…obviously Martha/the stalking plot was a terrifying thing to have happened to him…but I think that also highlighted so much his own self loathing and his own mental struggles with many aspects of his life and how ‘broken’ he was, really…so very sad when he said that Martha made him feel like he was the person he had wanted to be…or words similar…

…with Martha, this was obviously nowhere near the first time and I know that she had her sentence and a restraining order for many years etc…?…but surely that would just indicate that her obsession would just become someone else when she was released from prison, which wouldn’t have been very long served of the sentence at all…for someone who was displaying such repeat behaviour, where was the help that she was getting because she had such outbursts of violence as well…?….with him, one of the things that was noticeable was that he never did fear her though and that’s something that can’t be applied to the reverse of male stalkers with females…and that’s something that’s been very high profile recently with a few cases…he was also ‘addicted to’ and obsessed with her, wasn’t he…?….and it all stemmed from his own self loathing and poor mental health….that whole thing with his dad and his dad’s reveal was so heartbreaking because it seemed to create that self loathing….his dad hadn’t even been able to hug him up until that point because of his own traumas ….and as he said, Martha made him feel as though he was the person that he wanted to be…lots of layers to it all and lots of thoughts that stay…

…it’s realising that it’s as much about mental illness and self loathing as it is about stalking….I wonder how that would have all displayed and evolved, had he never encountered Martha…because that was all still there, regardless…

he could have put a stop to it once he found out she was a convicted stalker, he seems very weak

I think his is a very honest depiction to the complicated and seemingly illogical reactions to being a victim of sexual abuse. It's very uncomfortable to watch but it's a story that's hard to deal with that bare and grittily truthful because in a way it can make the victim look bad or less of a victim in some peoples eyes

It really is just so honest and complicated, the human psyche is weird.

Just on a point you mentioned earlier too Ammi about the sex of the stalker/victim. I agree there's a different level of fear when the sexes are reversed. Not that Martha wasn't dangerous of course but as a man Donnie would have been able to defend himself easier than a woman would against a man

Anyway I hope Richard/Donnie got himself into therapy to help him try to get through all this stuff, it was a lot

I know that Jessica Meuse was saying something similar about her Domestic Abuse situation on her YouTube channel, she said something along the lines of being in love with her boyfriend and not really realizing how unhealthy the relationship was getting until further down the line, and they were in a really toxic relationship, apparently he was suffering with Narcissistic personality disorder.

…yeah, it was a completely different perspective, wasn’t it…and it felt that one huge difference was the ‘absence of fear’…the absence of feeling threat…?…he didn’t even seem to absorb any terrifying aspect to it when Teri was attacked….and similarly with Darrien, who was drugging him to sexually abuse him…?…he knew that it was happening, obviously….it just made him feel more and more self loathing …but there was no fear for threat of safety, was there…