I don't want to write too much about my personal experience, but I can tell you that the documents for me were especially close to home.
I became a dad to my eldest very young. During this 'relationship' I try to make it work (impossible for a few reasons I'm sure people can guess at but also other reasons.)
I stayed in the house a long time, several years, knowing it was hopeless but somehow trying to make it work, find any way to make it work. I didn't want to let my child down. You see, you get made to believe you are the problem and so, I can share Ioan's situation in that respect. You think, OK, it's me. If I go, it'll be OK. This person will not get wound up. The endless rows will be over. I don't want to disrupt my kids lives any more.
That's why I left. That's why I think he might have.