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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

Toxic family dynamic

5 replies

daysatthecircus · 13/11/2021 06:21

Hello, I'm trying to unravel the threads of a failing marriage and am realising I never really knew who my H is.

There was lots of turmoil in his family (which includes children from his first marriage) and I have never been able to ask anyone directly what's caused all the multiple fallouts. They're not just because of one thing, but again and again over the years. It's weird, it's like it's all happened at a distance to me. He sees them and talks to them individually (those he's currently speaking to) and sometimes tells me, but there's never an opportunity to speak freely. It seems totally toxic, all of it.

Has anyone encountered this? It's just so confusing, to realise you never knew any of them really or what was going on. I don't think it's a secret but I think it's something to do with the kind of bizarre emotional abuse he's meted out to me. He has them mostly blocked or tightly controlled on social media, but every now and then he will get close to one of them but then there'll be an upset again.

As I work through what's been quite comlpex control and emotional abuse in my own marriage, I'm trying to understand the role this might play and how best to protect my kids from it moving forward.

OP posts:
Xoxoxoxoxoxox · 13/11/2021 07:26

I don't know, is he on the psycopathic / apd spectrum?

Here are some signs and symptoms:
A disregard for others and societal values.
Lying and manipulation. ...
Aggressiveness. ...
Impulsiveness. ...
A lack of remorse.

daysatthecircus · 13/11/2021 07:47

Yes, he is like that.
He does manage to feign quite a high level of compassion for his job though and is (superficially) successful and liked

OP posts:
idiotmagnet · 13/11/2021 11:38

@daysatthecircus

Yes, he is like that. He does manage to feign quite a high level of compassion for his job though and is (superficially) successful and liked
This sounds very familiar. Performative compassion but very different behaviour behind closed doors. Have a read up on narcissism. When I read up on that - especially the covert kind - a lot of things started to make sense. Just know that you're not imagining it. Best wishes to you.
coffeeisthebest · 13/11/2021 12:28

Rather than focusing on his family, I would focus on your children and their relationship with him. As in how can you manage that and minimise exposure to his abusive ways. Otherwise life could get overly complex. He drip fed you info about his family and tried to maintain a facade that he was perfect? Is that right? If so I would be more worried about how my kids would cope with a relationship directly with him rather than trying to unpick his extended family relationships.

EvenMoreFuriousVexation · 13/11/2021 13:12

Are you worried about your DC having contact with these people? Or are you trying to figure out why he's like he is?

If it's the latter, I totally understand the urge to find the "why" but you are going to have to let it go. Nothing he tells you is reliable and that may well be a pattern within his family. Even if you went and interviewed everyone (which is obviously not happening!) you would never be sure of the truth.

Does he know you are leaving?

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