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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask how I handle this

61 replies

SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 19:32

I’ll try not to make an essay out of this. I’ve been married for 5 years. The first 4 were amazing, really amazing. This past year has been really rocky though. I know I’m some of the problem. I worked in a very stressful job, started drinking a bit (half a bottle of wine a night) and was a bit of a nightmare to live with.

Just before we went on holiday at Christmas we had a belter of an argument where DH said he had t been happy for the past year with my stress and general MH. I really made an effort, cut back in the booze and agreed to pack in my well paid job. We both agreed that I’d retrain for a very low paid but really fulfilling dream job. We had savings (mostly saved by me) and before I went and did the training we split what was in the savings account. I had concerns over the cost and the distance (training was a long way from home) but was reassured that it would be OK.

Fast forward to 3 months down the road, I’ve done the training and started work 7 days a week and loving it and doing really well. My DH has been visiting every 2 weeks for 3/4 days at a time which has been great and FT every evening.

The problem started when I mentioned about our credit card of which I pay just over the minimum every month (about a 2k balance). I wasn’t hugely concerned on the amount as I knew I could pay it off towards the end of the year. He knew we had a balance but claims he didn’t, he thought I’d paid it off. Anyway, this has turned into a living nightmare. It blew up on his last visit where he told me I was selfish and narcissistic for even thinking about the retraining and lower paid job and now the distance is a problem. I reminded him that he encouraged me to go for this and reminded him of the discussions on the subject where he states that he ‘was being supportive’ at the time but also in his head couldn’t get past the low pay and cost of training.

I’m now moving back to where he is this week and living with his parents. He’s been so awful this week (on another visit) making up imaginary conversations we’ve apparently had on the subject, making snide comments on my new job, appearance and mocking my opinions to the point I’ve just given up fighting my corner.

He’s supposed to be paying my car loan in the time I’m away as he’s using my car and has missed 2 payments despite me asking for the money. I’m now overdrawn and have absolutely no money.

When he visited me this time I had no electricity so I arranged for s sparky to come that day as I was working. It cost £20 for the visit but apparently it was so stressful that I ‘owed him a blowjob’ for the hassle. I’ve been on my period this week and ordinarily we’d do other stuff but this morning we were in a rush to do something so didn’t have time. This resulted in a sulk all day with general nastiness I.e silent treatment, more nasty comments, telling me he’d dream cheated on me and enjoyed it etc. I remained calm and didn’t rise to it and put it down to the lack of sex. We get back, period had finished so I just gave in and had sex. He’s slightly better but still a bit off.

There’s just so much that’s happened that I think I want out. I feel like he’s manipulated the situation and wants out of the marriage too. He claims he doesn’t but I think he does.

I’m now going back to no house (we rented before and I paid all the bills), no job and in an area I hate and have no friends. I’m sad that up until 8 months ago we were so so happy and now it’s just not the same. I’m annoyed with myself for being left so vulnerable and annoyed with him because I’ve supported him with problems with his health and problems with his DD.

He was arrested 2 years ago for trying to strangle me and I stayed with him because he wasn’t well and he was stressed and he gave up drinking (he’s not good with alcohol).

I’m writing this thinking how fucking stupid I’ve been but also panicking because I have absolutely nothing and I get the feeling that he gets off on that. I’m trying to find some way of coping with this when I get back. My only friend lives thousands of miles away, I can’t tell my dad as he just loves him and would blame me so I’m stuck. I need to go back, find a job and reset but I don’t know how long I can go through this pretence and trying to keep him happy. It’s such a mess. I actually just want to crawl away and die. How fucking tragic is that. After so many years telling my DD not to rely on anyone for happiness or security that I’ve ended up in this situation. I’m not a bad person, I can be stressy but I’m not nasty.

Sorry, that’s a mind dump and there’s probably so much I’ve left out, not intentionally. Wtf am I going to do?

OP posts:
SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 19:38

Apologies in advance if I don’t respond immediately, I’m writing this while he’s in the bath.

OP posts:
Flyingprettycretonnecurtains · 04/06/2018 19:45

He tried to strangle you! He sounds awful.
Leave. Return to where you trained and get a job there. Your dad can't love someone who tried to strangle his daughter and forces you to have sex. If he does then frankly he is as bad. Get any job you can or go back to well paid stressful type work to get money together and pay for YOU.

If you are having to write this in secret then you are scared. I'd get out asap. You've nothing to lose and everything to save.

Good luck and keep safe.

Juells · 04/06/2018 19:45

Horrible situation to be in. Can you not get a well-paid job again?

LEMtheoriginal · 04/06/2018 19:45

Please get away from this man he is an abusive bullying mind fuck. You don't have to go back to him. In fact please dont

SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 19:48

I can get a well paid job again and had a Skype interview with a follow up meeting on Friday and also another interview next week but I just need time to get back on my feet.

OP posts:
SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 19:51

I’m not scared in the fact that he’ll go for me again, I just get the feeling that he’s almost abusing me in another way. Am I being dramatic? I just don’t know anymore.

OP posts:
Juells · 04/06/2018 19:52

What he's doing is very manipulative, it seems to be about making you doubt yourself.

Slowtrain2dawn · 04/06/2018 19:54

He is abusive, he’s draining you dry as abusers do. You’re confused because he said he would support you and now he’s not, this is a deliberate tactic to destroy your self worth and confidence. It sounds as though it’s working too. Carry on training for your dream job or go back to the well paid one ( I bet it will be less stressful than trying to manage him) and LTB. The money issues can all be sorted in time. It’s sad if you think you have had some good times (but he assaulted you during that time??) but you can’t waste any more of your life on this. He won’t change. Once he’s out of your life you’ll meet new people, make friends and be free. Listen to the advice you gave your daughter, please.

gingerbreadbiscuits · 04/06/2018 19:56

He was arrested 2 years ago for trying to strangle me

You need to get out.

Storminateapot · 04/06/2018 19:58

Things were 'so, so wonderful' until a year ago yet he tried to kill you 2 years ago? They weren't that wonderful then, by anyone's standards, surely?

Now he believes you 'owe him blowjobs' for imagined transgressions that are actually bullshit, is criticising and mocking you?

Well he sounds a real keeper doesn't he? Confused

SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 19:58

I understand that I need to LTB but I want to be in a stronger situation financially. ATM as it is, I have nowhere to live. I just don’t know how to go on the the pretence that everything is OK.

Spiteful though it is, I’m cooking him steak and I ‘accidentally’ dropped it on the floor 😬

OP posts:
Anythingforacatslife · 04/06/2018 20:01

Leave him. Now. He’s abusive.

SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 20:01

I know, I really know about the physical assault, and I feel foolish for sticking by him. Classic, textbook abusive behaviour, everything was great, he was great, very attentive but like a few women I’m sure I thought we’d get through it. Please don’t make me feel more stupid than I already do 😢

OP posts:
SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 20:02

Sorry, I’m not sure if I’m asking for advice or just to offload.

OP posts:
PastBananas · 04/06/2018 20:05

OMG. Leave the bastard.

Storminateapot · 04/06/2018 20:07

I think you know what the only advice can be, hard as it is to hear. Sorry, not trying to put the boot in, but imagine you were reading this from someone else? He's wonderful when you're pleasing him and doing what he wants. That is only going to get harder and harder to fulfil and why should you turn yourself inside out trying to appease him so he's not nasty to you at best or tries to physically harm you at worst. He's not doing much to try to make you happy in return is he?

You deserve better than that.

TittyFahLaEtcetera · 04/06/2018 20:16

He's an abusive, gaslighting fuck and you need to leave. I counted at least 4 types of abuse (emotional, financial, physical and sexusl) in your post, as well as gaslighting. My ex was the same. You deserve better than this.

SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 20:24

That’s exactly it @storm everything is ok (apart from me being stressy) when I’m paying the bills and I’m there to cook tea, make his sandwiches etc but when I have to work away from home which I sometimes have to do (in the well paid job) it all goes tits up. It’s just everything I try to do is just never enough. At the beginning of the relationship he fawned and put me on a pedestal which I told him then wasn’t good. He apparently came out of a relationship where he was abused. His EW do not have a relationship of any kind and I act as the go between for his DD sake.

OP posts:
SandAndSea · 04/06/2018 20:31

OP, he sounds about as bad as it's possible to be. Start planning your departure and leave asap.

usernamefromhell · 04/06/2018 20:35

Never mind the business with the jobs and all that, I can't get past the fact that he tried to strangle you and you stayed with him.

He's an abusive arsehole who is deliberately fucking with your head and you need to leave him.

It sounds like you have a variety of work options available to you -- do you have any savings left to move somewhere while you find your feet?

SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 20:43

I’m very fortunate that I can get a job, maybe not as well paying but I’m at the point of saying fuck it and will go for any job in my field, well paid or not. It’s just going to take a little bit of time to get started. I go back with him on Thursday, to live with his parents (who know about the strangling incident, his dad was horrified, mum not so much) and I feel trapped. I just don’t know how I’m going to get through the next couple of months without completely cracking. Im just hoping that he’ll be on his best behaviour during that time in front of his parents which will make me dislike him more to the point I won’t be able to keep up the charade.

OP posts:
SadandAnnoyed · 04/06/2018 20:44

I have no savings left at all and in my overdraft. My plan is to try and sell what I can when I get back to get me back in the Black.

OP posts:
Dsc1907 · 04/06/2018 21:49

You're not being dramatic. He is extremely abusive, and I'm so sorry you've been going through all this. I really feel for you.

I also sincerely doubt he was abused in the previous relationship. Abusers often spin woeful tales about their terrible exes like that so that if the ex tries to warn you about them you wouldn't believe it.

I can understand why you feel trapped. It reads as if he has been working on that for quite some time. There are so many things he's doing or has done that are deliberate, controlling and abusive.

Did you report the strangling incident to the police?

If you have nowhere else to go have you contacted women's aid for support and advice or looked into a refuge? His behaviour is escalating, and someone who has had no qualms about trying to strangle you in the past is dangerous. The sooner you get away from him the better, but please stay safe.

WhatsGoingOnEh · 04/06/2018 22:08

You say the first 4 years were "amazing, really amazing". But he tried to strangle you during that "amazing" time?

Don't go back to his town, go back to your own town. Does your dad know your DH tried to strangle you?

Slowtrain2dawn · 05/06/2018 18:54

I understand the need to feel secure financially before you leave, there are charities, refuges and possibly help with housing to get you out of this situation. I think we, as women are so used to being self sufficient and looking after others it’s really hard to ask for help. Can you call women’s aid and see if there are any local services that could help you plan your exit? Hope you’re ok, and I didn’t mean to make you feel stupid as I know how hard it is to extract yourself from somebody so controlling.