My therapist told me:
“When a person grows up feeling unseen, they learn to love by over-giving. They pour into everyone else, hoping that, one day, someone will finally pour back into them. So they become the care taker. The fixer. The one who shows up, even when no one shows up for them.”
And the hardest part? Deep down, they're not trying to be strong. They're just waiting for someone to do for them what they've spent their whole life doing for everyone else.
My ex prevented me from leaving the house on several occasions by physically blocking my exit, even going so far as to sit on the ground behind my car as I tried to back out of the garage. She repeatedly threatened to have me arrested if I used any degree of physical force to get past here. I was a cop at the time and was not going to risk it. I also didn’t want to call for help for fear of being perceived as weak.
For that last reason I doubt we’ll ever have anything approaching accurate numbers on this.