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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

Found something put about a man I'm really into... wwyd?

366 replies

007sky · 29/12/2022 18:52

We have been dating for a while and I don't think I've ever been this attracted to someone. He ticks every box however I've always thought there's something about him but could never put my finger on it.

I have recently found out that he has been abusive in previous relationships. This information has not come from just one source. Not sure if this is relevant but he Is a respected professional. Very conflicting I know.

What would your thoughts/feeling be about continuing to see him? He has never been abusive to me.

OP posts:
Clutterbug13 · 01/01/2023 16:08

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Hit the nail on the head

Newmum1998 · 01/01/2023 16:26

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Newmum1998 · 01/01/2023 16:29

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TheShellBeach · 01/01/2023 16:29

I don't know about her being a troll but if she isn't, there seems to have been nothing useful taken from this thread at all.

Why did you start it, OP? Why haven't you taken everybody's advice?

girlmom21 · 01/01/2023 16:29

007sky · 01/01/2023 13:33

I will not be asking him about it.
He is not behaving in ways to try to make me fall for him or love bombing etc. It is very genuine and non intense. Very breezy, friendly and lots of attraction iyswim.

I hope he's changed then, OP.

butterfliedtwo · 01/01/2023 16:44

At least look at Doctor Ramani as suggested by PP above.

MissHavershamReturns · 01/01/2023 17:11

Your description of genuine and non intense doesn’t really match what you’ve said about him blowing hot and cold and you as sensing skeletons in the closet

ShakespearesBlister · 01/01/2023 17:19

007sky · 30/12/2022 22:36

OP I’m really interested to know what it was you had recognised yourself that gave you pause before you heard the abuse stuff from their parties

I still do not know what it was but there has always been something there. I always had a kind of feeling that he had skeletons in the closet iyswim but I could never put my finger on it and I don't know what gave me that feeling. I can't even recall that it was from anything that he has said.

It's called intuition. It really is a thing. Please don't ignore it. It is your subconscious mind picking up on signals your thinking mind wasn't noticing. I almost want to scream at you to run a mile if you get that feeling but I have a feeling you're not ready to listen to it.

Blastmydogintospace · 01/01/2023 17:49

But you're the one whose going to change him op arn't you. ?

The self control, the logic, the intellegence, it can't happen to you can it.

007sky · 01/01/2023 18:07

I'm definitely not a troll.
I am taking on board all of your advice and I appreciate it. I may come across as a troll because I can't seem to recognise how serious this could be from what you say in your posts. One of the reasons being that I do not think he is being abusive by the hot cold behavior. I wouldn't have called that abuse. Maybe cold was the wrong word, more distant that cold.

Your description of genuine and non intense doesn’t really match what you’ve said about him blowing hot and cold and you as sensing skeletons in the closet

Yes he can be very confusing at times. He is not full on and he gives me my own space. I do like seeing him and if I do decide to give it a bit longer I will always have my own independence, he will have no control over me in that way and I will know when to pull away. I hope this makes sense. I suppose I'm trying to say what harm can there be if I'm on my guard and I enjoy seeing him.

OP posts:
Herejustforthisone · 01/01/2023 18:09

007sky · 01/01/2023 18:07

I'm definitely not a troll.
I am taking on board all of your advice and I appreciate it. I may come across as a troll because I can't seem to recognise how serious this could be from what you say in your posts. One of the reasons being that I do not think he is being abusive by the hot cold behavior. I wouldn't have called that abuse. Maybe cold was the wrong word, more distant that cold.

Your description of genuine and non intense doesn’t really match what you’ve said about him blowing hot and cold and you as sensing skeletons in the closet

Yes he can be very confusing at times. He is not full on and he gives me my own space. I do like seeing him and if I do decide to give it a bit longer I will always have my own independence, he will have no control over me in that way and I will know when to pull away. I hope this makes sense. I suppose I'm trying to say what harm can there be if I'm on my guard and I enjoy seeing him.

There’s no hope for you. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

TheShellBeach · 01/01/2023 18:24

"One of the reasons being that I do not think he is being abusive by the hot cold behaviour. I wouldn't have called that abuse. Maybe cold was the wrong word, more distant that cold"

The hot/cold thing is how they start. They reel you in.

"............"he will have no control over me in that way and I will know when to pull away

Now I really doubt that. You haven't pulled away so far, have you.

"..............what harm can there be if I'm on my guard"

But you're not on your guard. You haven't listened to a thing everyone on this thread has said to you.

Pipsquiggle · 01/01/2023 18:26

007sky · 01/01/2023 18:07

I'm definitely not a troll.
I am taking on board all of your advice and I appreciate it. I may come across as a troll because I can't seem to recognise how serious this could be from what you say in your posts. One of the reasons being that I do not think he is being abusive by the hot cold behavior. I wouldn't have called that abuse. Maybe cold was the wrong word, more distant that cold.

Your description of genuine and non intense doesn’t really match what you’ve said about him blowing hot and cold and you as sensing skeletons in the closet

Yes he can be very confusing at times. He is not full on and he gives me my own space. I do like seeing him and if I do decide to give it a bit longer I will always have my own independence, he will have no control over me in that way and I will know when to pull away. I hope this makes sense. I suppose I'm trying to say what harm can there be if I'm on my guard and I enjoy seeing him.

....... AND YOU KNOW FROM 2 INDEPENDENT SOURCES THAT HE HAS BEEN ABUSIVE IN 2 PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS.

Sorry for shouting but your answers just don't seem to acknowledge the gravity of your situation. We just want you to be happy, healthy and safe.

FartWrangler · 01/01/2023 18:35

I do like seeing him and if I do decide to give it a bit longer I will always have my own independence, he will have no control over me in that way and I will know when to pull away

If it were that easy, nobody would ever be abused.

girlmom21 · 01/01/2023 18:39

I suppose I'm trying to say what harm can there be if I'm on my guard and I enjoy seeing him.

What harm can there be? You being constantly on edge in case you do or say the 'wrong' thing that starts the abuse cycle?

How can you enjoy spending time with a man who you have to constantly be on your guard around?

You won't see the red flags until they're too late, just like the women he's abused before you.

Genuine abuse victims have had the courage to speak out to you, both in real life and online, and you're basically spitting in their faces and telling them they weren't clever or cautious enough.

UnderTheBench · 01/01/2023 19:18

Name changed, because I will share personal history here.

OP we think of abuse as extreme, as being thrown across a room, punched, screamed at.

In the beginning, of course it's not like that. In the beginning, as many here have said, it's usually a highly compelling relationship, exceptionally wonderful. He may be really charming. He may have interests that align with yours so closely that it's almost spooky!

He may have fascinating backstory. Has he suffered greatly? He may not want to get involved with you, really, but he just can't help himself. An abuser will basically be whatever he works out you want him to be - he'll use lines and ideas to reel you in.

At times. At other times, he'll be inexplicably otherwise. Partly because 'hot and cold' and unpredictability is a great way to get someone hooked. Partly because probably it's hard to sustain an act.

It takes time. I think it took three years before my abusive ex hit me. Before he hit me, I wouldn't have said he was abusive. Troubled, jealous, intense, passionate, complicated, confused, yes. But not abusive. The problems were mine. I was down, depressed, unsure, fickle, weird, unstable, spoiled, whatever. He reassured me that yes, the problems were all me and mine and in my head.

Of course the thing is, he was abusive all along. He broke off bits of me until there was fuck all left. Only then did he really attack me physically. By that point, the physical abuse was really neither here nor there, I wasn't myself. I had been undermined, confused, gaslit, controlled and coerced and stripped of agency so much that I had no idea what was up and what was down. I lived according to his moods, his thoughts, his ideas. In some ways, hitting me was a gift, because it finally revealed the problem - that he was a violent, abusive, rapey bastard.

It was also the worst experience of my life, and I still to this day 20 years later sometimes have nightmares that I'm still with him.

It's wholly up to you, OP, what you do. Of course it is. Often it takes women up to seven times to leave their abuser, and from the sounds of it you're still in the honeymoon stage. You can see reasons to stay, and no good reasons to walk away.

I just want you to know that abuse is by its nature a tricky thing to recognise; and by the time we can recognise it, a difficult thing to escape. I was controlled, abused, and for a good three years, I'd have argued to my friends, and myself, just as you are doing here and now, that all was fine and I could leave any time.

It's only afterwards that I can see what happened. It's quite chlling now to read accounts of abuse and see it all laid out like a particularly fucking predictable story. He never was romantic, or charming, or exceptional. He was a common or garden arsehole, just another abuser.

I've spent fifteen minutes trying to explain all this history to you because I think there is a small part of you that knows, deep down, that something is off.

OP you don't have to listen to this man, or his ex partners, or me, or anyone on this board.

Listen to the voice in you that has prompted questions. Please don't lose touch with that voice.

Sorry for the essay. Take care.

Fightingitoff · 01/01/2023 19:27

That article is amazing, thank you. OP, please read it. I was in an emotionally abusive relationship years ago and I ended up on a steep learning curve afterwards, so much reading I did. This article really is excellent.

Fightingitoff · 01/01/2023 19:42

I do not think he is being abusive by the hot cold behavior. I wouldn't have called that abuse. Maybe cold was the wrong word, more distant that cold.

I’m sorry to tell you that you’re wrong. Blowing hot and cold, or near and distant, or whatever you want to call it, is absolutely an early stage of the cycle of abuse. It has already begun. Abuse starts small and gradually ramps up over time. It’s a “boiling frog” situation in which it starts quite subtly, and then slowly, slowly over time, it’ll build up, and you still won’t notice and you’ll still make excuses for his behaviour. That is literally how abusive relationships start and develop. It’s a well-known thing. It’s been studied the world over. There’s 1000000 tonnes of evidence, and you even have two people who’ve come along to warn you about him, which is more than most people get.

Please, OP. The evidence is staring at you in the face.

Newmum1998 · 01/01/2023 20:26

FartWrangler · 01/01/2023 18:35

I do like seeing him and if I do decide to give it a bit longer I will always have my own independence, he will have no control over me in that way and I will know when to pull away

If it were that easy, nobody would ever be abused.

Yeah this is very naive

I knew a woman who’s ex boyfriend mentally abused her for years and he never even lived with her. she lived on her own and had her own income and she tried to get away from him for FIVE YEARS and she just couldn’t he had such a hold on her mentally. The police were involved countless times and even after that he was always able to reel her back in. She was a beautiful, intelligent, strong minded and confident woman to begin with as well but abuse can happen to anyone.

in the end she had to move away as even an order stating he wasn’t allowed in her street couldn’t keep him away

plus OP you don’t even know his dangerous this guy is yet. You changing your mind further down the line might just not be an option and he may try and hurt you before then or if you were to leave him. Don’t underestimate what these men can do when loose control over you

maddy68 · 01/01/2023 20:29

Run for the hills

LaLuz7 · 01/01/2023 20:35

Lol @ thinking you can not be abused if you don't move in with him and retain independence.

I was emotionally abused for 3 years while in a long distance relationship with him on a different continent. Granted I was very young and stupid and he was my first love, but it's incredible how much damage and suffering someone can inflict on you even from a distance. The cycle of abuse makes the highs literally addictive. The hot and cold is an essential element of that.

ThisIsNotThePostYourLookingFor · 01/01/2023 20:35

If it’s been more than once with different people I would end it.

One incident (depending on what it was) can vary depending on who’s telling the story but if it’s several with different people there’s no way it was something silly

Maverickess · 01/01/2023 20:49

One of the reasons being that I do not think he is being abusive by the hot cold behavior. I wouldn't have called that abuse. Maybe cold was the wrong word, more distant that cold.

A lot of posters have explained this but I'll try again, think of this as 'pre' abuse, grooming, he's trying to get you to question your behaviour by changing his, so he becomes distant and you wonder why, you may ask or not, but either way you will end up questioning why he's become distant and what you have done to cause it - and he will then build on that mindset that your behaviour is what is causing his behaviour to change so you then start exhibiting the behaviour he wants from you to avoid the punishment of his distant or cold times and get more reward by way of his attention.
I'd bet that you've already been questioning what you said/did before he went distant - even if you have said nothing to him or anyone else - and that is the first fatal step.

You are not doing anything to 'make' him behave like this, but it will come that he will suggest, then tell, the insist that you are, and that you 'make' him like that.

And a few years on the punishment is a black eye or broken wrist and the reward is not being hurt for existing. And all the while it's your fault because you made him do it.

You have intuition that he's secretive, you have two independent people who have been in a relationship with him that have both said he was abusive - and I'd bet my last pound that if it were to come out that you know, they'd be crazy ex's who want him back......... Or he may be more sophisticated and say he doesn't know why they'd say it as it ended on good terms - and he's hurt by what they've said - making you feel bad for him and less favourable for the women and more likely to dismiss their earnings.

Rabbitsandhabits · 01/01/2023 20:57

@UnderTheBench I am so sorry you experienced that. And I’m so very glad you are free and healing. My very best wishes to you.

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