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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

How to fix me...

903 replies

WaitWhatOh · 08/03/2015 17:46

I don't know where to start, except I know I need to say something or go crazy overthinking. I am struggling massively and pretending it's all fine. I feel so very very unimportant and somewhere around priority 257 on everyone's list. I know -how fucking needy I sound/am. DH is very busy. Works hard, always on the phone even on evenings/days off. Very stressed very important. Kind of pat me on the head attitude towards me. He's far too busy to do much with me, he is home only to work from home or sleep or eat. so I threw myself into activities and hobbies. Trying to keep busy but feeling desperately lonely underneath. Occasionally I attempt to say how I feel and get caught up in some row that always ends up being my fault and me apologising. That man can seriously sulk!! Today he gave me the lecture about being so needy, insecure and 'fucking mental' I needed to hear it apparently. :(
Despite thinking he's an arse for speaking to me quite like that I know he has a point. I am lonely I do want to spend more time with him and I do wish I was fabulously important to him and top of his list some days. What a shallow needy creature I am. What do I do... How do I feel better? how do I fix me?

OP posts:
Newbiecrafter · 15/04/2015 00:27

Wait, been following your thread since you started it and never really had anything to offer in terms of advice or support, but just wanted to say hello and that you have another person here supporting you.

You seem very torn at the moment and that's why I'm posting. I wanted to say, that's fine, it really is. You're trying to decide whether your marriage is worth another go, or whether it's not. I think that's really admirable. I think your H has been a shit to you for all these years, yet you still see the good in him, and are still trying to balance the scales.

My interpretation of you saying you need to have tried everything, is more for yourself and your children, rather than for the rest of the world, if that makes sense.

You have had lots of amazing advice on here and that has opened your eyes to what has actually been going on with you and how your H has treated you. You've taken that on board and are now saying 'enough!'

Speak to who you need to speak to, get all the advice you feel you need, and then just let yourself catch up and take it in, in your own time. There is no rush to decide what to do. You've been running on adrenalin possibly for years and you're feeling numb because your body needs to not being on high alert anymore.

There is no right or wrong feeling just like there is no right or wrong solution. You feel what you feel and that's all there is to it. Don't beat yourself up about it. When you are ready, you will make the right decision for you, and that's all you can do.

Suddenly, You can see clearly what's been happening for all these years and it must be a bit blinding and disorientating. Now you have to come to terms with everything you now know and then decide what's best for you. accept in your heart how you feel and acknowledge it. You will never change what everyone else thinks, says does or doesn't do. All you can do is make things better for you, whatever that means.

I was married many moons ago, for a long time. No children from that relationship, so in some ways it was simpler. I knew I was unhappy for years and years. I didn't open up to anyone until I had come to terms with it myself. In the end I was married for 13 years and left after 11. Like with you, no one understood. My mum thought I was stupid for leaving a lovely husband and home for a bedsit. He wasn't lovely except to the outside world. But when I had come to terms with what was right for me, it didn't matter what anyone, incl my parents thought. It was not easy at all but I had to get out.

I think you are torn because you are still coming to terms with everything. When you know what you need and want, it won't be easy but you will be able to make a decision, either way, without second guessing yourself. And whatever that decision is and until you are at that point, I and I'm sure everyone else who is following your story, will be behind you 100% of the way.

I hope my waffling makes sense. Sending you big hugs, xxx.

springydaffs · 15/04/2015 00:32

I was talking with a friend today about instinct, how we pick up on even tiny signals without even realising sometimes - even after the event we don't know why we eg took evasive action that saved a situation from certain disaster.

Your instincts have been stripped from you, you have been deeply and thoroughly conditioned - by him - to effectively switch off your antennae, to listen to, imbibe, his thoughts, his agenda, his beliefs, his conclusions and make them your own.

Now you have fresh information that calls into question his training, his beliefs, his conclusions, his world view. You can see his version of things is cracked. I think you may be running on instinct - which may feel foreign to you, it's been put to sleep for so long?

springydaffs · 15/04/2015 00:40

Have you heard of FOG? Fear, Obligation, Guilt. These three webs keep us tied to abusive relationships, tying us in tight. They particularly come to the fore, play merry hell, if we try to leave the abusive relationship.

Gralick · 15/04/2015 07:32

For several years after XH2, I had a poster on the stairs saying "Emotional is not an insult!" I'd spent so long trying to appease people who found it inconvenient when I had any feelings other than 'happee', I realised I'd taken it upon myself to squash my natural responses and was actually getting angry with myself if I felt sad, bored, irritated or whatever.

I'm now very angry with the people who devalued my existence so completely. This is better Grin And none of them are in my life any more, hurrah!

Anniegetyourgun · 15/04/2015 10:01

We notice that when you get angry you're "crazy, out of control" and (lovely caring phrase from your opening post) "fucking mental". When he gets angry it's "justified". You see, his anger is the powerful, controlled anger of a natural leader, whereas yours is the weak... no wait, that really is a load of old bollocks isn't it? Double standards, pure and simple.

CruCru · 15/04/2015 15:10

When are his parents back? Is it worth seeing a solicitor before then?

WaitWhatOh · 15/04/2015 19:10

cru - yes I think I'm waiting for school to restart next week. Then I will see the solicitor.

He's asked to see my tomorrow to talk. He says 'no games just to talk' I assume he means no games from me because he of course never plays games!!

OP posts:
Lambzig · 15/04/2015 19:59

You do know you don't have to talk with him if you don't want to, or if you aren't ready, don't you?

He is already dictating 'no games' which would concern me that this talk would be him telling you what is going to happen rather than a real discussion.

You seem so distressed. Please know that you are doing so well.

StaceyAndTracey · 15/04/2015 20:13

If it were me, I'd be saying that I didn't feel ready to talk .

Or if you do want to meet him , I'd do a lot of listening and little talking . Keep your cards close to your chest

be very non committal about the future . Don't agree to anything about seperation , the kids, money , the house or anything legal .

It's fine to say " I don't know "

FantasticButtocks · 15/04/2015 20:27

How about saying to him 'I prefer not to talk at the moment. Can you wait until I'm ready?'

The only reasonable answer to this is 'of course'. Any type of trying to get you to do what you have just told him you'd prefer not to, and are not ready to, will show you who is the game player.

WaitWhatOh · 15/04/2015 20:37

I did say I don't know

Then I thought about it. I do have to talk to him at some point.
He is missing me. He assumes I'm missing him.
I'm truly not. Which sounds harsh.
But.
I am meeting him because I think I will just have it all confirmed. When he speaks, when he arrives, when he starts getting cross...

I'm dreading it. However. Feel it necessary.
Not for him. For me.

OP posts:
DollyTwat · 15/04/2015 21:01

Exdh and I split up many times
I remember that horrible feeling I had when we'd talked and he'd come persuaded me to try harder. I remember feeling excited that I could go back to being single again, then dismayed that I hadn't taken the chance

CharlotteCollins · 15/04/2015 21:15

Me too, and it felt so weird finally leaving with no real regret at all. After so many years!

Do you really have to talk to him some time? I felt like that for ages, until I talked that I was waiting for him to understand... And he was just keeping the conversation going. Talking was getting us nowhere.

It's a hard habit to break, though, the talking, and the thinking about him. There was a strange feeling of "now what?" when I stopped talking to him. It was much much later that I stopped thinking about him... And even now, two years on, I still realise sometimes that what I think are my thoughts are actually his! (I hope that makes some sort of sense!)

WaitWhatOh · 16/04/2015 10:09

I am sat here sick with dread at meeting him. Because somehow some way it's got so I have to be the bitch be the bad guy and say nope. No more. I want to separate. He's missed me he's bound to meet me with a hug and a kiss. I feel nothing. Nothing. It's just easier if he's not around. The guilt I feel is horrible. Horrible. :(
I get to be the 'one who didn't try'. Ha. How funny I got wasn't so sad.

OP posts:
StaceyAndTracey · 16/04/2015 10:11

You don't have to say you want to separate

You can just say you are not sure what you want. And you just need more time and space to think . You don't need to make any big decisions today . Just take another week or two .

WaitWhatOh · 16/04/2015 10:12

Ah charlotte Collins. That's v insightful. Perhaps that's what he's doing. Keeping the conversation going. :(

OP posts:
FantasticButtocks · 16/04/2015 10:12

Why don't you just say 'if it helps you to see me as the bad guy, then that's fine. I can live with that, I just can't live with you' That might take the wind out of his sails.

Be brave Thanks

StaceyAndTracey · 16/04/2015 10:13

Who are these people saying " you didn't try " ?? Is it just him ? Voices in your head ?

If you have two kids at uni, I assume you've been together / married for more than 20 years . That's quite a lot of trying

WaitWhatOh · 16/04/2015 10:14

I have to say it at some point Stacey....
Why is it such a shock to him. Why do I feel mean. He never felt mean. This is truly shit. I really feel like a kid playing grown up decisions. Who knows if this is any better? Who indeed knows if I will cope. But.
I can't go back. I really can't.

OP posts:
WaitWhatOh · 16/04/2015 10:16

Fantastic - thank you. Good phrase.
Stacey ... Yes. Him. His family. The people who aren't aware of what it has been like.
Why is it important what they think? I don't know. I don't know,no really don't.

OP posts:
StaceyAndTracey · 16/04/2015 10:20

Well he does have to know at some point . But when , where and how you tell him is another matter

Anyway, are you sure that you know what you want ? Don't you really need more time to think it all through ?

If he's so keen to stay together, I'm sure he's be happy to " give " you money to pay for some couselling ( for yourself ) to help sort you head out .

If you say "yes I'm sure it's all over " , He will ( quite reasonably ) say " ok, what's to happen to the kids /house/ money / bussniess ?" And you will have to say " I don't know "

Where upon he will go - well this and this and this is what's going to happen . I will give you this and allow you that .

FantasticButtocks · 16/04/2015 10:35

Or... You can say.. I don't know, I'll have a think and Email you with my suggestions

CharlotteCollins · 16/04/2015 23:23

How did meeting him go, Wait?

I was desperate for his family to understand. It doesn't bother me now whether they do or not. I can't explain why I felt like that, nor why I changed! Just a shift in perspective, I suppose. I know now whose opinions matter to me. I wonder if then I was trying to please everybody? Or at least not upset anyone?

chocolatefingersandtoes · 17/04/2015 09:36

How are you doing wait

chocolatefingersandtoes · 17/04/2015 09:37

Posted too soon, hope you're doing okay, must have been a tough day yesterdayFlowers

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