BBM
MOO/IMO To say "
they were both triggering and reacting to each other's immature behavior" puts them as equals in the relationship regarding how they treated each other. I respectfully disagree. It discounts and dismisses that Gabby was an abuse victim. (I also don't think complaining about dirty feet is belittling.)
MOO I think it's obvious that Gabby was engaging in what many consider a form of self-defense:
reactive abuse.
"Reactive abuse occurs when someone who has been abused begins to defend themselves by responding to abuse with physical and/or verbal attacks." -
Alexa Connors, LMSW, therapist.
Also, I want to provide another perspective to your statement about Gabby that "
Almost every person close to this couple stated they saw no signs of abuse."
"Almost every person" might be correct, but a few posts back, in post #11
@Trooper provided you a quote and the originating article that indicated Gabby's mother learned from Gabby's friend that BL repeatedly strangled and/or throttled Gabby.
IMO/MOO
More info regarding reactive abuse:
Understanding Reactive Abuse: Signs and Solutions
If you watch through the video, you'll notice two examples of BL looking offended to comments made while Gabby was filming him.
To me, in my opinion only, MOO, IMO, he looks like he's feeling belittled. (To dismiss someone as unimportant). That's the word I choose to use to illustrate his reaction.
It does not discount GP in any way to reflect the look on BL's face and to assign a word to describe what I see. You can choose to use a different word - like offended, or surprised, or even hurt, or pick a word to describe what you see in those two instances.
Even after watching that documentary, IMO the world will never know the extent of what was occurring deeper between the two of them.
For instance, I noticed that very few journal entries were shared, and likely for good reason. Our journals are where we generally feel safe to share our deepest thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It's essentially a history of the highs and lows of what's occurring daily in our lives. I would have expected more details from the journal to expand on the dynamics occurring.
The seemingly excitable and agitated friend Rose offered extremely strong opinions/statements about Gabby's relationship, yet all of Gabby's family and BL's family said they noticed zero abuse, despite them living with and visiting family members for quite some time.
Gabby chose this guy to date, to live with, travel with, to build a life with. There were things about BL that she obviously loved. They were in a relationship and engaged to be married. They were young.
I am not here to dissect all the ways she may have been abused or for how long, or the different types of abuse occurring.
Abuse is abuse is abuse.
Coercive control, physical violence, reactive abuse, psychological abuse, bullying - the list of abusive behaviors is endless really. In the end, it's about one person harming another person.
As I've said, there's no denying that Gabby was clearly harmed since she was murdered and abandoned at the hands of Brian Laundrie.
There are no winners in any kind of abusive relationships unfortunately.
The family of GP now has a strong purpose to help other victims and hopefully good will come from Gabby's murder because of the work of her parents and this documentary.
MOO.
