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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

Was this abusive?

38 replies

Farontothemaddingcrowd · 26/03/2017 15:29

I know the answer is probably yes. I'm just processing. He would put me down in public. He said 'why don't you go out with her then?' to a market trader who liked the same film I did. When we were walking around and I tried to hold his hand, he stuck his arm up in the air so I couldn't and then laughed when I cried. He criticised everything I did. He shouted at me when I dropped something on the floor and started going on about how clumsy I was. Once we were watching a film and I went up to the loo. When I came down he complained and said he was comfy on the sofa and said he'd go up. I went up instead and he watched the rest of the film. He was often sarcastic with me. His humour involved putting me down. He criticised my house constantly. Made a joke about how a woman on TV was so much better looking than I was.
Then we ended up doing a kind of bdsm thing, which I consented to, but the idea was that he'd sleep with other women and then tell me about it to humiliate me. When I used our safe word, he told me off as I wasn't using it for a serious enough situation. He didn't see me for two weeks and then came over at 1 am, drunk, knowing I was up at 6 for work. We had rough, unaffectionate sex and he called me a whore etc. He said that the other women would get his affection and cuddles. It was meant to be part of our sex game but I just felt abused. I messaged him the next day to explain how I felt. He just said 'OK. '
I eventually ended it. But I feel traumatised and I keep having flash backs and dreams of him sexually abusing me.

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tipsytrifle · 27/03/2017 17:01

You said the safe word. All activity stops, simple as that. He "persuaded" you to continue for his own pleasure and rejected a very basic Rule of sex gaming. I suspect that some of this sex game was OK(ish) by you but the full detail of it was not discussed in advance. Did he tell you he'd require responses to this kind of questioning during it all?

I don't happen to think his version of a sex game is very nice either. It's degrading and pressurised, not to mention all about him. Did you agree to that specifically? You felt pressure and over-rode your genuine preference to stop for a bit. That's coercion in my opinion.

Gallavich · 27/03/2017 17:04

He coerced you into consenting to the sex stuff which isn't real consent. You also said he didn't abuse his ex wife but he did didn't he? She cited it in the divorce!
You probably are traumatised, he abused you in really serious ways.

Farontothemaddingcrowd · 27/03/2017 17:46

I agreed with him meeting one woman. It was a fantasy of ours. But then it became more and more. He said I spoiled it when I became insecure and expressing misgivings. He said I took all the fun out of it. So I felt like I had to shut up.

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Farontothemaddingcrowd · 27/03/2017 18:27

I still feel ashamed. I remember him telling me how he had rough sex with this woman and he could tell she didn't like it and he didn't care. I didn't care as long as he cared about me. That makes me a horrible person.

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NotTheFordType · 27/03/2017 19:33

He's a cunt. He's always been a cunt and he will continue being a cunt to every woman in his life.

He's also really shit at BDSM and has probably been cold-shouldered out of all the local kink communities.

The primary rule of BDSM is that it should be safe, sane and consensual. That's why you have a safe word. To tell you that you can't use your safe word is an horrific breach of trust and consent.

I recommend the freedom programme but you also might want to explore with a counsellor what has led you to setting your bar so low and not feeling able to enforce your boundaries.

NotTheFordType · 27/03/2017 19:35

That ended a bit harsh.

I meant to address your previous comment about not caring about other women he abused. It's not your job to feel guilty about that. You didn't abuse them, he did. it's very very common when you're in the thrall of an abuser to shut off your empathy for anyone outside of the relationship (and for yourself, of course too.)

Farontothemaddingcrowd · 27/03/2017 20:59

Thanks nottheford. I kind of know why my boundary is low. I had a terribly abusive childhood. Not sexually but emotionally and physically. But I can't shake the feeling that he abused me because I was weak. He used to tell me he thought I was a strong independent woman and then I became clingy and needy.
Then he fell out of love with me and abused me.
It helps to hear others saying it was abuse actually. Because I'm over him completely (in fact if it wasn't giving him too much power, I'd hate him) but I'm not over the damage the relationship caused me.
I don't see myself being abused again. I feel I am reaching clarity. But I'm frightened to let anyone near me. At the slightest sign I'm off.
I have had some counselling but the level of shame I still feel means I don't feel I can talk about a lot of this out loud.

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Farontothemaddingcrowd · 27/03/2017 21:10

I don't really know why I'm going over and over it in my head now.
And I genuinely don't think he realised what he was doing was abuse. But that doesn't make it any less abusive.

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RunRabbitRunRabbit · 27/03/2017 21:59

The shame is his.

Have you tried saying out loud what happened?

Narrate the story like you were many years from now telling a bunch of good friends about the absolute fucker you used to date, having a good laugh at his inadequacies and younger you for putting up with it.

Tell it to the mirror, tell it to a cushion or a wooden spoon or the steering wheel. Just say it out loud. It draws the poison.

Farontothemaddingcrowd · 28/03/2017 09:27

I will try that Rabbit. I don't trust anyone anymore and I worry that has damaged me. I don't want it to.

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Farontothemaddingcrowd · 30/03/2017 08:33

Thank you all for the support. I'm feeling better every day. I think just acknowledging it helps.

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Thinkingofausername1 · 30/03/2017 11:18

He sounds delightful. Op you can do better

Farontothemaddingcrowd · 24/10/2017 16:45

This is an old thread but I keep thinking about this for some reason today. I want to forget him completely but I still get flashbacks.

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