ANDERSON - When it happened once, she thought maybe it was a fluke. When it happened again, she thought maybe it was bad luck. But when it happened a third time, she knew she had to make a decision.

"I just pick sucky men," said three-time domestic violence survivor Brittney Blaylock. "I get so wrapped up in them."

Blaylock, 31, said she has been beaten by three boyfriends in the past year - two of them in the past four months. Now single and working with a therapist, she said she wants to warn women that domestic abuse can happen to any woman.

And the last thing that woman should ever think is that it is her fault.

"You need to check on your man - it's free," she said of background searches. "If they have a (criminal charge), don't let them lie."

Blaylock said she was getting over her first domestic abuse encounter, when her then-boyfriend Craig Anderson allegedly busted down her door and sliced her leg.

In the most recent incident, police reports say Blaylock's then-boyfriend Michael Lloyd strangled her and refused to allow her to leave her bedroom for about six hours. Finally, Blaylock said, she convinced him to take her to the hospital because she was having heart complications.

"I said, 'I was beaten,' she recalled proudly, of her ability to get out safely.

In a bad economy

Domestic abuse has risen nationally since the economic decline. In a week-long National Domestic Violence Hotline study in late 2008, 54 percent of the callers reported their household finances had changed over the past year.

Locally, though, the rate of domestic abuse has remained constant, according to domestic abuse shelter staff members.

'It's not that there are more cases; it's just more reported,' said Kandi Floyd-Barton, a victims' advocate at Alternatives Inc.

The FBI estimates that only one in four domestic violence cases is reported