My name is Shaun Segraves, and I am fundraising for the final legal fees associated with my divorce along with additional funds to help me get back on my feet from financial abuse I have been facing for the past 2 years. On December 23, 2022, I fled my home, animals, and all personal possession due to my husband being a dangerous and highly abusive narcissist. I suffered in silence for years as I worked hard to keep the image of a perfect marriage and relationship present to the rest of the world, while at home it was a much different story. For 10 years, I was made to feel less than my partner in many ways including my career, financial health, personal interactions, and family. Over the years, I was beaten down and told I would never find someone as good as my Ex, he ensured my support networks were compromised, and in the end, he even went after my Mother and Father in an attempt to cut off the most important people in my life. It took 10 years of abuse to realize I was even being abused, but in fact I was. Needless to say, I would not allow this to happen when recognized, and when I had finally had enough, I fled my home days before Christmas and never looked back. I would be lying if I said this was the freedom I had been looking for, because it is not. I will see this differently in the future, but for now, the financial abuse and coercive control I have been struggling through the past 11 months has finally caught up to me, and I am left with no other choice but to extend my ask for help to my family and friends.

My biological flight instinct took over immediately, and I was able to accomplish many things in a short amount of time including obtaining an apartment with only a suitcase full of clothes and my work backpack. This was all I was able to obtain from my home when I left and remains the only pieces of my past that I physically have with me today. This was all made more difficult at the time, because my Narcissistic-Ex wanted to ensure I got nothing from our marriage and he filed a Domestic Violence Protection Order against me, keeping me 1000ft from our residence and the first legal hurdle I had to fight, and did so easily but not without the high cost of legal fees. This is called the money grab, and I have been left with nothing but the surmounting credit card debt from the marriage, 11 months of frivolous legal fees totaling $20K+, and a settlement agreement that will be enough to get me back on feet and able to start a new life where I get to choose the outcome.

In late January 2023, I was diagnosed with PTSD (Acute Stress Disorder), and adjustment disorder, caused by severe physical, financial, mental and emotional abuse in the marriage. If you are interested in learning more about what I have been through, Dr. Ramani describes my entire relationship and marriage in any one of her videos, I highly encourage you to watch one. I have been in recovery during this time, seeing my Acceptance and Commitment Therapist weekly, learning what has happened to me and understanding it was not my fault, and learning to recognize red flags for the future so I don’t allow this to happen to me again. I have come to under that I am a Highly Sensitive Person and will remain this way until my dying day. I will always choose empathy and even coming out of the worst experience of my life, I refuse to let anger and bitterness overcome me. This is why I am reaching out to you today, my friends and family, to ask for help during this dark time in my life. I know the amount of money I am hoping to raise seems like a lot, but the relief this will provide myself, and my family, will be a blessing that we have been needing since this awful journey began. My mother and father are not in the best health, and they are far into their retirement years and help is limited for obvious reasons. If I can raise the $15K I am hoping to achieve, I will be able to pay my final legal fees including attorney fees and mitigation fees, past due bills that needed to go on pause while preparing for mitigation, and ensure I have enough funds to finalize the divorce and receive the settlement I so desperately need. I can also begin rebuilding my life, literally, purchasing basic material possessions I lost in the divorce. Things like winter clothes, a winter coat, work shoes, work clothes, etc.

Thank you for taking the time to read my GoFundMe story, and if you are able to give anything to help me get back on my feet, I would be forever grateful and humbled. This is too shall pass, and I believe that more and more every day. Thank you to everyone who has supported thus far in 2023, I would not have made it without you!