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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Support thread for those in Emotionally Abusive relationships Number *9*

999 replies

foolonthehill · 06/06/2012 15:53

Am I being abused?

Verbal Abuse A wonderfully non-hysterical summary. If you're unsure, read the whole page and see if you're on it.
Emotional abuse from the same site as above
Emotional abuse a more heartfelt description
Signs of Abuse & Control Useful check list
why financial abuse is domestic violenceAre you a free ride for a cocklodger, or supposed to act grateful for every penny you get for running the home?
Women's Aid: "What is Domestic Violence?" This is also, broadly, the Police definition.
20 signs you're with a controlling and/or abusive partner Exactly what it says on the tin

Books :

"Why Does He Do That?" by Lundy Bancroft - The eye-opener. Read this if you read nothing else.
"The Verbally Abusive Relationship" by Patricia Evans ? He wants power OVER you and gets angry when you prove not to be the dream woman who lives only in his head.
"The Verbally Abusive Man, Can He Change?" by Patricia Evans - Answer: Perhaps - ONLY IF he recognises HIS issues, and if you can be arsed to work through it. She gives explicit guidelines.
"Men who hate women and the women who love them" by Susan Forward. The author is a psychotherapist who realised her own marriage was abusive, so she's invested in helping you understand yourself just as much as helping you understand your abusive partner.
"The Emotionally Abusive Relationship: How to Stop Being Abused and How to Stop Abusing" by Beverley Engels - The principle is sound, if your partner isn't basically an arse, or disordered.
"Codependent No More : How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself" by Melody Beattie - If you a rescuer, you're a co-dependent. It's a form of addiction! This book will help you.
But whatever you do, don't blame yourself for being Co-dependent!

Websites :

So, you're in love with a narcissist - Snarky, witty, angry, but also highly intelligent: very good for catharsis
Dr Irene's verbal abuse site - motherly advice to readers' write-ins from a caring psychotherapist; can be a pain to navigate but very validating stuff
Out of the fog - and now for the science bit! Clinical, dispassionate, and very informative website on the various forms of personality disorders and how they impact on family and intimate relationships.
Get your angries out ? You may not realise it yet, but you ARE angry. Find out in what unhealthy ways your anger is expressing itself. It has probably led you to staying in an unhealthy relationship.
Melanie Tonia Evans is a woman who turned her recovery from abuse into a business. A little bit "woo" and product placement-tastic, but does contain a lot of useful articles.
Love fraud - another site by one woman burned by an abusive marriage
You are not crazy - one woman's experience. She actually has recordings of her and her abusive partner having an argument, so you can hear what verbal abuse sounds like. A pain to navigate, but well worth it.
Baggage reclaim - Part advice column, part blog on the many forms of shitty relationships.
heart to heart a wealth of information and personal experiences drawn together in one place

If you find that he really wants to change
I stay or should I go bonus materials this is a site containing the material for men who want to change?please don?t give him the link?print out the content for him to work through.

The Bill of Rights
bill of rights here is what you should expect as a starting point for your treatment in a relationship, as you will of course be treating others!!

OP posts:
ForSaletotheHighestBidder · 03/07/2012 16:05

Wow just scanning through some of the bonus materials from shouldistayorshouldigo and I have to say its like I can hear my FW speaking!

DoingItForMyself · 03/07/2012 16:32

ForSale "I am a bit confused about whether FWH is EA/ VA or just a fucking alcoholic bully, or if he is depressed and all these things are the result of this. Am coming to the conclusion that it doesn't actually matter does it, the results are still causing harm to our family."

I went through this, was he depressed, was it Aspergers, was it something to do with his dad dying when he was a teenager? In the end I thought, that's his problem. I've flagged up all of these issues to him and he was unable to pursue any of them with any real determination (counselling sessions were just an opportunity to let off steam about how I expected too much from him and that he was unable to be the man I needed him to be)

In the end I too decided that it didn't matter WHY he was like he was, all that mattered was that he couldn't/wouldn't change and I couldn't live with him.

TodaysAGoodDay · 03/07/2012 18:08

Hope the exam went okay nini (got it right this time Grin)

Well done.

arthriticfingers · 03/07/2012 19:33

checking in to say hi to all.
Have taken girls to the sea and don't have internet.
Hope exam went well Nini
Back in a few days

TodaysAGoodDay · 03/07/2012 19:37

Have a lovely time fingers Smile

veeeee · 03/07/2012 20:17

I hope it went well nini

Have a fan time fingers

I need an escape plan Sad

NiniLegsInTheAir · 03/07/2012 20:42

Hey guys :)

The exam didn't go all that well, the questions were very hard (and I went completely blank with one of them and wrote down a load of bollocks), but I did my best. The other candidates also said it was hard so I don't think it was just me. I won't know the outcome until September so for now I can forget about it. I'm resisting the urge to go over the questions to see what I should have written down. My arm is killing me now! Feeling physically and mentally exhausted so gonna have an early night, even NSDH has been ok tonight, he bought me a beer to have. (Why is there no beer smiley?)

Thanks for all your support, it's been great to have you all behind me, I'm very grateful. I'll catch up with you all tomorrow. I hope everyone has been ok today and FW's have been behaving themselves. Thanks

JugglingWithTangentialOranges · 03/07/2012 21:17

Hi Nini,

You seem quite philosophical about the exam - hopefully good enough, hey ?!

Love your last line about the FW's !

Sleep well all - we will after excitement of seeing the Olympic flame pass by near us tonight - DC's got pretty close so hopefully a good memory for them x

DoingItForMyself · 03/07/2012 22:29

You did your best and that's all you can do Nini x

AnastasiaSteele · 03/07/2012 22:38

Hey all, not checked in for a few days. Still feel embroiled in it, well I am embroiled in it. I feel like I love him more than ever which is not good. I appear to have attached again; he seems distant.

I have panic attacks about losing FW, I have panic attacks about him not disappearing. I'm so conflicted.

I could so easily find a naice man. Sigh.

I'm thinking of you all.

DoingItForMyself · 03/07/2012 22:42

Blimey that's a bit of a head-fuck Anastasia! Panicking about losing him and panicking about being stuck with him must be a very hard thing to deal with.

If you could easily find a naice one please, please do, but not until this one is totally out of your system so that you can be in a better place and make sure your future relationships are much healthier.

foolonthehill · 03/07/2012 23:20

AS at the risk of making you very very cross with me........STOP IT.

go and find someone nice to play with.

you are not married, you don't have children. Please please, please don't believe the garbage that you can change him with your lurve....he has shown you who he is and what he thinks of you......believe him.

You are worth more than this and if you keep enabling him he will just get worse because he knows you will take it.

OP posts:
DoingItForMyself · 03/07/2012 23:28

Jeez if there are no children and no marriage contract why would anyone put up with this shit?!

LemonDrizzled · 04/07/2012 00:12

Anastasia you are in love with something this FW provides. A sense of familiarity or completeness that has been programmed into you by your upbringing. Someone without that programming with a healthy set of boundaries would have baulked at a relationship like yours.
You take him food, you lend /give him money to pay his rent, and he treats you like shit. As Anyfucker would ask, is his cock solid gold?

You deserve better than this. Our job is to convince you.
YOU DESERVE BETTER!!! A nice man, a good man who is kind to you, pulls his weight and makes you feel loved and cherished.

Go back up to the top and read the Bill of Rights again.

And Bibi if you are around can you issue a express ticket for this Loser to the FSOF??

AnastasiaSteele · 04/07/2012 09:08

Thank you for replying...and for the tough love fool and DoingIt. Nope no children, no solid gold cock...just what lemonDrizzled said with a side order of low self esteem so you are right, I am worth more and I need to convince myself. Counselling again tomorrow and re-reading the bill of rights.

JugglingWithTangentialOranges · 04/07/2012 09:27

You are so lucky to have a thread like this, and to have found it - there is such good advice for you on here. (Wish I'd found similar before having the DC's - at least to properly consider options - HeyHo ! )

I so hope you will listen to it. And really listen and hear the rubbish you are being dealt by FW. Be brave and move on from him. You deserve someone much better for you who will treat you well.

You have your future ahead of you. It's all in your hands.
Be calm, but move on.
You can do it !

Make sure the counseling is more about you and moving on from this relationship, than it becoming about trying to fix it. We went to Relate (once) in the early days, and I feel they are too invested in trying to keep people together.

lostmywellies · 04/07/2012 09:55

Shame - if it was solid gold, you could at least cut it off and have something to remember him by! :o

JugglingWithTangentialOranges · 04/07/2012 10:06

Hi lost ! I'm getting "Should I stay (or should I go)" also by Lundy Bancroft and others. Is this the one you've read recently ? Was it helpful ?

I hope I can stay but make things better for us all in some way. But hey, isn't that just what we always hope ?! Hmm

lostmywellies · 04/07/2012 10:41

Yes, that's the book I'm reading at the moment. I've only just read the first section so far, as there is SOOO much to take in it's pretty slow going - an excellent book, though, I must say, very helpful so far. I think I will be reading and re-reading it - very good value for money! It's so much better than counselling for me, because I can read it, do the exercises and think about it at my speed. But packed with information.

Here's an example of something I've just put to the back of my mind - last year we went on a holiday just after our rather dramatic and unplanned international move (juggling, you may remember that). We talked about it beforehand - I really didn't want to go, it just wasn't the right time. He overruled because he felt the money would be wasted if we didn't go - we couldn't get it back. I thought it would be wasted just as much if we did go - and turns out I was right. He had to work the whole time; I was left entertaining the dcs while in emotional turmoil because of the recent events - it just felt like an endurance test more than a holiday. And then at the end: a car accident. I broke my leg, but we were luck not to lose dd3. So we came back full of positivity to reassure our worried friends and relatives - yes, we had a lovely time and it could've been so much worse with the accident; we're so thankful, blah blah. ... And it's only now that I'm suddenly thinking, hey, I'm really really cross that we went on that holiday and now I am going to have problems with my knee forever, it seems, all because we had a disagreement and he overruled. And I went along with it for a peaceful life. AIBU to feel so resentful now? I'm not doing it again. There's a possibility of another international move in a year's time - I'm already thinking I'm going to put my foot down this time. I've been making all the sacrifices for too long.

Oh help, splurging all over this thread again! :o Keep promising myself I'll shut up and stop going on about myself - it's not working, is it?! But seriously, AIBU?

TodaysAGoodDay · 04/07/2012 10:59

Oh where the hell has my post gone? FFS!

JugglingWithTangentialOranges · 04/07/2012 11:01

Hi lost,

I reckon it's fine to splurge here ! I think sharing our own experiences is really helpful to others - everyone keeps saying that sounds so much like my (sometimes old) relationship.

I haven't much time to give you a better, longer answer, but no you're definitely NBU to think like that lost I'm sorry your knee got hurt and damaged in the accident, and you had a fairly miserable time out there generally. How you're thinking reminds me of some of the issues that came up for me on a recent assertiveness course I did. That was helpful - basically of course your wants, needs and preferences should count equally in your family life alongside his - and it's quite normal and healthy for each person to assert their own views and preferences, whilst hopefully considering those of the other person too. HTH a little x

foolonthehill · 04/07/2012 11:02

^Keep promising myself I'll shut up and stop going on about myself^ -WHY??

surely the point is that in your life you feel you are not worth listened to so YOU NEED to talk properly here. This is what the thread is for.

it is only when you feel yourself to be HEARD and WORTHY OF being heard that you will find a proper way through your life.

Only when you can separate the good behaviour from the bad/manipulative/disrespectful that you can make decisions about how to make it work for you and your DCs

If you don't give yourself permission to be yourself, talk, work through and research here...then where and how would you do it at the moment?

OP posts:
foolonthehill · 04/07/2012 11:05

basically of course your wants, needs and preferences should count equally in your family life alongside his - and it's quite normal and healthy for each person to assert their own views and preferences, whilst hopefully considering those of the other person too

this, yes.

However it is unlikely that either of your DPs are going to join in in quite this way. Therefore you have to think extra about how you are going to model this to DCs, and work it out for yourselves.

OP posts:
TodaysAGoodDay · 04/07/2012 11:09

Basically, I said anastasia leave the idiot please! You deserve someone better than him, you need someone who will treat you like a princess and love you for you. There will be no more 'oh today was a good day' because every day will be a good day. Please get out.

You'll laugh at this... it's my birthday in a couple of weeks, and my FWX asked what he could get me 'from Today Jr'. Now I'm moving into my own house in 2 weeks, and I'm getting an induction cooker, so all the pans I've got won't work because you need special magnetic ones. Anyway, I look online and find this set of 3 pans and a frying pan for £150 and said 'I want that'. He's only gone and got it for me! I think he thinks if he buys me stuff I'll go back, but there is no chance in hell of that happening. Shame I didn't try this before, at Christmas I'll ask for a hand-held dyson for the stairs! Who knows...

JugglingWithTangentialOranges · 04/07/2012 11:16

Sure foth but it was just a quick post before I go out to say that it flagged up some basic assertiveness issues for me. Basic enough to describe - but not always to put into place - especially if any FuckWittery is involved Smile