By now, we’re all well aware that social media is a curated view of how we’d like people to perceive our lives.
While nobody’s life is as perpetually smile-filled, impeccably styled and polished as it is in those perfectly filtered Instagram shots, some feeds mask a much deeper problem.
You may have seen the bruised and beaten image of 25-year-old Carleigh Hager that’s beginning to surface on the Internet.
The image of the abused woman was taken after her now ex-boyfriend Ryan Cameron brutally choked and beat her, ripping out her tongue and biting off part of her ear. She suffered from horrific head wounds and couldn’t see out of her left eye.
The Indianapolis woman now faces a long road to recovery – both physically and mentally. While doctors had to stitch most of her tongue back in her mouth, she’s lucky to be alive.
Hager feared she would die in the attack, which occurred after the couple returned home from a wedding on Saturday.
When the couple returned home with friends after the wedding, Cameron allegedly began berating Hager in front of everyone before he locked her in their bedroom and tried to choke her in her sleep.
When their friends broke into the room, Cameron continued to beat Hager, eventually breaking free from his friends and locking them out of the house.
She told WTHR: “He bit the tip of my ear off. He tried to bite my nose off. He tried to bite my fingers off. I have bite marks up and down my back, on my butt. He bit my neck.” She was left with 20 bite marks on her body and swelling and blood on her brain.
Hager eventually blacked out, coming to when the police were already on site and Cameron was in custody.
This wasn’t the first time she was verbally and physically abused.
The thing is, you would never guess such horror based on Hager’s Facebook account, which was full of shots of the smiling, “happy” couple. Cameron’s account is also filled with snaps of the couple hugging, smiling and kissing. According to Fox News, after a healthy, loving relationship for two years, physical and mental abuse began more recently.
The nursing assistant now says it’s all an illusion and wants to spread awareness to other women when it comes to signs of abuse and taking action against it.
In the meantime, Hager’s friends have set up a GoFundMe page to cover her medical expenses. They raised $18,000 in one day.
Unfortunately, Hager’s story won’t be the last. However, thanks to the power of modern media, her choice to go public marks another bold step in the fight against domestic abuse.
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