About a month ago my friend opened up to me that he's basically a prisoner in his own marriage.

His wife has always done all the book work, all the financial stuff, everything. This guy has no idea how to write a check or use a computer, open a checking account, manage his money, or anything.

All he did was go to work (manual labor, cash pay) and she did everything else. He was pulling thousands and thousand of dollars a month and she gambled it all away or spent it on her kids. She lost their house. She hid all his vital paperwork, birth certificate, passport, IDs. He's nearing middle age and he has nothing of all he's worked so hard to earn all these years. He never had a good education, he's very smart, he can learn to do almost anything, but the technical stuff like book work and accounting, using computers, it stymies him because he has no experience at it.

Basically, every story you've ever heard of a woman being victimized by a crazy, controlling husband, is happening to him except the genders are flipped. His wife has even physically attacked him at times. She's insisted on going with him to job sites, which is emasculating and embarrassing. She thinks he's cheating on her with clients, she thinks he's going to try and runaway so she hides his passports and other paperwork. She somehow transferred all their cars, even his work trucks, into her name. We don't even know what she has on him. He's signed things she's pushed at him without really knowing what he was even signing.

He's not retarded, he's just soft-hearted and trusting to a fault, plus he's obviously been depressed and thought his situation was hopeless. Between working and her crazy behavior, he's had no time to make any real friends besides me and a handful of people at his church.

I want to help him, and I've been trying my best to, telling him how to open his own bank account, and I got him hired at a national chain business by drawing him up a resume and entering it online to the company, which he had no idea how to do. It's his first "real" job ever and he's so happy.

He's in the process of moving out, but he still needs his paperwork from her. He says he's going to the cops if she doesn't give it to him.

What I need is advice on how to stay safe from this woman and her kids, and just anything I need to watch out for. If you or anyone you know has ever been in a situation like this, what are some of the things you know now that you wish you knew at the time? What you do differently? What attack did you not see coming?

I'm just really scared tbh. I have no idea what I'm doing, I've never had to deal with someone as toxic as his wife, I have crippling anxiety and this is not helping, but I will never give up on my friend.