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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

Friend attempted suicide and said it’s my fault

158 replies

RockpoolGirl · 19/02/2022 08:05

This happened a couple of years ago but it plays on my mind daily and I need to get it out.

My male friend and I were very good friends, he was also friends with my boyfriend and there were a group of us. As things were unravelling with my boyfriend my friend- let’s call him B- told me he had feelings for me. My head was all over the place re my boyfriend but I didn’t indicate to B that they were reciprocated because they weren’t.

Anyway. I was now single and still friends with B. At no point did I ever indicate I had feelings for him apart from once on a night out when I made one flirty comment to him after a few drinks.

A few months later we went to a bar with a few of our other friends. Chatting, having a few drinks etc. Three of us including B got in a cab back to where we lived. I said night and went into my house. I was sitting in my room looking at photos on my phone when I heard a kerfuffle downstairs. Suddenly my bedroom door burst open and B walked in. Turned out he had knocked on the front door and when my sister answered he had pushed past her and barged in!

I was sitting there shocked and then he removed his coat and started to walk towards me. I was feeling vulnerable sitting in my bedroom and didn’t know what the hell he was going to do so I told him to leave. He refused so I had to be more forceful with my words. Eventually I got him downstairs to the door and he was still refusing to leave. Because he was unsteady after a few drinks I was able to open the door with one hand and push him out with the other, shutting it behind him. I heard him screaming the F word as he walked away.

The next day I got a call from B to tell me that he had been in A&E overnight after taking an overdose of painkillers. He said it was my fault. I was horrified but felt like he had been wrong for forcing himself in to my house and scaring me so I told him I didn’t feel I was wrong for making him go.

The next day I arrived at work to find cds and books that he had borrowed from me thrown all over my desk. (We worked in the same building). It was like a punch in the stomach. I opened my email and he had written to me saying he wanted nothing more to do with me.

And that was it, he never spoke to me again.

He was such a good friend and I was gutted at the time. The fact that he told me his attempt was my fault has never left me.

I don’t feel that I messed with his head. I knew him for 4 years and there were maybe two flirty incidents in all that time, but otherwise he knew I was utterly devoted to the boyfriend I had and later broke up with.

Was this my fault at all?

OP posts:
liveforsummer · 19/02/2022 09:28

He didn't take an overdose and he wasn't your friend. He was always waiting hoping you'd split up then felt it was his turn. Glad you were firm and didn't feel forced on to anything. Looks like
It's worked out well for everyone involved in the long run anyway so don't hold on to this guilt for something that highly likely didn't happen

LittleWins · 19/02/2022 09:29

As PP said, is there any evidence he actually made the attempt?

TheDoveFromAboveCooCoo · 19/02/2022 09:30

None of this is your fault. None of it.

I have a friend who sadly had fallen out of love with her husband. They split and he spent 6 months threatening suicide. It was such a bad time for her.

Eventually she took him back because she was so worried he would carry out his threat.

They had been back together happily married for a few months when he took his own life. I don't think she will ever recover after finding him.

My point I think is that if someone has that mindset then sometimes it doesn't matter what you do, how you react, how much you support them or how much love you show them. So you must not blame yourself for his actions.

Let it go and start to heal. You can't keep thinking about it.

longwayoff · 19/02/2022 09:31

Be proud of yourself OP. You resisted an attempted assault by a manipulative and deceitful narcissist and you came out the better for it. Well done. Pay no attention to the toddler's argument 'look what you made me do'. Congratulate yourself that you didn't allow yourself to be sucked into his fantasy. Many women are coerced by this kind of guff, you weren't, that's good. He'll be blaming someone else for something else by now, forget him.

FennecShandDoesEverything · 19/02/2022 09:32

He attempted to assault you. That's what he came to your house that night to do. Then when you didn't comply, he turned it around on you with this bullshit suicide manipulation story to blame you for not making it easy for him to inflict sex on you against your will.

None of this is your fault. None of it.

TracyMosby · 19/02/2022 09:34

Look, op. Basically he felt entitled to have sex with you as he put the ground work in by ‘being your friend.’ When you didnt want ti have sex with him his feeling of entitlement was enraged. How dare you not have sex with him when he felt like he earned it! So he punished you by causing you ongoing guilt over an imaginary self harm incident.

He is a knobehead. An unstable, entitled knobhead.

Please do not give this knobhead another moment’s thought. And if you do, feel relief that you were not alone in your home and you managed to get him out of your house without being assaulted, and out of your life.

Trainbear · 19/02/2022 09:35

He is an abject failure, quite clearly.

T00Ts · 19/02/2022 09:38

I too, think he he may have been lying about the overdose, in an attempt to get your attention. He recovered awful quick in order to lob stuff at your desk.

I hate men like this who behave atrociously and then blame the woman for their behaviour and feelings. This isn’t the same but years ago a man in my wider friendship group developed a big crush on me. I was very clear with him that I didn’t reciprocate but he was pushy. We continued to socialise in a wider group. I continued to be clear that it was not going to happen. Further down the line I got a new boyfriend and the original man kicked off. He told his sister (?!) that we were in a relationship and I had betrayed him with this other man. And she attacked me. It was astonishing. I was polite, had declined his advances (repeatedly) and I still got attacked. I think about it years on too, OP.

None of that was your fault.

MrsTimRiggins · 19/02/2022 09:38

@FennecShandDoesEverything

He attempted to assault you. That's what he came to your house that night to do. Then when you didn't comply, he turned it around on you with this bullshit suicide manipulation story to blame you for not making it easy for him to inflict sex on you against your will.

None of this is your fault. None of it.

All of this. I don’t believe he really took an overdose with the intention of ending his life.
EarthSight · 19/02/2022 09:39

I opened my email and he had written to me saying he wanted nothing more to do with me

Good. What an idiot. And to blame you for that as well? :/

godmum56 · 19/02/2022 09:40

Its called "look what you made me do" Its a form of gaslighting

LiveFromNewYork · 19/02/2022 09:42

Imagine how abusive things might have got and how controlled you’d have been if you had started a relationship with him. This is definitely not your fault.

AtomHeartMotherOfGod · 19/02/2022 09:42

No. It's his fault plain and simple. He threatened you in your home, chose to take pills to try to guilt trip you, further guilt tripped you through his diva behaviour at work.

He has abused you and you have done nothing - please forget about him.

VivX · 19/02/2022 09:44

You've done nothing wrong and it sounds like you dodged a bullet. Him forcing himself into your home and then your bedroom is massively aggressive and has red flags all over it.

Also I don't think he took an overdose.
That timeline is unlikely ... it would have taken longer than that to receive treatment, be under observation and also have a psychiatric consult before discharge. Then he had time to also go home, gather all your stuff together and get into work early and dump it all on your desk.

LowlandLucky · 19/02/2022 09:44

Not your fault and i bet he never took a single pill. He was embarrassed by his actions so dreamed up a drama so he never had to face you again. You are lucky he is no longer part of your life.

Genegenieee · 19/02/2022 09:45

Awful, very predatory behaviour. So sorry OP, he sounds highly manipulative and impulsive. Good that you are no longer in contact and moved on from that group.

ChaToilLeam · 19/02/2022 09:45

I would happily bet money on there being no genuine overdose and no stay in A&E. He’s an entitled, manipulative, abusive git. Please let your mind be at rest, you did nothing wrong.

hesbeen2021 · 19/02/2022 09:47

His personality sounds disordered
You've had a lucky escape

Velvian · 19/02/2022 09:53

No he is an absolute dick, who should be pondering his own behaviour (I bet he is not). YANBU at all. Flowers

He is luck you didn't call the police.

DrSbaitso · 19/02/2022 09:54

He was such a good friend

No he wasn't.

And this unearned and ridiculous guilt trip is how people - not just stalker sex pest men, although they employ the tactic liberally - chew up your life and leave you with nothing except the value feeling you've done the "right thing", even though enabling these abusers is never the right thing.

Don't fall for it, now or ever again.

thinkingaboutLangCleg · 19/02/2022 09:54

@VivX

You've done nothing wrong and it sounds like you dodged a bullet. Him forcing himself into your home and then your bedroom is massively aggressive and has red flags all over it.

Also I don't think he took an overdose.
That timeline is unlikely ... it would have taken longer than that to receive treatment, be under observation and also have a psychiatric consult before discharge. Then he had time to also go home, gather all your stuff together and get into work early and dump it all on your desk.

This. Don’t give it a moment’s more thought, OP.
darklady64 · 19/02/2022 09:56

What a knob! He has done you a huge favour by flouncing out of your life. I hope all the replies here mean that you can put the whole thing behind you. Absolutely none of it is your fault, and the bit about the overdose is 99.999% probably not even true (distraught enough to try and end his life, go to A&E, get treatment and psych assessment and then still be collected enough to go home and collect up all the things he borrowed from you and go to work as normal? I think not).

Even if he did try something (which he didn't), you are not responsible for his actions. Don't give this awful specimen another thought.

You, on the other hand, sound lovely.

Thewindwhispers · 19/02/2022 09:58

He was an abusive freak. Thank god you never dated him! He tried his hardest to manipulate and upset you.

I also do not believe he was in A&E from an overdose overnight and then in work the next day.

Please don’t question your own behaviour any more. Sometimes in life you meet a freak. It’s him, not you.

PanickedE · 19/02/2022 10:01

You’ve done nothing wrong.
Thank your lucky stars you got rid of him! Please relieve yourself of this guilt

ShiroMiso · 19/02/2022 10:03

Those saying he he's BPD, how could you possibly know that based on one thread?

It's offensive. The condition is already stigmatized enough as it is.

My sister has diagnosed BPD and she has never behaved in that way toward her friends or love interests.