After much deliberation and at least one alleged occasion of her privacy being invaded by a reporter for BuzzFeed, Christine Blasey Ford has come forward as the woman who is accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

Ford alleges in the letter, which was sent to her congressperson earlier this summer but was revealed by Senator Feinstein just last week, that Kavanaugh and one other man, both of whom Ford says were “falling-down drunk,” tried to rape her during their high school years.

Acting on advice from Debra Katz, a lawyer known for work on sexual harassment cases, Ford took and passed a lie detector test to try to mitigate the assured attacks by both some Kavanaugh supporters in the public and Republican leadership.

Katz told the Washington Post, “Victims must have the right to decide whether to come forward, especially in a political environment that is as ruthless as this one… (Ford) will now face vicious attacks by those who support this nominee.”

Speaking about the effects of the incident, Ford told the Post, “I think it derailed me substantially for four or five years,” she said. Ford struggled both academically and socially, and was unable to maintain healthy relationships with men. “I was very ill-equipped to forge those kinds of relationships,” she said, explaining that she first detailed the assault during marriage counseling with her husband in 2012. She provided the paper with notes from the session, but Kavanaugh’s name isn’t specifically mentioned.

Her husband Russell Ford is standing by his wife, telling the Washington Post, “I think you look to judges to be the arbiters of right and wrong. If they don’t have a moral code of their own to determine right from wrong, then that’s a problem. So I think it’s relevant. Supreme Court nominees should be held to a higher standard.”

Since it has been decades since the attack, Ford, who is now a well respected professor and scholar, does not remember all of the details of the night of the attack, something that could be used against her if she has to testify in a hearing or a court case.