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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

Do I contact my ex? She was the love of my life but I felt like I had no choice but to leave.

40 replies

Jim311 · 14/02/2019 15:31

Whenever I was with my partner it was amazing, just two people madly in love, but whenever I wasn’t around she was different (I felt like she would push me away), distant and she just never seemed to want to spend time with me (we’d see each other once – twice a week and she often wouldn’t spend the night). She also seemed very hesitant to do anything that wasn’t just the two of us, shying away from nights out with my friends and family. She told me she liked her ‘recharge time’ and that I should respect that, but she never seemed to respect the fact that I’d like to spend a couple of nights a week together. We fought all the time when we were apart but when in person we never argued, not once, we could barely let go of each other’s hand, even food shopping she would hold onto my arm and every date felt like the start of a relationship, she was such a shy person but around me she couldn’t control herself and she’d say as much, even on our last date before I left her we couldn’t get on an escalator without stopping to kiss. We talked about children, where we’d live, we went on holiday together, (for my last birthday she paid for us both to go to Italy) but every time we’d get back she wouldn’t want to see me for a week saying she'd want to 'get back into her routine'. She said she loved spending time with me but it exhausted her mentally and that I was like a drug. She was so happy when she was in my presence, that no one made her feel the way I did but when she wasn’t around me she was miserable. I couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t just spend more time with me, she said I was her best friend and I believe that as she doesn’t have many. We are very different, I’m out going, open, honest and I make friends incredibly easily, I love my sports and to be out and active. She’s more reserved with a very small group of friends, she’d much rather spend her weekend in bed watching Netflix but she adored my energy and spontaneity, I’d meet her up after work, pick her up and spin her round like a movie, she’d get so embarrassed but she loved the way I a made her feel. We talked about moving in together but she’d flip from looking at places for us to making silly excuses constantly. The whole thing destroyed my self-esteem and sense of worth and after 3-4 months of this I ended it saying I loved her but she made me feel worthless and all I wanted was for us to spend more time together and I couldn't be in a relationship that made me miserable. She was devastated and said I was the love of her life. I told her that was it for me, I couldn’t be friends with someone I felt so strongly about and that for the sake of both of us I wouldn’t contact her again, she was crying so much but I couldn’t understand, I was breaking up with her for reasons entirely within her control and not mine, she could have fixed this! It’s been a month and I’ve been true to my word, I’ve done no contact, removed all reminders of her from my life, started playing tennis and piano lessons to distract myself and keep busy, making me a better version of myself but I miss her terribly, she was my best friend as well as my partner and I’d planned to propose to her, we’d even talked about the ring she’d wanted. The question is do I contact her or do I leave it for her to contact me. She knows how I feel about her but a part of me wonders if she’d want to try again, but then I remind myself that when I last saw her I told her the reasons I was leaving and she never offered a solution, I can’t fix the problems as I can’t make her want to see me or move forward in this relationship.

OP posts:
Middersweekly · 14/02/2019 19:46

@Jim311, perhaps she has some mental health issues she hasn’t disclosed to you or perhaps she has some deep insecurities about the way she looks so if she feels she looks awful she hides away. She could also suffer badly with her periods and obviously doesn’t want to use it as an excuse. The thing is, until you live with someone, you don’t really know someone and all their quirks/ undesirable qualities. The romantic and fun times were probably great but she is likely holding back because she doesn’t want to show you the less polished version of herself. At 31 you have plenty of time. I would suggest you look for someone more open with their emotions and ready to commit.

Jim311 · 14/02/2019 20:01

@Middersweekly

Thanks, a few of my friends who knew her have said similar, that the way she'd treat me wasn't normal and I shouldn't have put up with it as long as I did.

I just needed to be reminded I'd done the right thing!

OP posts:
onemorecupofcoffeefortheroad · 14/02/2019 20:14

You did the right thing.
You sound as though you have a lot to offer and you need to be with someone who appreciates that. Your ex clearly didn’t - you were not compatable and did not share a similar way of being in the world. Going back to her would only lead to more heartbreak.
Find someone who appreciates what you have to offer and shares a similar outlook on life.

MrsPerfect12 · 15/02/2019 03:03

She sounds married. Maybe you were the other man

ravenmum · 15/02/2019 08:36

I did no contact not to win her back, but because I know it's what I needed to do to make sure I didn't try to win her back
Isn't it annoying when you do something sensible like this in a moment of sanity? Smile Later I'm often quite pissed off with sensible me.

she even told me how many kids she wanted and asked if I'd be happy to have one in the next year or 2
Thing is, it is actually quite sensible to ask this sort of question before you commit to or decide on anything at all - so that you know whether the commitment is worthwhile. This sort of comment means that the person is considering whether you'd be a good parent with them - but that is all.

HundredMilesAnHour · 15/02/2019 08:51

You sound totally incompatible but also it sounds like you weren't having a 'real' relationship. For whatever reason, it sounds like she never showed you who she really was so everything comes across as very superficial. Maybe she'd been hurt before, maybe she had MH issues that she wasn't ready to share, who knows. You persisted for 2 years and got nowhere. There's a reason she's an ex. Let sleeping dogs lie and go out and find someone who's actually compatible with you.

IvanaPee · 15/02/2019 09:01

None of it sounds real. She was probably married or something.

I couldn’t cope with someone thinking we were in a movie, spinning me around after work! Your whole post made me feel a bit nauseated to be honest. And If she’s like that she probably found it embarrassing/suffocating/creepy.

That’s not to say there aren’t women out there who would love that...just sometimes people are just too incompatible.

Probably because yesterday was Valentines Day and you’re the romantic/sensitive type you were missing her but now that the chocs are 50% off, let common sense prevail again!

Am I right that you saw her twice a week for three months? And in between times you fought non stop?

You have to know that’s not healthy! Or normal!

You need to put it behind you, I think. For both your sakes.

Jim311 · 15/02/2019 09:47

@IvanaPee

We worked together, that's how we met

And I did all that stuff because she used to tell me how much she loved it.

I agree with what a lot of people have said, it felt like she never truly opened up to me where as she knew every part of my life, she'd met all my family and friends etc.

The people who know her best tell me constantly that they think she has a personality disorder but I guess I felt like maybe I could help her get over it? Saying it out loud makes me realise how niave that is!

We'd fight once a month maybe and she'd give me the silent treatment.

I realise she isn't right for me and going back would just be more of the same, being told how much she loves me yet constantly letting me down and cancelling on me.

Knowing whats best doesnt always make it any easier to stop thinking about it unfortunalty.

Thanks for the advice everyone anyway

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 15/02/2019 09:56

It shouldn't be this hard

That's it really

I found your op to be mostly navel gazing wank, tbh

Move on and tone down the Hallmark philosophising next time...it's utterly tiresome

category12 · 15/02/2019 12:59

Gosh what nice friends she has to diagnose her Hmm.

Srsly, just sounds to me like she's not bothered and you want to think there's something wrong with her for that.

AndTheBandPlayedOn · 15/02/2019 13:03

No, leave the past in the past.

IvanaPee · 15/02/2019 17:10

I don’t think her friends diagnosing her with a personality helps tbh! Nor does you thinking you can fix her!!!

I think it’s good that you’ve come to the realization that you’re better off out of it.

Good luck!

NotTheFordType · 15/02/2019 20:57

She told you that she loved romantic gestures like being swung around in public, but when you did this, she clearly didn't like it.

She agreed with you that it was fair to see each other at least twice a week, but didn't follow through.

She met all your friends/family, but you met none of hers.

She said she would like to have a baby within 2 years but never committed to you.

When you were together she was all lovey dovey but when apart she was distant and non-communicative.

She gave you the impression she wanted to move in with you, but would then change her mind.

I see two (unsuggested so far) possibilities here:
She is married and unhappy and wants to leave but then decides she can't for whatever reason;

Or she is gay and very conflicted, and is using you as a beard . This would explain the cognitive dissonance between what she says - "I love romantic gestures like in those movies about women who like men! Yes! Swing me around!" and the reality "NO DON'T JUST FUCKING STOP IT" Beards are also very handy to shut the busybodies in the office up by saying "Actually I'm going out with Brian from IT Support and we had a great time this weekend going... erm... ice skating, bitches"

Or, as many PPs have suggested, you are just fundamentally incompatible. She was signalling personality traits that she thought you would find desirable (or perhaps she really believed she had) but her fundamental personality was at odds with yours.

During your future life, OP, (let me tell you as an old biddy) you will have relationships of varying lengths and some of your partners will act in inexplicable ways. None of us are entitled to "closure". Sure it would be nice to have, but in most cases we simply have to say "well it didn't work out because s/he was a twat and I'm better off out of it".

Go find yourself someone who matches your personality, and don't listen to what they SAY so much as what they DO.

On the first few dates we always want to impress the other person, but make sure she's impressing you through action rather than talk. I once went on a first date with a guy whose profile said he worked for charity, was committed to LGBTQ rights, all the liberal hit points, and then when we went into the restaurant he was intolerably rude to the wait staff. Totally at odds with the personality he'd portrayed himself as, and guess what, he didn't get a second date!

NotTheFordType · 15/02/2019 21:01

Ach, IvanaPee (great name!) suggested she was married already. I'm not the first!

LellyMcKelly · 15/02/2019 21:12

She sounds very introverted while you sound very extraverted. It must be very exhausting for her - introverts need much more space and quiet than extroverts, and that is clearly frustrating for you. Do not contact her. Focus on finding someone who is better suited to you personality wise, and someone you have more in common with.

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