Guy sends me a pm via a forum for a mutual hobby. We chat a bit about the hobby. He oddly adds to a message that he's a Dr. This is completely irrelevant to the hobby or what we've been talking about. It came across like he was trying to impress me. I didn't believe he was a Dr. We continued to send messages back and forth over a couple of months, just the odd message/chat every couple of weeks. We got on well and if he was who he said he was, he sounded like a decent guy. He was attentive, listened and always said the right thing (too good to be true!) I did share some personal things with him about a break up with my ex and my mental health. I shared those things because he was a stranger. It was anonymous. So he knows I had a bad break up, I was not over my ex and I was having therapy. Not exactly sounding like a catch am I, but the next thing I know, he's saying he wants to meet me and wants to date me!
At this point we have never met. We have not had a video call or spoken on the phone. We have not even seen photos of each other so he has no idea what I look like or if I am who I say I am! So I'm thinking what kind of sad, desperate, creep trys to date someone when they don't even know what they look like. Yes we got on well and enjoyed each others messages, but it was always in the back of my mind that he could be some 70 year old man or 16 year old school boy.
He sent me couple of photos of himself (could have been anyone!) and I asked if he had social media and if he'd let me see it. He said yes and told me the details. It was private so I sent a friend request. I asked if he was going to accept my request, he said he couldn't find it and that he has 100s of requests in there (really?!?) So at this point I kinda had enough. I always thought all the Dr stuff was a load of bs and now he wasn't letting me see his social media so in my mind he wasn't who he said he was. I was a bit sad/hurt that he turned out not to be 'real' but I always knew this could be the case. I said to either let me see his sm or I was done. He then said I had some serious trust issues and needed help, all very gaslighting. Like seriously- I'm being unreasonable for wanting to verify who I'm taking to? So I was done.
About a month later he gets back in touch. He's missed me and he's now prepared to let me see his sm. I was curious so went with it. He could have gone through it in this time and 'cleaned it up' but he actually did seem to be who he said he was. He was a Dr. There was no obvious evidence of a wife/gf/kids. Since, we have spoken on the phone and video called and he wants to meet. But I'm still not convinced he's being completely genuine and it a still seems a bit off to me... he's been odd, right..? (Or do I actually have really crazy trust issues and I'm being mean and should give this a chance?!)