Breaking my Silence: My Seven Years of Fear & Survival

By: Laura Soukkavong

For seven years, I lived with something I never thought would become my life: Domestic Violence.

We met in 2007. What began as a relationship eventually became seven years of verbal, mental, and physical abuse.

Alcohol was a constant part of our lives. He drank every day, often two or three 40-ounce bottles of Steel Reserve Beer. As his drinking continued, so did the abuse.

I remember the first time he punched me in the face. I was sitting minding my own business in the living room, and he came in drunk.

For seven years, I endured a relationship that slowly changed me. My friends and family could see what was happening. They watched it eat away at me. Eventually, the abuse began affecting my current employment, and there were times when I couldn’t even go to work.

The hardest part wasn’t knowing that the relationship was unhealthy. It was not knowing how to safely leave.

I lived in fear. Trust was no more. I didn’t feel safe in my own home, and I constantly worried about what would happen next.

Then came the last incident.

One Sunday morning around 9 a.m., he had already been drinking, began yelling, screaming, and throwing my belongings around. My upstairs neighbor heard what was happening and called the police. He was arrested.

That was the moment I knew I couldn’t do it anymore.

I finally chose myself.

Leaving didn’t erase what happened. Seven years of abuse changed me. I still struggle with fear, and learning to trust people again hasn’t been easy.

But I survived.

I don’t share my story for sympathy. I share it because there are people who are living through what I lived through, people who are afraid, who don’t know how to leave, or who believe they must keep enduring it.

I want them to know they aren’t alone.

Your life matters—your safety matters.

And choosing yourself is not selfish.

I survived. I’m still healing, and I’m still here.