Does what happened to me count as abuse?

Maybe, but it usually doesn’t work. We see this with sexual assault survivors. They’ll sue a victim for defamation. The defendant will say, “You called me a child molester.” No, I reported this crime to the police. And that’s one of the benefits of filing a civil suit because that is protected speech. What you say in a civil lawsuit that’s true cannot be used against you as evidence of defamation. It is very important that you talk with your attorney and you follow his or her guidance on what you can say outside of court outside of the context of that civil suit, but I don’t think I’ve seen any successful defamation cases against victims. It’s a scare tactic meant to have a chilling effect on the survivor.