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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think I’m too much like Faye from Love Island

24 replies

Simpleisntit · 07/08/2021 22:37

I’m generally very calm (I think) in relationships, although I can be insecure and sometimes question things too much which can be discouraging for guys who have feelings for me. I am working on this.

I’m asking this question because a couple of months ago I had a massive go at my boyfriend which to be honest was on a par with Faye. We were both very drunk from a night out which I know doesn’t excuse it. I swore and shouted at him. I’ve been reading the thread on love island and wondering if I am actually abusive.

It all kind of escalated. I was on his phone (he’d given it to me) and I accidentally clicked through to the next screen where he’d been sending women in bikinis messages on instagram. All of his threads were women. I clicked into a couple of them. He hadn’t done this for a while but it had been while we were going out. There was even a voice note in the thread I opened. These women were never replying and the whole thing felt very creepy. Lots of flame emojis and random comments about nice bikini etc.

I confronted him immediately and asked him what it was about and he blamed me for snooping (I genuinely wasn’t) and said he was just ‘passing on compliments’ to ‘friends of friends’ (I don’t think these were friends, the one I clicked on was an influencer not that it matters). I asked him to show me the messages then if he had nothing to hide and he refused, instead going and hiding in the toilet. I told him not to delete things and that if he did we would be over as I needed to understand what had been said. he said he wasn’t, then came out and he had indeed deleted a few threads. Which then upset me as I felt he must have had something bad to hide.

During this time I escalated to shouting and calling him a dirty f creep and other similar things, as some of these women were half his age. I also told him to f off when he said can we sit down and talk about this calmly. I also think I used the c word.

It was all a big shock and I felt awful about my reaction, and apologised profusely the next day and the days following. He said he felt something had broken at the core of our relationship because of how angry I had been, and tbh I think he has a point. It was real venom coming out my mouth.

I hate that I have this in me. Am I on a par with Faye? I’ve never spoken to any exes like this as far as I can remember. It was unusual for me. But I know that I am too easily triggered to be insecure and I wish I could fix this. For me this incident was less about the messages and more about the lying on his part which made me feel I couldn’t trust him , but perhaps he lied because he was so scared of me. He looked petrified.

Yabu - you are not as bad as Faye
Yanbu - you are as bad as Faye

OP posts:
LuckyHarold · 07/08/2021 22:55

Well be does sound like a dirty fucking creep so 🤷‍♀️

One drunken argument with your boyfriend because he had been a shit and messaged other girls is not eequivalent to abuse.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 07/08/2021 22:59

That's not abuse Confused, you shouted at your boyfriend because he broke your trust and yes, acted like a dirty fucking creep, and then you apologised. He wouldn't have been getting an apology from me, he would have been getting his bags packed.

Oneborneverydecade · 07/08/2021 23:05

It sounds as though your behaviour was on a par with Faye's. The drink doesn't excuse your reaction but it does explain it somewhat.
Most importantly what have you learnt from the incident? If you've taken measures to make sure it never happens again then I wouldn't beat yourself up over it

Whatabambam · 07/08/2021 23:09

You can learn to handle your feelings more and how you approach these situations. I'm not sure if he an unlearn being a creepy arsehole.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 07/08/2021 23:16

You will likely get quite a few comments like Oneborneverydecade, but the truth is people lose their temper sometimes because we are human. If someone hurts us we get upset and angry, and it's a natural instinct to lash out. You didn't hurt him, just said a few words to try and hurt his feelings back.

dryasaboner · 07/08/2021 23:17

Please tell me he's an ex boyfriend

Oneborneverydecade · 07/08/2021 23:25

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion I agree with you (except where you say she didn't hurt him, unless you mean physically?) I do wonder whether you think Faye's behaviour was reasonable though?

PornStarQuarantini · 07/08/2021 23:31

Faye is clearly a product of her past experiences/relationships and has been hurt and mugged off. Her anger is a symptom of that - when she went against her gut instinct to be with Teddy she made herself vulnerable so his actions were a kick in the teeth. She did go too far but she's just hitting out to protect herself. She's put her guard back up and although I like Teddy, I can see why she's behaving the way she is.

dryasaboner · 07/08/2021 23:33

Can we just talk about why you think you are only worth being with a man who treats you like an absolute fool please

Simpleisntit · 07/08/2021 23:37

@dryasaboner we have actually split up, this and other things we’re making me feel shit and it all just fell apart as I was calling him out on it.

I didn’t want the thread to be about my relationship and what I was doing with it if that makes sense but I meant ex boyfriend

I still think back to this incident a lot though and worry I was too aggressive

OP posts:
Mistressofnone · 07/08/2021 23:45

Everyone loses it sometimes and hopefully learn from it. I think the Faye upset is because Teddy didn't do anything horrendously wrong. It seemed like he was just being polite to this other girl so she didn't feel too embarrassed for coming onto him.

Faye has been very irrational and emotionally abusive and glossed over her own bad behaviour.

dryasaboner · 07/08/2021 23:45

I massively recommend this book. It will examine why you react that way you do and examine how you can react with your rational mind next time a situation that overwhelms you occurs

To think I’m too much like Faye from Love Island
Simpleisntit · 07/08/2021 23:47

What book is it @dryasaboner?

OP posts:
acolderwar · 08/08/2021 00:00

Any reasonable person would tell you that getting angry about your partner messaging other women in the way that he did is a perfectly normal reaction. You need to worry less about being 'abusive' and more about not allowing men to treat you badly.

Susannahmoody · 08/08/2021 00:03

No clue who Faye is but he sounds like an utter waste of space. Move on.

dryasaboner · 08/08/2021 00:07

It's the dialectal behaviour therapy workbook

JacquelineCarlyle · 08/08/2021 08:43

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion

That's not abuse Confused, you shouted at your boyfriend because he broke your trust and yes, acted like a dirty fucking creep, and then you apologised. He wouldn't have been getting an apology from me, he would have been getting his bags packed.
Agree with this!
waytheleaveswork · 08/08/2021 08:49

It's always good to reflect on your actions and apologise if you feel you've behaved inappropriately.

But also, you are allowed to be angry and sometimes we make mistakes and shout. He sounds like a total shit.

The fact that you are considering if you are abusive tells me you are not. Because real abusers cannot reflect on their actions or take responsibility.

His minimising, deflection and lies are more toxic and more concerning. Yes, try to stay calm next time, but remember that our feelings and emotions help to keep us safe.

Bluntness100 · 08/08/2021 08:53

Clearly him posting sleazy comments isn’t ok. However it’s not ok to speak to people like this and there is an element of “he made me do it” in your post which is classic abusers language,

None of us know if you’re an abuser, but that night you were abusive.

LemonKitten · 08/08/2021 10:26

Why did YOU apologise? Getting angry may not be the textbook perfect way to deal with it, but it's the way most people would deal with it. I don't know who Faye is, so can't comment on that.

He sounds like a creep and this is one case in which I would definitely agree with the LTB brigade...

Merryoldgoat · 08/08/2021 10:38

Why would you apologise for discovering your partner was trying to connect with bikini clad women??

Sweet Jesus I don’t know what’s going on these days.

Simpleisntit · 08/08/2021 10:40

I apologised because of the way I spoke to him. I shouted and swore - it was very aggressive. He looked terrified tbh

OP posts:
Meaninglesss · 08/08/2021 10:50

No. You are allowed to be angry. Your ex did an appalling thing and you shouldn’t be a pushover and allow him to think that’s acceptable behaviour.
Maybe just act with a bit more dignity next time (I know it’s hard to when you’re enraged) and just dump the loser in a calm way.

therocinante · 08/08/2021 11:57

I think there's two things going on here with you/this whole discussion, OP.

One is that lots of people have really poor communication/emotional regulation skills - it seems you've showed you can have trouble regulating your emotions when needed and communicating effectively. I see a lot of Faye's behaviour in the way people I know and myself when I was a lot younger behaved - lashing out, escalating to a point where you can't just back down, shouting etc. I think part of it is that a lot of us weren't really taught good emotional regulation and communication as kids. I know people now who are teaching children in primary school in an age-appropriate way how to identify 'red' (angry) or 'blue' (sad) etc feelings, and how we tackle those - go and take some deep breaths, distraction, etc. A friend of mine models healthy communication with her Y1s by teaching them how to advocate from themselves when they are upset and emotional without lashing out - it's really interesting and impressive. At primary school if I was crying and upset about something, I would have been told to stop crying and get on with it, or not to call someone names and that's it. We weren't taught - in my experience and that of a lot of people I know - how to have rational conversations about emotional situations.

I think the other part of it is that modern dating/behaviour expected from a lot of men is often horrendous. It leaves young women especially feeling precarious and vulnerable and powerless, and then combined with pressure to look like Instagram models it makes a toxic lack of self esteem and ability to handle ourselves properly. That doesn't excuse behaviour like yours (even if your ex was in the wrong) or Faye's, but it does explain why women who have been used to a culture of 'lad's holiday' cheating being expected and 'your girlfriend will never find out you've been to the strip club' etc etc are lashing out in a really dysregulated way.

All of this is just my opinion/experience, of course, but I think and hope we'll see a reasonable change in a couple of decades as we understand better how raising people with emotional skills as well as academic skills is important.

The best thing you can do for yourself is work on how you respond to things. The workbook a PP posted is a good start. If you're on Tiktok, check out @anxiouslovecoach - she links to some good resources and talks a lot about realising you have some toxic behaviours and how to get your own shit in order, in the context of modern dating. It takes a lot of work to get to the point where you can ask yourself what the need is behind your behaviour - in your example above, you needed to be reassured that your partner cared about you more than he did women on the internet. That manifested itself as anger (not productive) and instead of recognising that need and expressing it properly, you lashed out. Now, sounds like he was a dick and wouldn't have been able to meet that need in a way that was healthy for you, but your behaviour still wasn't good. Get to work on it and I think you'll find you feel better and more able to cope with this kind of emotionally-high-stakes stuff in future.

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