Being in an abusive relationship isn’t typically something people flaunt around social media or their personal lives. Abuse can be difficult to recognize sometimes, even when you’re the one being abused, especially if the abuse isn’t physical. Emotional and verbal abuse behind closed doors while the abuser behaves differently in public can make you feel like your own perception can’t be trusted.
Lindsay Goodman reposted a video from January 2022, where she reveals the behind-the-scenes of a birthday surprise from her abusive ex-partner. Goodman’s birthday is August 10, and she has been reposting the video on her birthday every year to show her growth since leaving her partner.
Without the text overlay explaining what was going on, the birthday surprise seemed like an extremely sweet gesture filmed from the ex-partner’s perspective. The original video has over 2.2 million likes and more than 13.4K comments on TikTok.
In the video, Goodman rounds the corner smiling, seemingly nervously as she sees her ex-partner filming her.
“Coming home from doing an activity alone because your partner didn’t want to go,” the text on the screen says. “Confused that they actually did something for you. Trying to look happy and thankful, but suspicious at the same time.”
Goodman also includes little notes in the corner of the screen that explains she’s nervously eating berries and the flowers she’s holding are ones she bought for herself. She reveals that she isn’t sure if her partner will remain nice after the camera stops or if this will be the last time they’ll be nice for a while.
The video ends with Goodman blowing out the candle on her cupcake, still smiling and nervously eating berries. Her short, vulnerable post proves that all abuse doesn’t look like bruises and cop calls. Sometimes it looks like outward smiles while you’re internally terrified for the moment to pass.
Watch the powerful video below:
