What would you do with a DH that does this?

[DriedUp]

Whenever I try to start a conversation with my DH, I get a few words out, and then he interrupts me. If I object, he then proceeds to tell me what I was going to say, or what I was thinking, And of course, he often has NO idea! I am sick of never being heard, never being listened to, and NEVER getting to finish a sentence.

We've been married for over 30 years, and over these years this behaviour has escalated to the point where it is now almost constant. He is due to retire soon, so we will be spending more time together, which right now isn't a prospect that fills me with joy.

He's not all bad, in many ways we are very happy together, but this is really starting to become an issue that I can no longer ignore.

Any advice before I run screaming from the building?

stop talking when he does it and walk off or just stay quiet. He will be expecting you to respond.
If you keep doing this, he should get it eventually

If just turn and walk away if my dh did this continuously.

I had an ex who used to interrupt and finish my sentence with what he thought I was going to say. Insulting and infuriating. In the end I stopped bothering to communicate with him because it became too much of a battlefield.

Can I also mention another ex? He used to get halfway through a sentence then stop...so I would wait for the end of the sentence... and wait... and then just when I'd decided he'd finished talking. I'd start answering at exactly the same time he'd decide to finish the sentence. Then I got accused of interrupting! I witnessed him doing it to other, too. He must have thought the world was made of interrupters. But he was the problem.

My MIL does this, it drives me crazy. I think she's actually trying to be empathetic by joining in my sentences, like she understands me so well. Except she never says what I was going to say. I just stop talking now, wait for her to finish and then say, "no, what I was going to say was....". Hasn't stopped her though.

I agree with PP that this will probably take a really blunt approach to hammer it home.

My DM has started to do this recently, I can even hear her taking a breath as she’s ready to speak again before I’ve even finished what I was saying! I just put it down to old age… 😆

Ha, you have all reminded me of a consultant colleague who used to do this. We would be on ITU, in the morning, with me updating him on what had occurred overnight, discussing the patients before the ward round.
I’d start trying to tell him about Mr Bloggs in bed 1, and he’d immediately interrupt repeatedly with a lengthy management plan of how he intended to wean Mr Bloggs off his ventilator. I tried to stop him for 15 minutes before finally getting fed up and shouting “He died last night! Which is what I was trying to tell you from the start!”.
It was bad enough working with a man like this - I extend my sincere sympathies to OP and all PPs who are married to one!

I would buy a water pistol and shoot him with it every single time he does this. Like you would do to a dog barking annoyingly in the garden.

@Babdoc

Ha, you have all reminded me of a consultant colleague who used to do this. We would be on ITU, in the morning, with me updating him on what had occurred overnight, discussing the patients before the ward round. I’d start trying to tell him about Mr Bloggs in bed 1, and he’d immediately interrupt repeatedly with a lengthy management plan of how he intended to wean Mr Bloggs off his ventilator. I tried to stop him for 15 minutes before finally getting fed up and shouting “He died last night! Which is what I was trying to tell you from the start!”. It was bad enough working with a man like this - I extend my sincere sympathies to OP and all PPs who are married to one!

My DH used to do this a lot when I first knew him. He claimed it was just a sort of misplaced conversational enthusiasm!

I explained how annoying it was to have him trying to guess (invariably incorrectly) what I was about to say - why not just listen to me saying it and then respond?

He is much better now and only does it very very occasionally when I raise an eyebrow and say calmly, "No that's not what I was going to say. Can I now say what I was going to say?"

It usually works