I survived a 10 year relationship with someone I later discovered was a psychopath. I now want to use my experiences to help others - whether it’s to recognise the signs and avoid abusive relationships, or to escape them and find their way back to balance and wholeness.

That’s what this crowdfunding campaign is all about, and why I’m asking you to help me help others.

Hollywood would have us believe that psychopaths are axe wielding homicidal maniacs. Some are, but many hide in plain sight, in families, in companies, anywhere where they can prey on unsuspecting, kind, generous, empathic people.

Psychopaths are charming, manipulative, have no morales and view everyone else as prey. They hijack the normal pair bonding: love bombing their prey to make them think they have found their soul mate and once hooked, gaslighting and manipulating them to such an extent they start to doubt their own senses. Psychopaths take pleasure in destroying people, leaving a trail of devastation, and destroyed lives in their wake.

As part of my healing process, I started talking about my experiences. Friends suggested people they knew who were themselves were experiencing psychopathic behaviour, talk to me, to see if I could help them. Just talking to someone who has experienced such behaviour, can be highly validating for a survivor, when others just don't 'get' what they've been going through.

I decided to write a book about my experiences, part auto biographical, part self help book, covering a small part of my story, whilst providing tips on how to recognise psychopathic behaviour to check if the person you've dealing with displays psychopathic traits, and how to deal with the behaviour and more importantly, how to escape.

The book is currently in a draft format and been read by several beta readers, who feel it provides much needed help, support and advice. I've had interest from organisations such as Victim Support, who feel it would make a helpful additional to their support material.

Recovering from a psychopathic encounter isn't like a normal relationship (whatever relationship that might be, not just romantic) recovery. It is a wound to the deep psyche of a person and can take a long time to recover from. Normal counselling isn't enough. Self care is very important, but often the psychopath will have drained you emotionally, spiritually and financially, so that you're unable to provide more than basic survival for yourself, especially in the initial recovery stages.

The book is my first method of helping. What I want to do as a follow up is set up a trust or foundation to provide funding for survivors to obtain holistic care to help them recover. I still have PTSD induced insomnia as a result of my encounter, 15 years after I finally got rid of him. It's only now that I've been able to afford holistic care to help me start to deal with it.

I want to provide funding for survivors in the early stages of their recovery, so they don't have to spend years suffering flashbacks and nightmares where their abuser is trying to kill them, like I did.

In the book I've changed names and been vague about identifying details, but given the nature of the material, I've been advised to take legal advice. I've contacted several solicitors and all say they are happy to review the book and advise on any legal repercussions, but their minimum fee is £1,000+. This is where I'm hoping you will all come in.

Once the draft has been reviewed, I will need to amend it and then send it to be edited and any further amends made. As a designer, I've already worked on the design and layout, but then need help from a publisher to set ip up for Amazon and world publishing, as well as kindle publishing and other ebook formats.

This is where my £3,000 target comes in, to cover the initial legal review, editing and publishing costs. Please help me highlight the damaging nature of these individuals and provide much needed advice and solace to survivors.