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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

Why is it so hard? Handhold.

18 replies

babygoose48 · 22/11/2018 07:25

I’m sorry for posting again I just need a point of reference. I literally feel like the ground has been taken form under my feet.

I have been building up the strength and the confidence to leave my emotionally manipulative partner. I finally got to the point where I felt I accepted it all this week, had a clear mind of what was going on and what I was going to do about it.

Last night was awful. The night before I had a friend over who I had been in another country for 6 months and she came over for a catch up. He went out for half the night. He came home I asked him how he was and then she stayed for another. Hour talking about her home and her pregnancy etc. When she left he made snide remarks that he hadn’t seen me and then blamed me for ignoring him all night etc. I stood up for myself put an end to the argument and went to bed.

Last night he said we needed to sit down to talk and asked what was going on. He said I had been very distant and that he was going through a hard time (we’ve been in this situation where he bullied me and I became distant and he didn’t like it before). I’d told him he had been being mean to me again like he was in the summer therefore I had been trying to keep out of his way and stepping on eggshells. He started swearing and calling me, then when I started to calmly explain to him that he had been talking to me like crap, hushing me and backing me in to a corner and making me feel bad for having my friend over... I told him not to swear at me and he told me not to raise my voice, he cried, then got mad started doing this really weird angry breathing thing. I felt scared and threatened. Then he walked out of the house and slammed the door behind him. He came back 10 minutes later and apologised. Then I sat on the couch whilst he went on about how he can’t cope when I shout at him (?!) and interrupt him and that I shouldnt do that and that he was going through a hard time at work and has been anxious and I basically should just put up with his behaviour towards me because if I didn’t I wasn’t being supportive. The water works we’re out and he was borderline hysterical about it all. Every time I tried to speak to defend myself he got mad and I had to ask him politely if I could speak.

Then what really scared me was that he speeled off all the things that he did to me, all the things I have been talking to my therapist about and twisted it all so that I was the one that did them. He told me that he can’t come to me with a problem because it becomes my problem (like the friend thing) and that I was the one who was being unreasonable. He told me that he can never win (the exact same conclusion me and my therapist came to that very day - but roles reversed).

Any way it got the the point where I felt guilty and backed In a corner like all the defence I had built up for leaving him was stripped down to nothing. I could not make sense of anything he had to say - it’s like he’s literally living in some alternate reality where he truly believed his behaviour towards me (which he also denied) was acceptable. He tried to shush me and got mad at me one night last week for asking him how much he had fed the cat and refused to tell me. I tired using that as an example of how he talks me down and controls me and he was still crying and telling me it was because I was questioning his authority and that he should not be questioned and I was bullying him!! I stood my ground and told him that I KNEW it was wrong and not right in a relationship to be spoken to like that and he still defended himself. I told him I KNEW his behaviour towards me was not okay, and he still made it seem like I was in the wrong again because he is going through a hard time and i should be supportive because he has been there for me when I have had panic attacks and depression etc.

I honestly have woken up this morning feeling hopeless and at loss with it all. I feel guilty. I feel sorry for him. I feel like I ant possibly leave him now. I just feel trapped and can’t stop crying and just need a handhold.

OP posts:
RyderWhiteSwan · 22/11/2018 07:30

You feel sorry for him and guilty because he's ground you down. What he's doing is mental torture. You feel sorry for your torturer and jailer. You need to see how fucked up this is. He will destroy you.

Sohardtochooseausername · 22/11/2018 07:31

I’m sorry he sounds awful. It’s great that you are aware of what he’s doing, and when you are aware of what he’s doing it’s much easier to leave.

I’m in a very long drawn out break up with an emotionally manipulative and unfaithful man (he cheated on me but chose to stay in our small fla for the last 4 months) and it became much easier to not take his stuff on board because I could finally see exactly what he is doing. That’s not to say it hasn’t been hard and he does still mess with my head. The best thing is just not to talk to him. I advise you to do the same until you can live apart.

ferrier · 22/11/2018 07:31

Why can't you leave him? Or rather, why do you feel you can't leave him?

NewStartNow · 22/11/2018 07:33

Handhold here. Please do leave. You are entirely right that his behaviour isn't normal. He is abusive. You could spend years trying to convince him his behaviour is wrong but he'll never r ree

DeeStopia · 22/11/2018 07:36

Jesus Christ. You can't see this from your vantage point OP, but this is a truly fucked up relationship. He will never admit to being wrong (except maybe when you eventually leave him, and then it'll turn into "I am sorry but...") Leave him now because every extra day you are with this man means that your wounds are getting deeper.

Bimwit · 22/11/2018 07:37

He sounds absolutely fucking horrendous. Its not your life's work to be his prisoner punchbag! He will have to be a big boy like the rest of us and get support about his workplace from friends, family or professionals - not you.

Can you go and stay with your mum or something?

NewStartNow · 22/11/2018 07:37

Oops... Never accept it. The most eminent relationship expert in the world could tell him and he'd still blame you. Don't waste your life on him.

EvaHarknessRose · 22/11/2018 07:41

Read your post back OP. You were very clear with him. His behaviour was manipulative and desperate. Desperate to keep control as he knows you know now. Keep that knowledge close to you and it will get you out of there.

starryeyed19 · 22/11/2018 07:42

With some people, there is no point in discussing the issues. And your partner sounds like one of those people. He doesn't sound like he will ever acknowledge what he has done or how he behaves towards you. I would focus your mental and emotional energy on leaving. Don't waster your time trying to get him to see his behaviour clearly. It's just muddying the waters and taking your attention off your goal ie getting out of this with some semblance of emotional health still.

Sohardtochooseausername · 22/11/2018 07:42

This:

He will never admit to being wrong (except maybe when you eventually leave him, and then it'll turn into "I am sorry but...")

And this:

The most eminent relationship expert in the world could tell him and he’d still blame you.

It takes time to realise these things and it’s not nice. It is really hard. Have you got good support IRL? Friends and/or family?

KristinaM · 22/11/2018 07:44

Yes you can leave it you want to. And you SHOULD leave if you are being abused.

He doesn't have to agree with you before you can leave.

He doesn't have to see things from your point of view.

He doesn’t have to think that you and your counsellor are right and he is wrong.

You are allowed to leave because YOU know it’s the best thing for YOU.

PurpleWithRed · 22/11/2018 07:55

It is HIS fault your relationship is over and you are leaving. The problems are entirely of his making.

Last night once again he put time and trouble into manipulating you, threatening you, gaslighting you, shutting you down: he chose to do these abusive things, they are unjustifiable and abnormal under any circumstances.

Deep breath, take yourself mentally back to where you were with a clear view and an action plan, and move ahead with leaving. We're out here waiting to welcome you.

DianaT1969 · 22/11/2018 08:30

Why haven't you left him OP?

hellsbellsmelons · 22/11/2018 09:27

Ahhh... the manipulation and tears and self pity.
FFS leave him.
He's a joyless, funsucking, manipulative asshole.
What do you see in him?
Do not do this to yourself.
Do NOT sacrifice yourself for a pathetic MAN!
Why would you?
Just leave him to it.
He'll find the next person pretty quickly - I can guarantee it!

babygoose48 · 22/11/2018 11:01

Thank you all some of these words are really sinking in as a reminder.

I can’t explain how painful this all is. Just to make it clear I don’t want this man in my life anymore but I am scared and I feel threatened by him.

My therapist told me that it’s his drip, drip, drip behaviour of all the small things that have built up over time. These may seem like little things with the cat and the friend comment but I’ve had a very long time of all of this and he’s making me feel like I am fussing over nothing.

OP posts:
WhoGivesADamnForAFlakeyBandit · 22/11/2018 11:14

But you know you're not fussing over nothing - and if even if you were, you have the right to end a relationship based on any reason at all. Like the fact he likes celery, or has blue eyes, or your horoscope or David bloody Icke says so, or because it's Thursday, or just because you want to.

So now think about the safest way to get him out of your life.

Adora10 · 22/11/2018 14:00

Stop engaging with this pathetic excuse of a man; he has grounded you down; the tears, the blaming you, it won't stop OP, he will NEVER admit he's a sick bastard and enjoys the power he has over you; you are the only one to break the cycle; staying there and suffering more mental torture is just serving his purpose, to carry on his assaults on you.

Do you not have one friend you could go stay with or family, I am sure if you could get away from the situation the flog will clear and you will start to really evaluate things properly, at the moment, he is basically preventing you from even thinking for yourself.

Hidingtonothing · 22/11/2018 14:16

I know it's hard but you need to literally close your ears to him, turn him into white noise. Focus your thoughts on one thing, your need to be away from this man and how to make that happen. You've figured it out now and, despite today's wobble, once you know there's no going back so now you need to find strategies to keep that at the forefront of your mind and force his manipulative ramblings into the background so they don't weaken your resolve.

You can do this, you know what he is now, don't let him make you doubt what you know Flowers

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