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Article:
Moving On to Much Better Things After Leaving an Abusive Relationship by: Terry Hernon MacDonald Leaving an abusive relationship is difficult, but being alone can feel worse. All your happily married friends are still happily married, and here you are suddenly single. It's a huge adjustment. Even though you've triumphed by getting out of a bad situation, there's often an underlying sense of failure. There's enormous pressure to be a couple in this society. When I was single, the worst part wasn't loneliness. It was the remarks from people who wanted to know when I was finally going 'to hook up for real,' and the warnings from an aunt that I wasn't getting any younger. The worst comment came after I'd broken up with a man who undermined my confidence, did not turn up when he said he was going to, slapped me so hard my ears rang, and threw a glass of wine in my face. A colleague told me that I could not possibly last without him. 'You think you're happy, but you'd be much happier with a boyfriend,' she said. It is this attitude, which persists even in '2004
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