Was It Even Abuse?

Restoring clarity after covert abuse.

By: Emma Rose Byham

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Have you endlessly searched online trying to make sense of their behaviour? Hoping to understand how they treat you. ‘Is it normal?’ ‘Why does it hurt so much?’ Or perhaps you feel conflicted because you think their behaviour is unacceptable, but you question your judgement. You ask yourself,

‘Is it me?’
‘Am I too sensitive?’
‘Am I crazy?’

Was It Even Abuse? was written by Emma Rose Byham, founder of The Personal Growth Project and Instagram community (@thepersonalgrowth.project) to support you in working through the chronic confusion and self-doubt experienced after emotional and psychological abuse. This book explores:

• The answers to key questions that create confusion
• How minor incidents can be significantly abusive
• Identifying abusive behaviour, trauma responses and the abusive dynamic
• Reducing conflict between the potential and reality of the relationship
• Reframing core beliefs about relationships and love

Emma helps you to restore clarity by breaking down a complex topic, supporting you to stop doubting what you’ve experienced, facilitate self-compassion for how you’ve been affected, reduce the inner conflict of who you understand them to be, and shift focus onto personal growth and building healthy relationships.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emma founded The Personal Growth Project in 2017 to support the growth of survivors of emotional and psychological abuse, through her writing and her mentoring. She has established a large online community, and her social media posts have become a source of providing clarity. Her gift is to put into words an experience that is often hard to describe.

Emma’s background is working with young people who have experienced abuse, to help them recognise healthy and unhealthy bonds in their relationships, and to help them gain confidence and clarity. Emma has since studied Counselling and will complete her Psychology degree in 2023. She trained in integrative therapeutic counselling, combining person-centered, psychodynamic and CBT methods. She has in-depth knowledge of the experiences of abuse which has been gained through attending courses, first person accounts, self-teaching and personal experience.

Wonderful Book, Awful AI Narration

If you’re asking yourself this question, the answer is probably yes — and this insightful, empathetic book will help you find clarity. It will also answer the other question you’re almost certainly asking yourself over and over — “Am I crazy?” In this case, the answer is probably no — and the author will help you understand how and why abusers trap sane, savvy, intelligent, loving, confident partners in their upside-down world. It really helped me realize how far down the rabbit hole I had gone. That’s a hard truth to reckon with, but the author also helped me understand why it it so hard to come out of the fog, and why I should forgive myself.
Now the bad news: Audible had a bot read this, and it is very, *very* sloppy. Despite the eerily human-sounding voice, it mispronounced “OK” about six different ways, read formatting conventions out loud, bungled several other basic words and briefly devolved into garbled nonsense. A book about overcoming dehumanizing treatment deserves the empathy and nuance only a human narrator can provide. Audible definitely does not pass on the savings from this lazy, shady, tone-deaf bait-and-switch, so do yourself a favor and buy the actual book.