Stand-up comedian Beth Stelling uses her life as inspiration when she's writing jokes. But for months, she had held back a secret: she was in an abusive relationship and stayed with her abuser for two months before breaking up with him. Now she's opening up on Instagram about her experience of verbal abuse, physical assault, and rape, and how hard it was to escape his presence in her life.

Stelling, who released a Comedy Central special and album called Simply the Beth this year, wrote the post after she finally started talking about her abuse on stage. For a while, her ex convinced her to not talk about him, since the Los Angeles comedy scene would knew who she was talking about. But after a while, she had to open up. "I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life," she wrote. Since she's joked about it on stage, her fans have come up to her after shows to give support and ask her to continue spreading the word.

So she told her story on Instagram, and her post has received thousands of likes and comments already.

Stelling has received an outpouring of support from the comedy community, including from Silicon Valley's Kumail Nanjiani, who tweeted, "This makes me feel many things but chief among them is that Beth Stelling is awesome and I'm happy we're friends."

Here's the full caption, which cuts off abruptly, likely because of Instagram's character limit:

Same girl in all of these photos (me). I've had an amazing year and you've seen the highlights here, so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue. You may be weirded out but do read on. I have a point. There are many reasons not to make an abusive relationship public, mostly fear. Scared of what people will think, scared it makes me look weak or unprofessional.

When I broke up with my ex this summer, it wasn't because I didn't love him, it was because of this. And I absolutely relapsed and contacted him with things I shouldn't have, but there are no "best practices" with this. When friends or comics ask why we broke up it's not easy or comfortable to reply; it doesn't seem like the appropriate thing to say at a stand-up show, a party or a wedding. It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months. It's not simple.

After I broke up with him he said, "You're very open and honest in your stand-up, and I just ask that you consider me when you talk about your ex because everyone knows who you're talking about." And I abided. I wrote vague jokes because we both live in L.A. and I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family. I wanted to move on and forget because I didn't understand. I don't want revenge or to hurt him now, but it's unhealthy to keep this inside because my stand-up is pulled directly from my life. It's how I make my living. My personal is my professional. That is how I've always been; I make dark, funny.

So now I'm allowing this to be part of my story. It's not my only story, so please don't let it be. If you live in L.A., you've already started to hear my jokes about this and I ask you to have the courage to listen and accept it because I'm trying. Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it. Men have shown their solidarity.

An ex-girlfriend of this ex-boyfriend came to me and shared that she experienced the same fate. Then there was another and another (men and women) who shared other injustices at his hand that..

Updated, 12/29, 3:10 p.m.: Stelling posted the last paragraph in a separate Instagram post.

Here's the full text:

...shattered my belief that I was an exception. I am not alone; unfortunately I'm in a line of smart, funny women who experienced this from the same man in our L.A. comedy community,. I couldn't stay in our relationship waiting for it to happen again and I won't keep it a secret any longer so that a future woman has a fair chance of avoiding it. I don't have all the answers. I'm doing my best to work through this. There are more stories out there from men and women and they don't all involve getting raped by a stranger in an alley. Many are crapes (the coziest kind) in the comfort of your own bed.

She also posted a photo with her current partner, to show "there are wonderful men in this world."

If you or someone you know needs help, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or visit thehotline.org.

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