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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

What can I do?

88 replies

CaughtInHisTrap · 03/02/2019 10:42

I'm not sure where to post this but it's about the end of a relationship so I hope till be ok here.

So, I don't know where to start but about 10 years I met my partner, I was in my early 20s he was nearly 40 (but lied about his age, among other things).
The trouble is up till I'd met him I had severe social anxiety and depression and was housebound since my mid teens (missing a lot of school and not getting any qualifications etc), when we met I'd just started seeing a dr and getting cbt, leaving the house slowly. Partner followed the 'treat em mean keep em keen' rule and I was so desperate to please him I lost al sight of the progress of made and focussed on winning his approval.

Anyway I could write a lot on the relationship but I already know it's abusive mentally and sexually. And I'm so fucking sick of it I already know it's not right and I want out but here's my problem, I'm feeling completely trapped.

In the ten years since I've met Partner -I've not had any work experience or got any qualifications, I've barely left the house (he doesn't like me going out without him).
-We've had a son (almost 4).
-My dad has recently died and my mum is in v poor health and all my siblings are living abroad, so i don't have anyone to ask for help.
-Partner hasn't let me be involved in the running of the house e.g. Paying bills dealing with finances etc so I have no idea.
-as well as all this all the confidence is started to gain has gone and I'm depressed. I'd end it all if it didn't mean my son would be left with him.

So after all that, my question is what can I do? I have no chance of getting a good enough job to support my son and me and run a house and I have no idea how to go about it anyway.
I'm just so fucking sick of him and this miserable existence. I always think, you have one life, what's the point in being miserable but I don't know what to do. My son deserves so so so much better.

OP posts:
CaughtInHisTrap · 06/02/2019 23:05

@Dundeeflowers I'm so sorry to hear that 💐 but you are here on this thread full of amazing support and advice so please take strength from it like I am trying to do. It's so difficult and I have that niggling self doubt but I'm doing my best to ignore that and reading and rereading the messages on here to reassure myself and to force a change of attitude in myself.

@twominfromthebeach Thank you, I can do this. Even if I'm unsure of myself, I know deep down I can. And I'll keep telling myself until I believe it. I'm realising how lucky I am to have my lovely mum for support and my son deserves the same. He will know that he can rely on me whenever he needs it

OP posts:
CaughtInHisTrap · 06/02/2019 23:12

@gamerchick I want that too!!
I can't describe how sweet and lovely my son is. He's the absolute sunshine of my life and deserves nothing but happiness. I'm in DS bed now and I don't want to leave him, I'm going to stay with him tonight and hug him (until he kicks me away Wink) I love him so much.

OP posts:
CaughtInHisTrap · 07/02/2019 11:09

He's being so kind to me today, but also sad as well as being so so loving to DS. He's just said to me that if he I ever took his boy from him, he'd kill himself. Not in a threatening way but in a sad, resigned way. Shit, I feel like a monster.

OP posts:
Quartz2208 · 07/02/2019 11:13

You are not the monster here. If he treated you and your son properly you would not be thinking of leaving. If he treated you like a person and not property.

You have one priority here OP and that is your son no 4 year old should be walking on eggshells around their father.

And you are not his property - he has been raping you - he is the monster. He will make his decisions - you need to make yours

Go now when you have the impetuts to

Honeyroar · 07/02/2019 14:12

You know he’s saying those things because he knows that his behaviour is awful and that one day you will leave him. He’s adding in some emotional blackmail to put the pressure on. Harden yourself up- he will throw much worse at you when you do leave. Write a list of all the bad things he does to you and your son and read it every time you feel yourself weakening.. Remind yourself why...

Dragongirl10 · 07/02/2019 15:15

Op he IS DOING THIS DELIBERATELY to make you feel guilty as he senses you withdrawing from him. Don't be manupulated, read back all that he has done to you AND YOUR SON....

Please don't leave your lovely little boy in this environment much longer it is damaging, wishing you both luck

rainbowruthie · 07/02/2019 19:06

Stay strong, you know that you can't continue to live like this Flowers

Haffiana · 07/02/2019 21:26

I was also thinking about the guilt. I feel so guilty leaving a man in his 50s alone.

OP, this is how this happens. You are a decent woman, a gentle considerate human being. This is important, because what has happened to you actually hinges on that huge capacity for empathy of yours.

You are married to a sub-human monster. You are trapped and are sexually assaulted on a regular basis. Because you are a normal decent person, you block your feelings of outrage and anger. You go numb. You cannot actually process something so painful.

This is perfectly normal and usual.

Later, after a period of time, you have to also block the fact that you have blocked your feelings, because you feel that there must be something terribly wrong with you that you didn't react as a normal person would. You didn't object and you didn't run away, so you feel deep down that something is very wrong with you. You are numb to yourself and you cannot really contact anything about how you feel. You feel a sort of distant anger, but it doesn't - quite - touch you. It just sort of washes past you.

This incidentally is also a perfectly normal response to abuse.

You are still a decent, gentle, lovely person. You have a huge capacity for love. You cannot feel anything for yourself because inside you are numb and quite convinced that you are broken, weak and abnormal. So you forget yourself and begin instead to direct all that love and compassion inside you at your partner. You focus on him. You can finally feel something here, feel for him, feel for his difficulties and problems. So you do this, you care for him. All that gentle love and compassion that you cannot feel for yourself, you feel for him instead.

This is the killer point.

Feeling HIS pain, caring about his comfort - whether real or entirely imaginary - really helps you feel better about yourself, because you finally become someone that you are not angry with, someone that you do not loathe. Caring about him allows you to finally stop being disgusted with yourself. You can bear to be a caring, empathic, thoughtful person who puts someone else before herself. It starts to be the only way that you can feel better about your situation.

It is your only way of coping with appalling abuse and it is very common in this sort of situation. You are protecting yourself the only way that you possibly can.

This is the really saddest point about this whole sad process of losing your boundaries to an abusive partner. In order to be that lovely, gentle, caring person that you truly are, you have to feel all that love and compassion for the completely undeserving, evil sub-human rapist who is abusing you.

You can read the responses on here that caring for him is abnormal etc etc, but you know all that. You know, and you are deeply worried that you are also a monster, but you are helpless because it is your one and only coping mechanism. You NEED to feel compassion and concern for your abusive partner and you NEED to completely subjugate your real self in order to do so, and you will allow the abuse because it enables that need. Without it you fear that you would spiral out of reality altogether.
This is perfectly normal and usual in cases of extreme and sustained abuse.

You are struggling to transfer that need of yours to feel compassion to your Mother, but your partner is right in front of you, and with his overriding need to keep you where you are, accessible to his abuse, he will easily find a way to keep you focussed on his needs.

So here you are. You probably need some quite specialised help to unscrew your head - and trust me, there are professional people who completely understand where you are and how to help - but for now you need to just get to a place where receiving help is a possibility. The first important step on the journey to your wonderful future with your little son.

I want you to imagine that you have a grown daughter and that she is living with a partner who treats her the way you are being treated. Or perhaps imagine your Mum's desperate sorrow and anxiety for you if she knew the full truth of your relationship. Just keep imagining that. It will help you to see exactly what is really happening. It will help you to feel what is so deeply buried, your true feelings. Inside you there is a growing anger, a righteous wrath. It is a little flame. One day it will light you inside with such love and compassion for your poor, abused and generous self. You need to protect that flame and help it grow.

Then you will be able to walk away.

apintofharpandapacketofdates · 07/02/2019 22:24

Beautiful advice Haffiana. I've been in a similar situation and the empathy and compassion lens for my ex has been liberating.
It's an incredibly difficult process, no denying that, however it has helped me be truer to myself and to heal.

OP I won't wish you strength because think you have it in spades. I will wish for you to remember that the baby steps, though small, still bring you where you want to be.

Very best wishes x

CaughtInHisTrap · 09/02/2019 10:08

@Haffiana I just wanted to come back to my thread to thank you for such a thoughtful reply. I didn't want you to think it was ignored, I've actually read it over and over because it's struck a chord with me. I tried replying so many times but I couldn't find the words but thank you so much.

Thank you too @apintofharpandapacketofdates I'm not feeling too strong at the moment but I felt it before so I keep reminding myself that I am more capable than I realise!

OP posts:
Honeypickle · 09/02/2019 10:40

Good luck OP, I hope things are moving forward for you and you are free soon, you and your little boy. A whole new life awaits you, just keep taking those small steps towards it. It’s like a chink of light in the darkness surrounding you, and you need to keep moving towards it, and one day you’ll be there fully in the light, safe, free and I hope, happy. All the best x

CaughtInHisTrap · 09/02/2019 18:29

Thanks @Honeypickle you are right, small steps are still progress. And my mind has already checked out of this relationship which I guess is a step towards moving on. But I don't know how to cope with the guilt of it all.

OP posts:
Honeypickle · 09/02/2019 18:46

There will be more guilt if you stay. Guilt of putting your child through this and your child comes first. You owe this man nothing. He rapes you every night. He treats you appallingly. I wish you so much happiness and it is within your grasp. You’ll get there, I know you will.

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