Are there any past abuse survivors who have been triggered by watching this? I just wanted to start a support thread.
Whilst I was living under a labour government so I did not have to go through what Alex did when trying to leave, it was lack of support from our welfare system that contributed to my situation. I became homeless when I was a teenager and was massively let down by agencies that could have helped, a breaking point in particular was when I had been waiting months for a supported living apartment for teenagers and young adults, and finally got a date for their induction which was a full day of team building and activities like cooking a meal. I had been sleeping on a sofa in the basement where I worked several miles away the night before, and had to walk there because I couldn't afford a bus, and was slightly late but I did the whole day of activities and had to take a day off work to do it. I had to work to eat and get buses to my college placements, and I was struggling to juggle both and falling behind with course work. They told me a week later that I couldn't have a housing place because I had turned up late. No-one else at the induction was genuinely homeless except me, they had all disclosed to me during the day that their parents had just agreed to declare they were.
I had nowhere else to turn at this point and ended up moving back in with a boyfriend who I had left after he physically attacked me when he was drunk, much like Sean he had been desperate for me to let him support me and prove he had changed. I had been offered a job as a live in nanny in London, so I just needed somewhere for a few months, but in that time I ended up pregnant (whilst using contraception).
He was an alcoholic, he'd punch walls, would gas light me and was a compulsive liar. Alex's breaking point was when she had to pick glass out of Maddie's hair, and mine was when I had been very ill with a vomitting bug, and he went out drinking. I fainted after multiple episodes of vomiting and I remember pleading with him to come home because I was too ill to look after our baby, I was terrified I would drop her when she woke up. I was breastfeeding and severely dehydrated. He came home very drunk in the early hours and at some point tried to snatch our baby from my arms. He was pulling and I wouldn't let go and that was it for me. Him drunk and pulling our baby like a doll. I knew I had to leave to protect my child.
Thankfully the system after having a baby meant I was entitled to housing benefit and emergency housing. I was offered a housing association house within a year. Our child is now a teenager and I thought I was completely healed but I have been very emotional since I watched this and realise maybe I am not as healed as I thought I was.
Whilst our welfare system is much better than in the state Alex lived, more still needs to be done to support teenagers living in poverty to avoid this situation.