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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

please give me your opinion because i am lost with DH behavior

64 replies

user1491244207 · 03/04/2017 19:53

Hello. Since i met my DH he is progressively makes me feel that i have to loose every part of myself in order to satisfy him and if i ever talk against he will always go into a rage or sulky mood and make me feel terribly guilty. please need a clear perspective of whats right and wrong because i literally can not think clear anymore.
When i met him everything was great. He is loyal ,caring(or so i though , not sure about that anymore )etc
The last week he got very upset with me because i was commenting on a character in a movie, apparently i was trying to insult him through the character because everything the movie hero was doing he would do and if i dont like it it means i dont like him. For the rest of the movie he would comment every few minutes that "i bet you dont like that too" etc
Also i couldn't call him at work but i messaged him instead to let him know. Later at night i fell asleep and wasnt waiting for him to return , that caused a huge argument because apparently i dont care about him anymore, he" doesnt give a shit " if i messaged i should have called and "he wont care about me anymore because he is the only one who tries" Note that he fell asleep many many times and it never bothered me...
Today i asked him for a bit affection and it cause a huge huge argument. He said that he has to be logical about it because i never like any of his responses and asked what he can do. I said, whatever you feel like doing i just need to feel a bit affection. Then somehow it turned it to him and telling me how ungrateful i am , and how he tries despite the fact that i angered him a lot and how nothing works with me and i hurt him. I said well how it all turn about you again , you are selfish because i only asked you for a bit affection and you turn it all on you. Definitely he made me regret saying that. First he started telling me how i dare call him selfish, and where that comes from and no normal person would treat him like that etc. i was kept saying that lets leave it i dont want a problem but he said he wouldnt leave it. I told him that all our argument sis because he takes every little thing as personal attack and that angered him even more. To cut the long story short, he later went into total silence demanding me to apologize for my behavior. When i did he said is not sincere. Concluded as i pushed him him far away, that this week i have been horrible to him and if i can not see it then there is something wrong with me. He said i have to fix it or he is to the point to leave me because he had enough of me. I said i dont know what you want me to fix because i dont think that i did anything "horrible" and went cold and said that he is totally shut down and i pushed him too far this time. Apparently is up to me to fix it or he will leave because he has been trying and i havent. The only things that happened this week is what i describe, my logic tells me that nothing is as horrible as he makes it but he is been like that since the beginning so i am so confused as to whats right and whats not. Please give me your opinions, i am getting depressed by all that

OP posts:
OnTheRise · 04/04/2017 17:54

Get yourself sorted. Plan to leave but don't tell him what you're doing, because once he knows you're off he might well escalate into physical abuse as well as this awful emotional abuse.

Get rid of him as soon as you can. He's a nightmare.

BerylStreep · 05/04/2017 08:38

OP - are you still there? I hope you realise from the unanimous reaction on this thread that:

  1. This is not your fault - he is the problem
  2. He will never change
user1491244207 · 05/04/2017 23:53

Hello all and thanks a lot for the replies. I am sorry for the delay to reply but i had to go away for couple of days to clear my head. I read all that you recommended and finally i can now have an explanation for his behavior. He fits everything that a narcissist has and i am so happy that i discovered this before i lost my self completely. When i left , he started threatening that i haven't fix anything yet, and that he is not sure if he wants to be with me anymore and that he had enough etc. A day after he started messaging that he misses me and he loves me, just like some of you told me he would. The fact that i knew what he would do ,helped me not to fall in his trap and to realise that despite his words he doesnt actually love me or misses me. How do i leave a man like that, is there a best way ? I have no children with him

OP posts:
Thinkingblonde · 06/04/2017 00:09

The best way would be to pack and go. And don't look back.
Has he ever been violent?
Do you have somewhere to go?
Could you move in with your parents?

WhereYouLeftIt · 06/04/2017 00:50

Best way? To value your sanity above everything. Above possessions, above your marriage, above the opinions of the mutual friends he will recruit to press his case.

Be aware he will not let you go easily. In his eyes, you exist only to serve his whims. It is not his whim that you leave and have an independent happy life that does not involve him. He will use multiple strategies to get you back under the thumb. Forewarned is forearmed against these strategies.

Flying monkeys - what the wicked witch sent to do her bidding in 'the Wizard of Oz'. These will take the form of friends, family, colleagues, near-strangers. He will lie to people, feign being distraught, wail about 'if only we could meet and talk she'd see we are good together!'. And these flying monkeys will feel sorry for him, be manipulated by him (he's a master manipulator, remember?) and set upon you, pressing his case for him, make you feel confused again (because it is gaslighting by proxy) and put you under the pressure of multiple voices telling you he really loves you and leaving him is a mistake. And surely if you're the only person feeling this way, they might be right? That's how it will feel. But no, of course they're not right. They don't know what went on behind closed doors - he saw to that. So you stand firm, tell them they are wrong and that if they cannot respect your wishes then to leave you alone. Or to fuck off, depends how angry you can get with them. Anger is good, by the way. It's easier to stay strong when you're angry.

Beware the 'sunk costs' fallacy - do not be sucked back in based on 'if you quit now all those years together are meaningless' blah blah blah. What's done is done and cannot be undone. You've heard the phrase don't throw good money after bad? Well replace 'money' with 'years of your life'.

Be prepared to walk away from finances and possessions. You are worth more than the whole shebang. He will probably try to suck you back in many ways - to collect your personal stuff, to talk about selling your mutual home, to talk about settling bank accounts, etc. Try and keep it at arms length. Take all your important stuff with you when you leave, get a trusted friend to collect anything later. (Warn them he will try to turn them into a flying monkey.) Big stuff like house sale - via a solicitor. Do not engage, it's an opportunity for him to browbeat you.

Do not forget that who he is now is the real him. No nostalgia for the early days before his mask slipped. That person is gone - indeed, they never were in the first place, they were an illusion spun by a narcissist.

So, on a practical note - do you have somewhere to live? Access to money? Emotional support?

Sciurus83 · 06/04/2017 07:52

You must leave, cut all ties and do not allow him access to you as he will use it to try and manipulate or hurt you into getting what he wants. I could have written your post word for word 10 years ago, they don't change, you can't make this better the price for staying will escalate until you have given all you have and there is nothing left. Please don't stay until then, you are in an abusive relationship with a manipulative narcissist. He will be with someone else very soon after, be prepared for that, needy narcissists can't cope alone. He will try and manipulate you into staying in his life so he can control you, the only way is to leave and cut all ties. Don't pretend you can stay friends, you can't, find a new life, new friends if needs be. I know it seems so difficult but you can do this and in a years time you will be so much happier without him. Run to the Hills Flowers

AcrossthePond55 · 06/04/2017 14:40

The best way is the quietest way. Do you have family or friends anywhere who can give you support and/or a place to catch your breath?

If you just want to get out, pack a bag, grab some money, change your passwords, and go to a hotel or a friend's. You can retrieve anything important later. Then see a solicitor about a divorce or legal separation.

Otherwise, make quiet plans to get a new place to live. Do you have separate accounts? If not, start hiding money (a fuck you fund) where he won't find it, preferably out of the house. Get your important papers, birth certificate, passport, financial records out of the house, too. Then once you have a new place, either hire a man with a van or ask your friends to help you move. Or pack that bag and go there.

Call Women's Aid. Tell them that you are being emotionally abused by your 'd'H. They can help you.

DancingGoose · 07/04/2017 00:14

i saw a guy like this for a few months. he was utterly gorgeous but a complete mindfuck! classic gaslighting narcissistic abuser who would twist everything he could back on to me. a lot of it was so absurd it would have been laughable if it wasn't so exhausting. time and time again i found myself sucked into stupid arguments - and then once i succumbed he knew he had me..

i decided after a weeks of feeling stressed, and confused this wasn't worth the mental torture, but i found every time i got close to ending it with him, without even realising how, i would end up sucked back in with all the ensuing drama. i felt i would never get rid of him unless it he believed on some level that it was 'his choice', so i decided to become really really boring and stopped spending time with him. i told him that i needed less drama and more calm in my life and that was my priority now - and i stuck to it. this gave me the space to clear my head and once i'd reached a certain point it wasn't worth sacrificing that.

he didn't know what to do - he accused me of all sorts, turned up unexpectedly in he middle of the night to try and catch me out, sent me desperate messages. i never ignored him but just kept repeating that i needed to be calm and have less stress and that this would be better for our relationship (haha) i also stuck to not spending time wth him. this went on for a few weeks. all the time i was feeling better and better in myself.

the end came when he finally imploded in a blaze of righteous indignation at being treated in such a way and after sending me a couple of angry messages telling me he is now ending it with 'dignity' he blocked me and fucked off.

i do wish i had just told him to do one earlier into the relationships but i was a bit scared of his disproportionate anger and the gaslighting totally melted my brain - which is a really weird feeling and not one i ever want to experience again.

DancingGoose · 07/04/2017 00:21

anyway, instead of just talking about myself i also meant to say that if you feel
completely daunted about just upping and leaving, then see if you can start the process of emotionally detaching from him.

now you are starting to understand his behaviour you will see it for what it is more and more and hopefully this will help you create space for yourself so you can start to feel like yourself again and think clearly.

above all keep yourself safe first as his behaviour may escalate once he senses you withdrawing.

PickAChew · 07/04/2017 00:25

He's an arse.

Best meme I ever saw is that, in marriage, 2 don't simply become one, they become a lot more than 2.

PickAChew · 07/04/2017 00:27

But, yes, with such an arse, get away quickly and quietly. Having already done your homework.

PickAChew · 07/04/2017 00:32

Can you imagine that when the light dawns a few more years in, Dancing?

Happened to me, so I played the long game, but had some fucking scary moments, in the meantime.

DancingGoose · 07/04/2017 00:58

no,i can only imagine how hard and frightening it must be to realise all this when you're married and have had years and years of this insidious behaviour.

i kind of counted myself lucky in a way because my chap couldn't hold it together for more than a couple of days at a time before he would start his little twisty blame games so i realised quite quickly that this wasn't normal or going to get better. even so, i found it REALLY difficult to move away from him. i felt strangely tied to him psychologically and emotionally and almost like a baby taking their first steps - really unsure of myself. i also think i ended up addicted to the highs and lows of the adrenaline and cortisol pumping through my body during all the ups and downs.

fortunately once i took some space apart it didn't seem to take long for my brain to clear. i don't know if it's like that after a longer period of being ground down though :(

OP you must travel your own journey through this as only you know the dynamics of your relationship, but i do hope you get away from this man. please keep posting as there are so many really experienced posters here who will be able to support you through this.

peaceout · 07/04/2017 01:24

there's not really anything in this relationship for you is there OP?
extricate yourself asap!

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