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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think that sometimes you should send the letter or message (versus no contact)?

72 replies

LoisLaneKent · 12/09/2025 18:38

So after a break up the line is always to go complete no contact and be strict with it. I follow this advice.

4 months ago my ex blindsided me at a time when we were due to move in together, had recently discussed having kids in the next few years etc

He did the actual break up over a video call which felt impersonal and disrespectful. I had suffered a bereavement 3 days prior which meant I was numb, in shock and annoyingly pleasant to him during. He never contacted me again.

I wrote a letter to him, saved to my laptop. And 2 months later I think - why did he get to inflict that on me when I could barely react and I never got to get these things off my chest? I personally think it would have impacted him if he heard the hurt he had caused. Is it really always healthy to go complete no contact and let the person off the hook?

OP posts:
stoptheworldiwanna · 13/09/2025 14:44

LoisLaneKent · 12/09/2025 19:15

This is it - he avoided doing it person I believe because he didn’t want to see or feel the pain he was causing. And then never spoke to me again. We were together for years!

im torn because my pride doesn’t want him to know im still hurting 4 months later - on the other, I never got to say my piece and I’ve found that very hard.

the idea would be to send one email

Edited

He won't care. He might laugh. He might show it to people to say you're the crazy ex. You won't hurt him, at all.

He dumped you months ago, and it will also stroke his ego to know you are still thinking about him while he's been getting on with his life.

LoisLaneKent · 13/09/2025 15:00

I think several answers are saying well he will react like x, y and z. But it’s not about his reaction.

it’s about not being silenced and having my words heard. I feel like he stripped me of my voice by blindsiding me and doing it days after a bereavement.

I had known him as a loving and generous person before this. But he did avoid serious conversations and tried to shut them down.

OP posts:
LoisLaneKent · 13/09/2025 15:01

i feel like it’s now or never either way. What I don’t want to feel is ‘I let that person silence me and never got to express what he should have had to hear.’ I don’t want to feel worse for sending it which is why I’m mulling it over.

OP posts:
5128gap · 13/09/2025 15:02

LaundryGarden · 13/09/2025 14:41

They may perfectly well be a good person, though! They just don’t want to be in a relationship with you any more. That doesn’t make them ‘bad’, it just makes them leaving you, however they do it.

Absolutely. Which is another reason why its best to leave people alone once they've told you they no longer want you in their life.

stoptheworldiwanna · 13/09/2025 15:04

But he's not going to hear your words. If he even opens the email he will just think you're unreasonably fixated on him, so he can dismiss everything you say. If he replies to you, it will be to tell you why you're wrong.

He doesn't care what you have to say.

5128gap · 13/09/2025 15:05

I think you need to think a step ahead before you send it. What response are you hoping for? Because its vanishingly unlikely you'll get anything that tells you you've been heard. You may get something defensive, but more likely you'll be dismissed or ignored. How will you feel then? Is it not worse to speak and be ignored than not speak at all?

LoisLaneKent · 13/09/2025 15:38

@stoptheworldiwanna I think I’m reasonably fixated. I was with him for years and thought I was going to marry and have kids with him. He’s the cold one and I don’t need to be his mirror image

@5128gap i’ll think about these questions thanks. This is why I haven’t rushed into contacting him to date

OP posts:
stoptheworldiwanna · 14/09/2025 02:31

LoisLaneKent · 13/09/2025 15:38

@stoptheworldiwanna I think I’m reasonably fixated. I was with him for years and thought I was going to marry and have kids with him. He’s the cold one and I don’t need to be his mirror image

@5128gap i’ll think about these questions thanks. This is why I haven’t rushed into contacting him to date

He doesn't care though. He doesn't care what you think and your words will have no impact on him. He's gone.

VoltaireMittyDream · 14/09/2025 02:36

The thing is, they don’t care.

They don’t care about the hurt they caused, or they think you’re oversensitive for being hurt, or they take your heartfelt letter into yet more evidence that you’re mad or needy or demanding or whatever and they’re well shot of you.

Write the letter by all means, but don’t send it:

PollyBell · 14/09/2025 02:40

If i break up with somone it is the end, if I received this i would ask them to stop contacting me and I would never send it a break up is just that

usedtobeprettybutImalrightnow · 14/09/2025 03:22

It really depends if it will actually make you feel better or not and actually provide closure. Will it honestly be helpful or cathartic for you? Only you know.

I don’t think not giving someone a list of all the ways they’re an arsehole is letting them off the hook, because frankly, and sadly, they didn’t and don’t GAF what you think of them. If they did care, even if they wanted to split up, then they’d behave better. Like, an actual conversation. After four months it may boost the selfish prick’s ego. You may feel that is less important than somehow articulating to him how you feel right now. You could well be correct. Is it possible part of the reason you’re feeling you need to be heard, although months have gone past, because you know you were deliberately ambushed while you were already grieving? That was a terrible low blow from him. However - he knows it was a piece of shit move. Who dumps someone who’s literally just lost someone? What the fuck!

A friend of mine got jilted - and while her sister was going through chemo, no less - and of course, she wanted to tell the cunt what she thought of him, who wouldn’t? Instead she sent her venting emails to me. We honed them into character-destroying works of art 😂 The irony is that Twatface scoffed to mutuals that she had packed her stuff and thereafter just flat ignored him like that was somehow not a reasonable response.

She said that she thought had she sent the angry messages then no doubt that would have been broadcast as well as proved to his selfish little brain he was justified to act as he did because she was crazy/nasty/didn’t understand how hard it was for him boohoo/whatever. God forbid these dudes would ever think ‘am I the asshole?’ The ones who can self-reflect don’t need a message telling them about their failings, and the ones who don’t, well, you could argue that it’s shouting down a well.

Personally, I’m a big fan of leaving them in silence, because even if they’re not arsed how you actually feel, with the dead air routine you can be fairly assured it’ll get on their nerves on some level - not because they’re labouring under the delusion you think they’re anything other than a piece of shit, or even really care, but because most people dislike being ignored.

PS. When that dickhead ex of my friend told people that she’d never spoken to him again since she moved out they were like 🙄 Some of these dudes don’t live in reality. I don’t think them not being told about the pain they’ve caused enables them. They know fine, they just don’t care, poor examples of humanity, fuck them.

But I also support you doing what is right for you. As long as you know you won’t look back and wish you’d said nothing, cos once it’s done it’s done. Maybe give it another while and see if the urge remains? Just as a compromise?

x

stoptheworldiwanna · 14/09/2025 03:28

PollyBell · 14/09/2025 02:40

If i break up with somone it is the end, if I received this i would ask them to stop contacting me and I would never send it a break up is just that

Honestly, four months later? I'd block them on every possible platform and tell everyone they were nuts and obsessed by me.

We cannot help how we feel, and it can take time to grieve a relationship, but we do have a choice over how we act.

He's allowed to not want to be with her, she's allowed to feel sad, but sending this will not help anything. I hope she realises that.

comfyslippets · 14/09/2025 04:08

Please don’t send it. I actually think it will make you feel worse because I don’t think he’ll reply and in the future I think it’ll make you look back and cringe.
I was ghosted by a man I was in a relationship with in January. We had known each other for 33 years, the last 7 of those it had turned romantic. Then in January he just ghosted me. Like you, I was absolutely blindsided, couldn’t, and still can’t, understand why somebody that I trusted and loved so much would do that. I messaged him and asked if he was ok, he said yes, been busy etc, then never read my last message. Anyway, I went through exactly what you’re feeling now. Some friends said absolutely send a message, others said don’t and I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, 8 months later and I’m still shocked and don’t understand it, but I’m healing and life isn’t quite as painful. As other people have said, if he can end it like that then he’s moved on in his head and doesn’t care. If he did happen to answer you it’d be to be defensive, then you’d answer, then at some point he’d probably stop replying (because he doesn’t care, because if he did he’d still be in touch with you), then you’d be in a new hurt all over again.
This way you have some power. I bet he wonders sometimes what you’re up to and what you’re doing. Men’s egos are massive. Let him wonder.
I have a journal I write my feelings about it all in so I can let it out.
I was like you at the 4 month stage, it’s so hard. As hard as it is you have to try to give yourself the closure you need. Looking back, if I had sent that message and he didn’t reply, or replied defensively, I think it would have set me back and made it so much worse.
I really feel for you and hope you heal well and find somebody worthy of your love xx

MyCatIsNine · 14/09/2025 06:01

There are a number of things, his choice in video calling you, a very impersonal way of ending things and your meek acceptance of him ending it, suggests you do not know him incredibly well.
You say you have been together years, why not go round to his straight away ?

For someone who thought they were about to join finances, move in together and start a family, I would expect you to be able to be angry, show that hurt and at the least go round and confront and speak, face to face.

Why did you not do this, it seems very polite on your side.

If it were me I would be thinking that this man has future faked you and the relationship wasn't incredibly deep. You have spent 4 months accepting this ending, again without you contacting or invading his space physically to expect a reason.

Therefore for that reason I wouldn't send him a letter or email, physical proof of your heartbreak, which leads to the question, is there another reason for you sending this, could you be thinking whoever he is with now could see the hurt he has caused you and become aware of the relationship.

Usually breaks up when you have been together years involve wider ripples, discussions with inlaws, friends, colleagues, the wider webs that entwine people's lives, the distribution of possesions that get left at different homes, but you got a video call and nothing else.

It suggests your lives were not incredibly entwined.

I'm sorry, I hope you recover.

Cheese55 · 14/09/2025 06:46

I expect he has moved on and barely thinks of you. He didnt break up with you over the phone because he 'couldn't bear to see the hurt he caused' he did it because it was quicker. I think you're expecting him to think with more emotional maturity than he has. A letter will put you into psycho ex category

OnlyMabelInTheBuilding · 14/09/2025 06:54

I was the person who broke up with someone after over ten years. I knew he’d struggle to accept it, as PP said, by the time I psyched myself up to do it (in person), I was long gone in my head. It was no one’s fault, we just were not right. He was unreasonable at times, but was very angry I had chosen to end it.

He sent me a long letter a few weeks later. I showed it to a friend who told me not to read it, and I put it in the bin.

LoisLaneKent · 14/09/2025 11:17

Thank you all.

@comfyslippets I think you are right that he will wonder. He wanted to stay friends but I couldn’t do that.

I haven’t sent it. Im going to talk it over with my therapist today. I wish I had found my anger during the break up but I can’t change the numb shocked reaction I had

OP posts:
nomas · 14/09/2025 11:20

LoisLaneKent · 14/09/2025 11:17

Thank you all.

@comfyslippets I think you are right that he will wonder. He wanted to stay friends but I couldn’t do that.

I haven’t sent it. Im going to talk it over with my therapist today. I wish I had found my anger during the break up but I can’t change the numb shocked reaction I had

OP, I confronted my ex a year after our break up. It’s not too late. Who cares if he thinks you’re still ruminating. I only really let the past go after I confronted him.

beadystar · 14/09/2025 12:22

I agree with OP. If it’s cathartic and healing for YOU, then by all means do it. However, what results are you expecting and how will you cope with them? It could likely be radio silence or calling you an obsessed stalker and blocking. How would you feel then, any better? Leaving with a video call is very very poor though. I’ve been learning a lot about avoidant attachment styles since my one dumped with a text two months ago. They can’t deal with emotional ‘scenes’ and pick the way that gives them control and ‘peace’. My previous pattern has been to burn all bridges down and block for good, and it has been cathartic and healing . Yet in my current case, I’m pulling out a silent watch and wait and a glow-up because I’d like my person back. It depends what you want.

Thelnebriati · 14/09/2025 12:48

I'm going to say this as kindly as I can, they don't care. You aren't advised to 'ignore' someone because its some terrible punishment for them. They don't care how you feel or how they hurt you. They were prepared to do those things to you at the time because they put their own feelings first.
As long as you need to send a letter, you have a need that can't be resolved. Why give a hurtful person that much power over you? Unrealistic expectations will only hurt you. Let them go and move on, its for your benefit not theirs.

CancelTheTableAlan · 16/09/2025 17:49

But he did avoid serious conversations and tried to shut them down.

So he's not going to be able to hear you telling him how you felt, is he?

Making him read it or sit through it won't force him to think.

You have to be the listener that you are seeking - be it to yourself.

Try the Byron Katie "The Work" four questions prompts- they will be perfect as you write down what you're angry about. Instead of sharing it with him "The Work" helps you learn from it yourself.

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 16/09/2025 17:58

I have sent it, my ex left my just before baby was born, and his nasty invalidating replies made me feel much worse, but if you can send it then block him then no harm really. As long as you are aware he may show people .

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