud for having this podcast on domestic violence because I've had some bad stuff happen to me.

00:20:07.175 --> 00:20:14.104
But I've talked to some individuals that have had some really, really bad things happen to them.

00:20:14.104 --> 00:20:18.006
I was never drug out to the woods and had a shotgun put up to my head.

00:20:18.006 --> 00:20:19.270
That didn't happen to me.

00:20:19.270 --> 00:20:23.560
I'm like, so I feel like maybe I'm not the right person to be doing this.

00:20:23.560 --> 00:20:28.260
And he was like do you know what you've told me that you've been through?

00:20:28.260 --> 00:20:31.230
He's like that's abuse, yes, and it's.

00:20:31.490 --> 00:20:37.115
It's really weird how we can like downplay, uh, what's happened to ourselves.

00:20:37.115 --> 00:20:39.819
And I want to take a second.

00:20:39.819 --> 00:20:42.651
Like you, you, you were saying some conversations.

00:20:42.651 --> 00:20:48.585
You've read in some excerpts from your book of conversations that you had with your abuser, and those were actual conversations.

00:20:48.585 --> 00:20:51.852
You didn't elaborate or throw in extra.

00:20:51.852 --> 00:20:54.698
You know words for dramatization.

00:21:03.316 --> 00:21:09.486
I watered down because my ex-husband was so intelligent and so clever.

00:21:09.486 --> 00:21:19.348
The way he could spin insults was it was so destructive and it was so, so poignant and hurtful.

00:21:19.348 --> 00:21:21.855
I actually decided at some point I would.

00:21:21.855 --> 00:21:33.347
I would write out what was actually said to me and then I would come back and change some words because it was so awful that I thought it would be irresponsible to put it on the page.

00:21:33.347 --> 00:21:36.983
And what if somebody reads this and one day they go say it to someone else?

00:21:36.983 --> 00:21:38.528
Because I've never heard?

00:21:38.748 --> 00:21:45.628
anyone say some of the things I mean every part of my body has been insulted and it you know.

00:21:45.628 --> 00:21:48.611
Here's the thing If you've got someone intelligent, you don't have.

00:21:48.611 --> 00:21:53.694
It's not just some guy spewing obscenities I mean, there were obscenities, but he was.

00:21:53.694 --> 00:22:05.559
These are very nuanced turns of phrase and he was taking things that I maybe suspected were flaws about me and turning them into this heightened horrible imagery.

00:22:08.125 --> 00:22:23.209
And yeah, it's actually what you read in the book is watered down sadly Okay, and I mean I thought it was very believable, but I wanted to bring that up in case there's somebody that's never been exposed to domestic violence that reads it and is like oh no, this is exaggerated, there's no way somebody would talk like that to another individual.

00:22:23.670 --> 00:22:24.813
I wish wish.

00:22:24.813 --> 00:22:29.192
I wish it's exaggerated, it's, it's downplayed for sure.

00:22:30.656 --> 00:22:32.142
Um, another thing I wanted to bring up.

00:22:32.142 --> 00:22:41.259
As far as you know, feeling like a strong woman is when I got out of my relationship, I felt I, I've got this.

00:22:41.259 --> 00:22:45.532
I, you know, I can, I'm living on my own, I'm doing all of this.

00:22:45.532 --> 00:22:49.771
I'm so strong, and it's like I formed this little bubble again.

00:22:49.771 --> 00:22:57.998
You know, I had my little abusive bubble when I was in it and then after, immediately afterward, I had another bubble of where, this is it, I've got this.

00:22:57.998 --> 00:22:59.987
You know, the hard part's done.

00:23:00.248 --> 00:23:10.519
And I was cruising for quite a while, probably close to a year, and then all of a sudden I started noticing little cracks in myself where I was.

00:23:10.519 --> 00:23:17.951
You know, I'd have like a friend, a male friend, say something to me and I would just like lash out like what do you mean by that?

00:23:17.951 --> 00:23:20.192
And he's like whoa, what are you talking about?

00:23:20.192 --> 00:23:24.694
You know, and I realized I'm like, oh, I'm not okay.

00:23:24.694 --> 00:23:52.816
And I realized, oh, I'm not okay, I'm holding a lot of issues inside of me and I'm holding other people accountable for something that they weren't implying or meaning at all, because I had done brief therapy right after, and then I thought I was okay, and then so I was like I have to get back into therapy again to figure out what's going on, and it's so important to do that.

00:23:52.875 --> 00:23:57.192
That is that's the one piece of advice I would give to anyone who has left.

00:23:57.192 --> 00:24:04.909
You know, a hurtful relationship is that you've got some deprogramming that you've got to do and you're right things will cruise along just fine and then it will.

00:24:04.909 --> 00:24:06.413
It will pop up later.

00:24:06.413 --> 00:24:10.984
I still have some fight or flight patterns to my arguing.

00:24:10.984 --> 00:24:15.954
You know, I have a very calm husband now but he's disagreeing with me.

00:24:15.954 --> 00:24:22.046
I mean I might jump up, try and jump out of the car at Panera, at the drive-through, because of my fight or flight is so strong.

00:24:22.046 --> 00:24:23.509
Well, I'll just get out here and walk home.

00:24:23.509 --> 00:24:27.499
You know that's crazy and I have to work on toning that down.

00:24:27.538 --> 00:24:41.145
And also, when you have been fighting with someone who goes immediately to a 10, or you know, with with my ex-husband, I mean that's the meanest person I've ever met and I spent you know I spent 12 years arguing with that person.

00:24:41.145 --> 00:24:49.834
I go when, when someone disagrees with me or they hurt my feelings, or when I feel someone is crossing my boundaries, I go straight to a 10.

00:24:49.834 --> 00:24:52.493
And that's not necessary and it's not normal.

00:24:52.493 --> 00:24:59.332
And it can be very like you're saying, it's very off-putting to people, but it's something that it's not even just in my marriage.

00:24:59.332 --> 00:25:01.492
I will do it with friends, I will do it at work.

00:25:01.492 --> 00:25:01.964
I have to.

00:25:01.964 --> 00:25:12.099
You know, you have to pull yourself back and learn through therapy to take a breath and realize you're not in danger just because someone has hurt your feelings.

00:25:12.099 --> 00:25:12.566
You know.

00:25:13.548 --> 00:25:20.449
Yeah, because your brain makes pathways to try to, you know, save you or, you know, make life more tolerable.

00:25:20.449 --> 00:25:22.913
So you can bury all these.

00:25:22.913 --> 00:25:25.921
I don't hate the word triggers.

00:25:25.921 --> 00:25:32.616
I do think sometimes people overuse it, you know like, oh my God, I put whipped cream on my coffee and that triggered me.

00:25:32.616 --> 00:25:40.505
But you know, you have these triggers that are buried in there that you might not even be aware of.

00:25:40.505 --> 00:25:47.419
And then, all of a sudden, you're this like massive reaction to something that makes no sense to anybody.

00:25:48.105 --> 00:25:55.750
Yes, I will give you an example in my, because I was so controlled in my first marriage and it was a big deal if I were to.

00:25:55.750 --> 00:26:02.737
I was, you know, I wasn't allowed to go out and socialize and, you know, be with my friends in a lot of control in that aspect.

00:26:02.737 --> 00:26:17.435
So now where I am in a marriage, where that is normal, because that is normal anywhere, if I am going somewhere and my husband asks me, hey, do you have any idea what you'll, what time you'll be home, he would probably be asking circumstantially.

00:26:17.435 --> 00:26:19.428
You know, do I need to get dinner on my own?

00:26:19.428 --> 00:26:21.332
Should I go take our kids to dinner?

00:26:21.332 --> 00:26:25.780
If he just asked me that question, I am immediately.

00:26:25.780 --> 00:26:27.785
I just I feel so much heat inside it.

00:26:27.785 --> 00:26:30.952
You don't ask me, I don't have to answer to you what time I'll be home.

00:26:30.952 --> 00:26:39.388
You know it's kind of he's asking for courtesy and to plan for the night, but I have a really hard time answering that question and it's it's.

00:26:39.388 --> 00:26:43.709
I have an internal reaction to that that's not congruent to what's being asked.

00:26:44.875 --> 00:26:51.134
Yeah, and sometimes I mean therapy doesn't necessarily make that go away, but it at least clues you in as to.

00:26:51.134 --> 00:26:55.770
Okay, let me, let me recenter myself and figure out what's happening.

00:26:55.830 --> 00:27:19.218
He wasn't trying to control me, he's not you know telling me not to go at all.

00:27:19.218 --> 00:27:20.218
But yeah, I can get that.

00:27:20.218 --> 00:27:21.159
I can totally get reacting that way.

00:27:21.159 --> 00:27:24.421
Movies about abuse, especially older movies.

00:27:24.421 --> 00:27:39.233
It's a man who starts out, he's pretending in the beginning and then he is evil and it's very clear that he's evil and he is immediately physically abusive and he's never good anymore, he's only bad.

00:27:39.233 --> 00:27:41.646
And then when she gets out, her life is better.

00:27:41.646 --> 00:27:43.630
None of that is that black and white.

00:27:43.630 --> 00:27:45.512
It's so much more nuanced than that.

00:27:45.512 --> 00:28:06.299
Especially getting out, there are years of work to do, but also within that it's worth it because there are all those great moments of freedom and feeling great about yourself and, oh my gosh, I can set my house up the way I want to and I don't have to ask anybody to go spend $50.

00:28:06.299 --> 00:28:10.288
Want to and I don't have to ask anybody to.

00:28:10.288 --> 00:28:11.090
You know, go spend $50.

00:28:11.090 --> 00:28:12.054
And those are.

00:28:12.094 --> 00:28:13.798
Those are the moments that make it worth it.

00:28:13.798 --> 00:28:23.960
While you're working through it Absolutely, and it it's okay to feel good and be doing well and then sit down and cry and it's normal, I think, to miss that past life.

00:28:23.960 --> 00:28:34.955
You're not missing the abuse but, like we mentioned a lot of times, that there there are good times too and you wonder a lot.

00:28:34.955 --> 00:28:36.218
I, at least I did.

00:28:36.218 --> 00:28:38.069
I wondered well, was it just me?

00:28:38.069 --> 00:28:40.780
Like is he going to be okay in the next relationship?

00:28:40.780 --> 00:28:42.707
Is that one going to work out?

00:28:42.707 --> 00:28:44.590
And it was just me.

00:28:44.611 --> 00:28:50.049
And and why couldn't it have worked with me and we had such good times and I miss that.

00:28:50.049 --> 00:28:58.051
Or would it just be easier if I just went back, Like I'm struggling here with whatever issues, Like would it be easier to just go back to him?

00:28:58.051 --> 00:29:02.467
So I think all of those are normal feelings and, like you mentioned, it's not going to be all roses from here on out.

00:29:02.467 --> 00:29:02.727
It is work.

00:29:02.727 --> 00:29:05.588
It's not going to be all roses from here on out.

00:29:05.588 --> 00:29:06.710
It is work.

00:29:06.710 --> 00:29:07.550
And it's not fair.

00:29:07.550 --> 00:29:08.771
I'll say that too.

00:29:08.771 --> 00:29:09.633
It's not fair.

00:29:09.633 --> 00:29:10.693
It's not fair.

00:29:10.693 --> 00:29:19.741
It's not fair for you to have fallen in love with somebody who chose to abuse you and you didn't let them abuse you.

00:29:19.741 --> 00:29:33.259
They chose to abuse you and here you are trying to heal, trying to live your life, and you're going to hit some roadblocks along the way bumps, walls, it might, you know, whatever and it's not fair.

00:29:34.165 --> 00:29:42.672
It's not fair and it's okay that it's not fair and it's okay to sit down and cry about it and let all of it out, and I think you feel better and you move on to the next time.

00:29:42.672 --> 00:29:48.586
And then you go another spell until something else hits you, and that's how you know what you need to work on, right, that's how you know what you need to go.

00:29:48.586 --> 00:29:50.556
I write things down to tell my therapist.

00:29:50.556 --> 00:29:51.801
She's in my head all the time.

00:29:51.801 --> 00:29:55.188
I'm always talking to Judy and I'll tell Judy this, you know.

00:29:55.188 --> 00:29:59.152
But Judy also calls me on my own BS, right?

00:29:59.152 --> 00:30:00.593
So she does that in therapy.

00:30:00.593 --> 00:30:06.419
I have her voice in my head now calling me on my BS, and she's like that's how you know the therapy is working.

00:30:06.419 --> 00:30:08.741
You know when my voice is in your head.

00:30:11.948 --> 00:30:16.838
I liked how you had that interaction with your therapist about the book.

00:30:16.838 --> 00:30:18.403
And she's like have you read the book?

00:30:18.403 --> 00:30:19.752
And you're like, no, I sent it.

00:30:19.752 --> 00:30:22.508
And she's like, of course you did, Of course you did.

00:30:22.949 --> 00:30:24.011
Of course she does.

00:30:24.011 --> 00:30:35.525
I like to make what what Judy calls loopholes, where I come in and I'm like I can't wait to tell you this great thing I did, and she's like that's a loophole to what we were working on, and what do you mean?

00:30:36.026 --> 00:30:38.673
What are you talking about, especially with my hypervigilance?

00:30:38.673 --> 00:30:47.451
I would do that, you know I would really come in with these, these causes that I.

00:30:47.451 --> 00:30:48.936
You know I really needed to help Ava out with this.

00:30:48.936 --> 00:30:49.397
No, you didn't, she's.

00:30:49.397 --> 00:30:50.281
You know you should be sitting back.

00:30:50.281 --> 00:30:53.029
I do a lot of that in therapy but I'm learning to self-regulate.

00:30:53.029 --> 00:30:58.548
But also, you know it isn't fair what has happened to us and it's it's hard that we have to go through this work.

00:30:58.548 --> 00:31:07.400
But there are so many silver linings and one of those silver linings is just my appreciation for the peace around me.

00:31:07.400 --> 00:31:15.583
I'm so grateful to just be healthy and happy and to have, say, over my own life and to have agency over myself.

00:31:15.583 --> 00:31:16.568
And I see it in my kids too.

00:31:16.568 --> 00:31:25.913
I think my kids have a different kind of appreciation for life around them and a different kind of strength than I see in other kids.

00:31:25.913 --> 00:31:36.333
So while I would never have wished on them to go through these things or myself, I can see the aspects where it has also built us to be stronger and more appreciative.

00:31:37.035 --> 00:31:39.681
Yeah and yes, absolutely.

00:31:39.681 --> 00:31:41.285
And all the feelings are fine.

00:31:41.285 --> 00:31:43.326
And if you want to be proud of yourself, if it's a something little, feelings are fine.

00:31:43.326 --> 00:31:48.012
And if you want to be proud of yourself, if it's a something little, absolutely celebrate that.

00:31:48.012 --> 00:31:51.737
Go get an ice cream sundae or something, celebrate whatever.

00:31:51.737 --> 00:31:52.877
That's okay.

00:31:52.877 --> 00:31:53.818
You want to be pissed off?

00:31:53.818 --> 00:31:54.740
Get pissed off.

00:31:54.740 --> 00:31:59.266
All of that is fine and it is great.

00:31:59.266 --> 00:32:13.087
And I love that you mentioned the kids, because I do think that they definitely have a strength that, like you mentioned, you don't necessarily you wished they wouldn't have to have gone through whatever it was that they went through to get that strength.

00:32:13.087 --> 00:32:25.476
But they are stronger and so are we and so are you and it's, it's work, but wow, to get, to get to the other side and to.

00:32:25.476 --> 00:32:26.537
It's amazing.

00:32:27.018 --> 00:32:27.638
It's worth it.

00:32:27.638 --> 00:32:38.916
And you're right, we need to let ourselves be proud and celebrate, and you, especially with your podcast, should be really proud of this, because this is really it's good work that you're doing here.

00:32:39.586 --> 00:32:43.553
Thank you and your book, I think, is going to be so helpful.

00:32:43.553 --> 00:32:45.195
It was.

00:32:45.195 --> 00:32:45.777
You know.

00:32:45.777 --> 00:32:49.750
I'm sure you've heard of Colleen Hoover's book that she wrote that turned into a movie.

00:32:49.750 --> 00:32:55.207
I read that, I don't know, maybe a year to, I don't when it first came out.

00:32:55.207 --> 00:33:00.598
Maybe what I like about I'm going to say yours is better.

00:33:03.965 --> 00:33:08.778
Did my mom pay you to say that Mom would you call in as a guest?

00:33:10.105 --> 00:33:26.249
You know, I read both and I I do think that yours, yours, was better because it yours like, took you into it, like you were there, you're living the moment, reading it, and hers was it's almost like you're you're watching.

00:33:26.249 --> 00:33:27.672
I mean it was made into a movie.

00:33:27.672 --> 00:33:34.336
I felt like it was like watching a movie, like okay, you know, and it's, and granted it's, there's a lot of fiction in hers.

00:33:34.336 --> 00:33:35.806
I think hers is probably mostly fiction.

00:33:35.806 --> 00:33:42.314
I think she put a tiny bit of factual things that happened maybe when she was a kid to her mom or something.

00:33:42.314 --> 00:34:01.404
But yours, yours, really pulls you in and I think that I mean maybe I'm biased because I've, I've lived that, you know that life, but it gives a good understanding and you even, you even do sympathize with Alec at some point.

00:34:01.545 --> 00:34:08.128
You know I still do, I still do and and I mean I did and it's you know I'm reading this and like, okay.

00:34:08.128 --> 00:34:13.193
So you know, and a lot of times when you read a book like this, you're like there's the good guy, there's the bad guy, you hate the bad guy.

00:34:13.193 --> 00:34:24.038
It's easy to hate the bad guy and it's easy to love the good guy and this just, it just shows how real this is because I don't think I ever hated him.

00:34:24.038 --> 00:34:28.128
Yeah, you know, there, I think there were times where I was like, oh, come on man.

00:34:28.128 --> 00:34:33.766
Yeah, you know, and and for sure there are parts where, like my heart broke for him.

00:34:33.766 --> 00:34:36.452
Um, and that's real.

00:34:36.952 --> 00:34:38.916
Yeah, and I wish it were that easy.

00:34:38.916 --> 00:34:41.731
I wish it were as easy as love and hate and good and evil.

00:34:41.731 --> 00:34:41.931
It's.

00:34:41.931 --> 00:34:46.487
It's more complex than that and that's that's what we have to work through to get out right.

00:34:48.471 --> 00:34:50.393
And, yeah, you did an amazing job.

00:34:50.393 --> 00:34:54.539
I am so proud of the book and to read it.

00:34:54.539 --> 00:34:55.585
It's, it's.

00:34:55.585 --> 00:35:00.916
You know it has to be a little bit of like I don't know what the word is.

00:35:00.916 --> 00:35:02.867
I do know what the word is, but it's not coming to me.

00:35:02.867 --> 00:35:06.112
But oh, raw, like in in, just vulnerable to.

00:35:06.112 --> 00:35:14.047
You're letting people into this part of your life that is very difficult to share with even your closest.

00:35:14.628 --> 00:35:22.612
Yes, especially at first it was very I felt very vulnerable and I would even be in like these kind of bad moods certain days.

00:35:22.612 --> 00:35:25.809
I'd be very excited one day and oh, you know the, the book.

00:35:25.809 --> 00:35:30.541
You know people are on Amazon buying it and people would give me good feedback.

00:35:30.541 --> 00:35:39.085
And then other days I would feel so vulnerable and I would say to Scott, I wish I could just take it off and not put it out there anymore.

00:35:39.085 --> 00:35:40.168
I wish I had never done this.

00:35:40.168 --> 00:35:43.585
You know that is hard and it's getting easier and easier.

00:35:43.847 --> 00:35:48.358
But I think I needed the perspective of people from the outside seeing it.

00:35:48.358 --> 00:35:54.331
And also, when I wasn't telling people my story, I wasn't being my authentic self and it's important for us.

00:35:54.331 --> 00:36:00.297
There are people out there who would like women like us to just shut up and, you know, get over it.

00:36:00.297 --> 00:36:02.572
You're not being your authentic self.

00:36:02.572 --> 00:36:10.172
You can't know me and anyone who reads this book would understand that you can't know me and not know that part of my story.

00:36:10.172 --> 00:36:14.376
That's a huge part of who I am and your story is a huge part of who you are.

00:36:14.376 --> 00:36:18.981
So if we're going to make real friends and be authentic and connect, we have to put it out there.

00:36:19.641 --> 00:36:30.452
Yes, yeah, completely agree, and it's also healing to talk about it is you put it out there and it does help you process through it a little bit better.

00:36:30.452 --> 00:36:34.126
Well, emma-jane, thank you so much again for joining me.

00:36:34.126 --> 00:36:35.427
This was great.

00:36:35.427 --> 00:36:40.346
This three-part series was amazing, and I really appreciate you taking the time.

00:36:40.748 --> 00:36:41.190
Thank you.

00:36:41.190 --> 00:36:45.887
It's been really great talking to you and it's actually just been more therapy and more healing for me.

00:36:45.907 --> 00:36:50.438
So I really am grateful to have met you and have this conversation Same.

00:36:52.326 --> 00:36:56.097
Thank you again to Emma Jean for joining me today and thank you for listening.

00:36:56.097 --> 00:37:02.708
I have included the link to Emma Jean's one in three profile, as well as where to get her book in the show notes.

00:37:02.708 --> 00:37:06.217
I will be back next week with another episode for you.

00:37:06.217 --> 00:37:14.375
Until then, stay strong and wherever you are in your journey, always remember you are not alone.

00:37:14.375 --> 00:37:21.851
Find more information, register as a guest or leave a review by going to the website onein3podcastcom.

00:37:21.851 --> 00:37:23.349
That's the number one.

00:37:23.349 --> 00:37:25.436
I-n the number three podcastcom.

00:37:25.436 --> 00:37:26.039
Follow One in number one.

00:37:26.039 --> 00:37:27.121
I N the number three podcastcom.

00:37:27.121 --> 00:37:31.536
Follow one in three on Instagram, facebook and Twitter at one in three podcast.

00:37:31.536 --> 00:37:35.771
To help me out, please remember to rate, review and subscribe.

00:37:35.771 --> 00:37:41.746
One in three is a 0.5 Pinoy production music written and performed by Tim Crow.

Emma Jean Rowin Profile Photo

Emma Jean Rowin

Emma Jean Rowin is the author of When Things Collapse, a deeply personal memoir that chronicles her journey from a routine grocery shopping trip in 2014, when she received the shocking news that her estranged ex-husband had become an active shooter, to her path of confronting painful truths about her past. Emma’s story dives into her tumultuous relationship, from the idyllic beginnings to her husband's transformation into a doomsday prepper and abusive partner, as she fought to protect her five children and rebuild her life.

A Midwesterner at heart, Emma Jean spent 25 years in a fulfilling career in graphic design before returning to her true passion—writing. Now a full-time writer and mother of five, Emma spends her days juggling family life and managing the constant "switchboard" of her kids’ needs and communications. When she's not writing, you can find her practicing yoga, hiking, or psychoanalyzing everyone she meets.