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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

Feel like crap

8 replies

Pickingmyselfup · 16/04/2022 07:57

I have posted under a different username before about my marriage difficulties.

My mental health took a huge nosedive during lockdown and my husband really struggled with me. I had a huge wobble over our marriage, brought it up with him and from there it just spiralled into a huge big thing about sex. I didn't want it, he did. He was miserable with rejection, he said some pretty horrible stuff which he claims he didn't mean, I had sex I didn't want and it's all just gone tits up.

Fast forward 18 months and I told him we need to separate properly. I'm struggling to get over having sex I didn't want and it's made me never want to do it again, I can't get over some of the stuff he's said in the past, about sex and about me making me feel like I'm never good enough and he can't deal with rejection.

He's still pushing for us to be a proper couple and it's just causing arguments because I don't want sex and he is hurt that I'm turning him down.

I've had my hormones checked and I'm having counselling sessions, he doesn't think I'm fighting hard enough to save the marriage but I don't know what else I can do. We get on great as people but as a married couples it's awful and we can't live like that. It's not fair on either of us.

I spoke to the counsellor about some of his behaviour and she was really concerned as it's very sexually coercive and she said there are elements of control. He flat out denies it and says I'm making him out to be a monster, he doesn't deny what he said but he's saying I'm taking it the wrong way because in my head he is a monster which isn't true.

I hate living like this where I don't feel like anything I do is right. I'm ending the marriage because it's not making us happy, that's not good enough because I'm apparently giving up but staying married and saying no to sex is also wrong.

What am I supposed to do?!

OP posts:
Mummytobe93 · 16/04/2022 07:59

You’re doing the correct thing ending it OP

BritInAus · 16/04/2022 08:04

You continue making plans to leave and you carry them out.
Nobody 'has' to stay in a marriage or relationship they're not happy in. If it doesn't work, then end it. I understand that's not easy, but you're asking as if you don't have options - kindly, you do.

You say 'that's not good enough because I'm apparently giving up' - no, you've decided you're not happy and ending it. It's not a decision you need to come to mutually. You are allowed to make a decision and you're allowed to leave. You don't need to spend your time or energy convincing him that it's not working or getting him to agree.

WanderingLost167 · 16/04/2022 08:14

You walk away. I didnt want sex with my ex DH, and it wasn't my hormone levels, it was I had so massively gotten the Ick with him over his attitude to sex and me that the idea of it gave me panic attacks.

I have happily and enthusiastically had sex with others since. Leave.

GeneLovesJezebel · 16/04/2022 08:17

You file for divorce, and then tell him. You can do it yourself on line.
He is trying to control you, and having sex to just shut him up is not acceptable.
Visualise what you want and keep going towards it.

DragonOverTheMoon · 16/04/2022 08:26

Urgh I had the similar (not about sex) with my ex h saying I took it wrong, saying I made him out to be a monster and blaming me for giving up on the marriage. It really messes your head up.

4.5 months I've not been with him now and I ha e started to see him so clearly. He emotionally blackmailed me a few days ago and I saw it as it was happening and laughed it off. Whilst we were together I would have taken it to heart.

I really recommend the book Should I stay or Should I go by Lundy Bancroft. If you download scribd you can read it for free on their free month trial.

Then I recommend the new book I'm reading. When the body says no by Gabor Mate. Your life is worth more than this stress, stress that will literally fuck your body up.

Pickingmyselfup · 16/04/2022 15:08

It's an incredibly difficult situation to be in right now because he's not accepting the situation. He's still pushing for sex and getting arsy when I say no so then I feel guilty and debating if I should just give in but that's how we've ended up where we are.

I don't want to hurt him but I'm constantly hurting him every time I reject him. He's hoping that by pushing he will spark up some fire in me and doesn't listen when I tell him it's having the opposite effect.

He was worried I was seeing someone else, quizzed me about a t shirt he found that wasn't his, thought it belonged to someone who I had round in the day when the kids weren't in and he was at work. I pretty much told him to use his brain and ask himself why I would allow a man to leave the house without a t shirt on then find it, wash it and then stuff it into my husband's drawer hoping he wouldn't notice it wasn't his.

He had a massive bee in his bonnet about my male friend who I used to meet up with weekly with the kids and I had even made sure I introduced them both. Then he goes and makes some female friends, talks about one of them non stop and then stays over at another's house overnight. I didn't have an issue with it, at the end of the day if someone wants to cheat they will find a way, I was annoyed that he would have had a huge issue if it was me and my friend because "men always fancy the woman and will try it on" I pointed out that he was saying he would too and he was like oh that was before I had female friends.

Hmm.

I haven't seen my friend since before Christmas whereas when we decided to split in the new year he was straight out with his female friends. For me it's not the fact he has female friends, it was the earful I got about having a male friend and the hypocrisy.

It's just draining, all of it. He can't have the kids where he is living so he's over here and there is no space and I get sucked back in to the same old cycle of him trying it on, me rejecting him, him being grumpy, me feeling bad.

OP posts:
cornflakedreams · 16/04/2022 15:24

He is very coercive. You are doing the right thing to leave him.

I don't want to hurt him but I'm constantly hurting him every time I reject him.

It's a shame he doesn't feel the same concern about hurting you, because then he wouldn't be engaging in coercive behaviour and he wouldn't be happy to rape you.

Coercive people rarely admit it when challenged - doing so would undermine their ability to coerce you. Blaming you for his behaviour is a continuation of his abusive behaviour towards you.

cornflakedreams · 16/04/2022 15:25

Have you done the Freedom Programme?

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