The Story Her Kidnapper Never Wanted Told

What was the moment that you stopped surviving and started kind of leading your life and stop being the victim? That first week of

healing, I would say it was a series of moments that led up to a moment where I realized that I had just made all of the choices that I had never made in the past or thought were a choice.

And so it was a week of really...

Healing, like I said, not just from this situation, but drudging up so much and realizing that I'd had this thorn in my side that I was so afraid of pulling out.

So I was just living with it.

And so it was like a lot of crazy.

And there's a lot of heaviness and just drama and stuff.

But it was that week that I was like, I don't even want...

Like I said, at first I didn't want people to know almost.

And then it was like... no, why am I ashamed of what I went through? That's doesn't make me weak.

Like this doesn't make me inferior.

And it could help, like it could honestly just help warn people too.

But so it was like certain things like that.

And I, I posted, it was like a very vulnerable thing to just post it to my friends, let alone like millions of people.

But, But I wanted to warn people, you know, my girls in Rochester.

But that was like a big step, letting people in.

I think that that was the biggest thing that I did for myself that I had never done before was say, I need help.

You know, I think that's sometimes the bravest thing you could possibly do.

But it just feels like giving up.

It's the opposite.

It's saying, I'm not going to.

And so...

I think leaning on people was what I had always needed, but denied myself.

And so that was a huge part of it.

But then leading into seeing my strength in that, I do remember this moment because everybody was kind of looking around, used to Allison, the spirals, like what's going to happen? It was almost like I could clearly see it now instead of this cycle that I complained so long.