Share your ‘red flags’ for the good of womankind updated

[Electrascoffee]

Please can we have another thread about this. I need to be constantly reminded. I’ve just had another nightmare relationship and the things I can take from it:

He was pretty isolated. He had only one friend who he also managed to piss off frequently. His family didn’t see him or even know he was moving House even though they lived in the same town. His daughter won’t speak to or see him.

When he’s happy everything is sweetness and light. If he’s having trouble at work, or is ill it’s somehow my fault. Using others as an emotional dumping ground for his shit is somehow normal according to him (he says this)

Emotionally manipulative. Dumped me in a crowded restaurant and then decided he’d made a terrible mistale.

Criticised my clothes. Said he didn’t like my perfume.

Made grandiose claims about himself.

Kept telling me sob stories about how he always got the blame for things by his ex wife and how he was only ever trying to get on with everyone. All his exes had BPD or NPD and all he wants is a quiet life.

Making me feel bad if I didn’t orgasm and then if I gave him guidance I was making him feel shit in bed.

[SocialPiranha]

I was in so much pain and so frightened or maybe I would have. He didn’t get one. But from what I remember I either passed out or zoned out.

The worst thing? It took me til after I left and started the freedom programme for me to realise how fucking awful just that incident was. Before that it was an eye roll type thing. Which in itself seems insane to me now.

[FabalaTheGreenGirl]

I think I'm maybe at the beginning of something new, but I'm not sure if what I'm seeing are 'red flags' or not. I've been in 2 monogamous LTRs since I was 18 (30 now) so I'm probably not attuned to these things.

This summer I ended a 4-year relationship with a wonderful man who I love because it just wasn't right for me. The entire relationship was long distance and he couldn't (wasn't capable) of committing and I couldn't hack the distance thing anymore. Around the same time I met a man at work who I ended up growing very fond of. He seems perfect on paper (intellectual, handsome, funny, we get on great) but there are too many things niggling at me. It's too soon to date him, but he seems to expect that at some point in the future he will date. Full disclosure: the following post does not make me look great.
Possible red flags:

-a few days after i ended it with my boyfriend I was in a really bad place, got blind drunk, sent Work Guy a series of weird texts. He came round (even though, while sober, I'd asked him to ignore any weird texts). We slept together. He seemingly didn't notice how blind drunk I was and seemed to look very guilty about it when I brought it up a few days later.

• even though I've told him i need time to process my breakup, he is ALWAYS there...inviting himself round, inviting himself on cinema trips with me etc. This is my fault, and I don't tell him to explicitly get lost (I hate my libido) and after I see him I usually feel like shit. It just annoys me that I've asked him to back off several times and he just keeps PUSHING. Surely a decent bloke would take me at my word steer clear for a bit until I figure things out?
  

-he has commented on my appearance, usually positively. But occasionally he will say that a certain item of clothing "just doesn't work for you" or he'll talk about a part of my body in a backhanded compliment way (and here I can't really put my finger on specifics). He knows I have an extensive collection if lingerie and has hinted that he would like me to wear it, and jokingly complained when I haven't.

The real shitter is that we work in the same office and he lives just down the street from me, so I see him all the bloody time. Argh.

What do you think? Are these red flags or am I overthinking it? He's got a kind, nice-boy-raised-well sort of Adrian Mole vibe and I just could never imagine him turning out to be abusive.

[FabalaTheGreenGirl]

Oh, and the biggest red flag with my ex was that in 4 years of dating I never met his family (fair play, they're in Bournemouth, I'm in York, he's in Scotland). But he never even told them about my existence! They pretty much always operated under the assumption that he was single, assexual or gay and secretive about it. I never understood it.

[FabalaTheGreenGirl]

Oh, and sorry for the multiple posts, but I forgot to add love-bombing. While I was figuring out whether to end it with my long distance bf, work guy kept declaring his 'love for me. On one occasion, he told me I was The One. On another occasion he told me that he wants to spend the rest of his life with me.

Writing it down like that...that does seem fucking insane.

[PerverseConverse]

@FabalaTheGreenGirl Have you actually read any of what we've all said??!! Run.

[FabalaTheGreenGirl]

PerverseConverse I think I just needed to write it down...

[PerverseConverse]

Apart from all the other red flags flapping in the wind, the one that stood out most is his persistent lack of respect for your boundaries.

[Wallflowerfire]

Need some people to say their blokes have not done any of these things. Do we run any time anyone disrespects our boundaries? How do we know if this is bad or not?! Everyone is capable of being a dick surely.
How bad is bad?

[PerverseConverse]

@Wallflowerfire I think someone upthread or on another thread about boundaries said they give someone one chance after pushing/not respecting boundaries. If they do it again then they are history. Little boundary pushes are the start and then they tend to get bigger and bigger. It tells you they have no respect for you. Once they know you can be pushed because you don't stick to your own boundaries they will walk all over you. And all that grandiose love of my life crap? It's an abuser's script.

[RightyHoChaps]

Hmmm... I spent 10 years with someone that I really should have. He was a twat. 20/20 hindsight.

Warning flags over the course of that relationship and a few others include:

1. Using sarcasm as the only form of humour he can come up with.

1. Using nasty comments as the only form of humour he can come up with "You like ? What the fuck? They're shit"

1. Repeatedly lying.

1. Cheating.

1. Flirting with someone else.

1. Using me as an emotional dumping ground.

1. Issuing ultimatums.

1. Being overly complimentary... borderline creepy.

1. Omitting certain truths... if you've got something to hide at the beginning, that says alot.

10. If He sounds too good to be true, he usually is. No one is perfect.

10. Listening to my gut... there's alot to be said for my brain or my 'gut' picking up on things I can't quite put my finger on... it has taken a long time to get that working and doesn't always work but it does a damn good job 95% of the time.

I had a 3 month fling I guess. I really liked the guy but from day 1 I knew something was off. I couldn't quite put my finger on it so I just waited until I had something concrete and solid.
After weeks of suspicion, I looked through his phone and got the confirmation I needed. Messaging his ex, complete lies about his past, like everything a total fabrication. Everything. Told me he'd been in the army, he hadn't. Told me his ex's daughter was his, she wasn't (I thought that one was particularly sickening- told me a story about racing to the birth and everything). Told me he wanted to marry me, obviously didn't.
I'm glad I kept him at a distance enough to be able to ditch at the nearest convenience and fuck him right off.
He then continued to harass me on and off for the next few months. Total scumbag. He threatened to kill himself. I told him to go ahead, knowing he was a compulsive liar and emotional manipulator.

Listen to those alarm bells... they go off for a reason!!

[FabalaTheGreenGirl]

I think the point about boundaries is a good one. My fear is that those "little alarm bells" will turn into something louder later on... and by that point, I'll be so deeply in love I might not notice.

How bad is bad? Hell, the healthiest relationship had (together 8 years, engaged) still involved a lot of insecurity and emotional manipulation on his part.

I'm ready to be single for a while.

[userxx]

@SocialPiranha with knowledge comes power. He wouldn't last 5 minutes with you now. Fair play to you 👍

[PerverseConverse]

My ex claimed he didn't know why his wife divorced him. Claimed he didn't know what was on the divorce papers. Bullshit. He was pathologically afraid of blame and failure and didn't want me to know why she didn't want to be married to him anymore. I think I know why now

[Wallflowerfire]

@PerverseConverse People like this cannot grow as people! They refuse to accept any responsibility for their actions too. Afraid they might see something inside themselves they don't like. My current is like this.

[ravenmum]

Sometimes people seem to lie just because they enjoy fooling you, no other reason, huh? Met up with an ex the other day and I'm pretty sure a couple of the stories he told were made up, just from the way he said it - but there was no reason whatsoever for him to tell me them at all.

[BlingLoving]

Someone upthread made the point that you can nod at all these red flags but ultimately it's about your boundaries.

I saw this with sil who from the very early days of relationship with her dh, identified behaviour she didn't like. But somehow, she (or he manipulated her) into finding ways to excuse the behaviour or blame herself. What worries me now is dh and I did see the red flags but we somehow kept thinking they needed to adjust to each other ext. I feel bad like maybe if we had said something then, she would have had strength to move on.

For me, him insisting he come to hospit after ds was born, even though he was a new boyfriend and we barely knew him, was the biggest red flag. I was so uncomfortable but somehow he convinced SIL and she convinced me.

[AuntieGeek]

This is an odd one; buying me shoes. Turned out that his fetish for a particular type of shoe was the start of his crossdressing.

I'll never forget feeling utterly repulsed by the shoes though.

[Queenofthedrivensnow]

@RightyHoChaps your number 9. Nail on the head there

[Cantgetthisshitoutmyhead]

@Auntiegeek that is so interesting mines ended up cross dressing too, stretched many of my nice shoes, would turn back my sheets at night and here he was dressed up in my frillies... anyone else's ex or currents also xdress?