Rep. Alma Adams is hard to miss.

Her hat collection of more than 1,400 fills an entire bedroom.

She’s also not one to mince words.

“I’m a pretty strong-willed person myself,” Adams said.

What You Need To Know

Rep. Alma Adams was first elected to Congress in 2014

Adams says she became a survivor of intimate partner violence in the late 1970s

National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233

But it was in the late 1970s when the former art professor and now four-term North Carolina congresswoman was left in disbelief.

“That frightened me because I had never had an experience like that before,” said Adams, who represents the 12th District in North Carolina.

Adams was a single mother of two in her 30s, in college in Ohio and going through a divorce. She also said she was dating a man she had no idea had a record of abuse.

“He had actually gone to prison,” Adams said. 

She eventually found out herself why.

“One day he just kind of went off, and my children were with me, and it really frightened me. First of all because he collected a lot of things, including guns. He had a lot of weapons … he attempted to attack my son, and I got in the middle of it and got hurt myself,” Adams said. “My jaw was dislocated, and I fell.”

She protected her son, but said he was hurt emotionally.

“I just prayed, ‘Lord, if you let me get out of here, you won’t have to worry with me coming back here,’” Adams said.

Her prayer was granted.

She said she filed a complaint with the local prosecutor's office and had no further contact with him. 

“He continued to try and find out where I was and leave flowers and things on my door … it was several months before I even went back to the apartment, and when I did I made sure I had an escort,” Adams said. 

But many women and men have a harder time escaping.

Data from the CDC shows 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men experience a form of violence or stalking by an intimate partner.

“Domestic violence is something people just don’t want to talk about … we don’t have enough safe places for women and their children when they need to leave,” Adams said.

Adams recently voted to reauthorize the Family Violence Prevention and Services Improvement Act, which would focus on those types of resources.

Adams, a Democrat, is a grandmother. While it’s been 45 years since that night, she still carries it with her.

“I do think about it, and I just don’t want anybody else to go through what I went through. But I also think it’s important for women in particular … to have the strength to be able to say, 'I don’t want this. I can have a better life, and I may have to make some sacrifices, but I’ll be able to do it,'" Adams said.

It's a strength she now carries within the halls of Congress.

If you need help, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.