Friends warned me against watching Baby Reindeer, the hit Netflix series about the comedian Richard Gadd and Martha, the character based on his alleged real-life stalker. But the similarities between the show and my experience didn't end there. Watching the series prompted personal reflections on my dealings with a stalker and all the emotions that came with it.
At first, I couldn't understand why Gadd's character was so attentive to the woman who turns up at the pub where he works and won't leave him alone. Why encourage her? But then I cast my mind back to my own experience, and all the times I misjudged the situation or wished that I'd handled things differently.
In the Netflix series, Gadd reports his stalker to the police and is asked what took him so long. The day I finally went to the police, I was asked the same question. The truth is, I felt embarrassed and a little ashamed.
I'd never even met my stalker, yet she'd managed to disrupt my life to such an extent that I'd been prescribed antidepressants. In fairness to the police, they didn't brush me off.
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