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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

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40 replies

Belittled · 11/05/2013 19:54

I hope someone can help me! I have recently split from my partner - he left on Christmas Eve whilst I was at work! He took all is belongings with him and each time I have tried to talk to him he refuses, and tells me I am crazy...I'm starting to think I am. We met 5 years ago and had an intense relationship from the beginning. We were together everyday and quickly moved in together and spent most of our free time together. We both had difficult childhoods. My parents essentially split up when I was 10 and I saw them only sporadically and was brought up by my grandparents. They are sadly now deceased as is my father and my relationship with my mum is difficult. I am 37. My parent came from a broken home too but his step father was an abuse drunk and he had a very difficult childhood. Around a year ago my partner started a new job ( we are both nurses) at a hospital, in the same dept I used to work in, so I knew a lot of the staff there. We decided to keep our relationship private from them as nurses have a reputation for tittle tattle. However it back fired for me. He went to a party with the staff for a leaving do and kissed one of his colleagues...perhaps more happened I don't know. He didn't come home that night and I suspect something more happened. He denied the kiss even and when I confronted hi. And used he finally admitted it and said he had been flattered and she was young and he was surprised she had been interested in him. He said he felt awful about it and assured me it would never happen again. I forgave him but then that girl came to work at my hospital I was plagued by it every day but didn't mention it to her or to my friends as I felt so humiliated but inside I was so angry. I then found emails on our computer at home - he had to logged out. They were emails where he had solicited himself on line - with people I knew, people he trained with, people he knew from back home, strangers he had met on Facebook and were pictures of his penis and the girls vaginas/underwear shots all with revolting messages attached. I confronted him with this and he said he was sorry, that it was an afflictin from his past, that it meant nothing, that it was a way of getting some control. He promised to get help but he never did. Instead he became secretive, taking his phone in the shower with him, keeping it in his pocket, only getting it out when I was out of the room...on occasion I would see him putting it away as I walked back in. I tormented myself with what he was doing, was too embarrassed to tell my friend and instead shut myself away and worried about it constantly. I lost my self esteem and my self respect. I felt unhappy and unloved. But still I stayed. We had sex once in the last 12 months of our relationship and I got pregnant. The rest of the time I sought his approval, scared that he would leave me, I tried harder and harder to be perfect. When he was working I would often drive him to work if I was off and the tube wasn't running, essentially did his coursework for a uni module essential for any possible promotion. He repaid me by staying out all night and when I rang hi. Would ignore the phone and text me the next day to say he had stayed with friends and that I ought to have trusted him more. That I was being unreasonable and stopping him from having a life and that he was unhappy and that I needed to change. He then left me without explanation and left me devastated. I can't talk to my friend because they know I am a strong person - but I couldn't leave him as he became my family. I have read 10s of self help books, am learning a new language, have thrown yield back into work and even after all this I still feel so upset and desperately want him to come home. I am aware how pathetic this sounds, I am not a stupid woman, I have a good job, a PhD, but I just feel that if he got help we would be able to be so very happy. Please help me, I am really struggling to cope.

OP posts:
ClippedPhoenix · 11/05/2013 22:01

He's a what I call a total leech OP. Can't you block him on the email.

ClippedPhoenix · 11/05/2013 22:06

No one here is going to tell you how to deal with him OP except to get him out of your life. Its painful, believe me I know but you have your child to think of who is far more important than a cocksucking leech of a man that doesnt give a shit about anything else but himself.

Belittled · 11/05/2013 22:13

I could block his email but I have to keep some channel for communication about our child. My son is the most important person in this and I would like him to know his father. I just never imagined that this is what my life would be like. I fell for this man hard and he told me everything I wanted to hear, made me feel safe and once I did he humiliated me and now has left me in tatters

OP posts:
ClippedPhoenix · 11/05/2013 22:18

OP, falling hard is something that you need to maybe look at and bring up with your councillor. Whats that saying "if it sounds too good to be true it usually is".

Belittled · 11/05/2013 22:26

I am 37, have had relationships before him but no one ever made me feel safe like he did. I know that I should have been more wary perhaps but I had no reason to doubt his intentions. We clicked. Just sad that I found out what he was doing...then I felt dirty because he had been doing that all along and I had trusted him implicitly. I had a life before him, I was happy, I had dealt with my own demons which wasn't easy but now it has all fallen apart and I just don't know where or how to begin

OP posts:
ClippedPhoenix · 11/05/2013 22:33

He's the dirty one OP not you, why would you feel dirty about his huge disgusting failings?

ClippedPhoenix · 11/05/2013 22:33

You are not responsible for anyone elses actions...

KeepCoolCalmAndCollected · 11/05/2013 22:41

Remember that you did have a life before him. You are grieving, but you will get through this. Every day is a new day and after time you will feel better and one day it will dawn on you that you haven't thought about him for a while.

I know this must be hard, but do you think it is a good idea for your DS to know his father? At the moment your DS doesn't know any better, so it is the norm for him.

Sometimes having contact can do more damage than good. From what you say he doesn't seem the least bit interested now, so why would you think things would be any different in the future.

springypergolesi · 12/05/2013 10:23

It sounds like you are addicted to him, and to the relationshp. He became your whole life - no wonder you are in so much pain. I really feel for you.

Reading your posts, it looks like CoDA would be a real help to you. I was addicted to someone once and the pain is unbelievable.

YOu have had a shit life with very little real security. Along he came, your dream, and you put all your eggs, your entire self, in the one basket. Turns out he was an abuser - this is often the case; abusers are attracted to damaged people. Have you done the Freedom Programme ? Please do - you will meet many women in the same situation and it really is an excellent course, life-changing.

Please don't fall for the shit about his damaged childhood. So what? Plenty of us have had damaged childhoods and don't do what he has done - ie exploit and abuse you. He turns his 'good' side to you when it suits him. I'm sorry to say that what you're getting now is who he really is. Please don't get into an exchange with him about 'what went wrong' - he will destroy you, putting all the blame at your door, reducing you to powder, a total character assassination. Abusers follow the same tired script - he wants to let you know you are worthless so he doesn't feel guilty about what he's done to you. Don't engage.

Somewhere along the line get in touch with Womens Aid who can give you concrete support and advice when the time comes eg with access to your son and general financial/legal arrangements. Call at night if you can because the lines are very busy during the day.

You can get through this. I don't know if you've had any counselling about your childhood but I would recommend it. YOu're not alone, btw, not by a long chalk. As you know, people keep it quiet because of the shame. You have nothing to be ashamed of - you tried to get your needs met and an abuser exploited you. I'm so sorry.

springypergolesi · 12/05/2013 10:35

btw I agree that it is not always the best idea for children to have a relationship with feckless, abusive men. More often than not, abusers use the kids to torture the mother, caring nothing at all for the kids. I'd think twice iiwy about promoting a relationship between them.

Leverette · 12/05/2013 10:55

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Leverette · 12/05/2013 10:58

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Belittled · 12/05/2013 11:27

Thanks all for your kindness. I just couldn't leave...I gave and gave, trying to make it work, trying to make him stop until I was so emotionally spent I had nothing more to give. I want him to be part of our sons life, I appreciate how much his past is affecting his present. He already has a daughter from a previous relationship...and he is a great father to her travelling across country every other weekend to see her. Plus I know what it is like to grow up with a father that you rarely see, I don't want the same for my child. I just envisaged my life to be so different from this. I am getting help and thanks for all your posts. It's a comfort to know that I am not the only one who is/has gone through this...and come out the other side. Is it normal that I should miss him so much? I don't really feel angry, just hurt and upset

OP posts:
springypergolesi · 12/05/2013 11:38

It is normal if you're addicted to him, yes. It's agony.

The basis of codependence is to live through another person (or people) ie taking your eye off your own pain to 'save' someone else. YOu had the double whammy of needing him to be who he purported to be; trying to set the scene so you got the best of him/what you needed. It's a flawed plan - he is who he wants to be, regardless how much pandering you do. In the end you spent yourself entirely but not only did things not change, they got worse. That's because you were on the wrong track - you can't and couldn't save him/make him better. He had no intention of being better, if the truth be told.

Some people are mightily fucked up - BUT also desperately manipulative because they enjoy it, it makes them feel powerful to turn another person into dust. It's a basic human impulse imo - for some people it is closer to the surface than for others.

KeepCoolCalmAndCollected · 12/05/2013 16:56

Is it normal that I should miss him so much?
Yes, the disheartened truth is it's like having a part of your body amputated. BUT in time your brain WILL heal, it just takes time to come to terms with things and see them for what they really were.

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