If you are affected yourself, be assured, you are not alone!
Do’s:
- Take heart, your life is not over!
- Try to find out who can best help you in your area. What organizations or counselling centers are there?
- Confide in someone: such as your parents, friends, a school social worker or someone in a counselling center. It is hard to trust someone again after what you have experienced. But there are people who are there for you!
- If you feel that your safety is threatened, call the police immediately! Click here for police-recommended tips (link only available in German).
- Save chat histories, messages, mailbox recordings, videos, pictures (of injuries), notes and everything that can prove his guilt and keep it, even if you think you won’t ever use it.
- Report him! It is best to seek help from a counselling center that has experience. The “loverboy” shouldn't be able to get away with what he did to you and shouldn't be able to do it to any other girl.
Don'ts:
- Don't be afraid of what the "loverboy" might have on you. He is not as powerful as he pretends to be.
- Do not blame yourself. It’s not your fault! Without the “loverboy” you would not be where you are now.
- Don't hold on to him. From the beginning, he only loved the money you would bring him.
- You are not alone. There are people (in counselling centers and organizations) who know what to do. They are happy to help you.
- Do not think that you are not worth it. You have a right to freedom and dignity. In fact, the constitution states that human dignity is inviolable. Of course, this fundamental law also applies to you!