Pregnant, Substance Dependent Woman In Dangerously Abusive Relationship – How Do I Help Her?
I’m currently involved with a 24 year old woman who is currently pregnant and on methadone for her heroin addiction. I myself am a former heroin addict. She’s living with her “baby’s daddy”, who is both physically and emotionally/mentally abusive. She is very much afflicted with what’s commonly considered “battered woman syndrome”, displaying every symptom up to and including a debilitating fear of leaving due to the worry that he will come after her/her baby and kill them both. He has made threats to her as recently as Friday about taking her home and beating her to death with a 2 x 4, yet she is convinced it is in her best interest to stay where she is, with him, until she can get into a woman’s shelter. She’s not trying especially hard to get into a shelter though, and she has already relapsed one week after having completed a substance abuse treatment program. I’m about the only person she has caring about her wellbeing and the wellbeing of the child, and this situation is absolute
