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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

Why is my ex who abused me treating his partner now so much better. Was it really all my fault?

141 replies

21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 08:57

It’s been 4 years since I left my ex. To me he was abusive. I have moved on and happy in a relationship. I’ve worked through a lot but I’ve just got this one feeling I can’t shift.

The relationship was awful. I can’t decided what happened really other then he had a view of what he wanted, I wasn’t filling it so he treated me crap, like I wasn’t worth being kind or helping me with anything.

He drank and he was aggressive when drunk, he couldn’t control his temper and he smoked weed and wouldn’t stop. He never helped me at home, cleaning was all my responsibility. He promised so many times but he would always come back and say my behaviour led him to need those things because I didn’t love him enough. It was true because I often resented him. For treating me so badly, shouting at me etc etc. I guess it sounds pretty co-dependant. When I left he begged me not to go, would go to therapy etc etc but he had a decade to do something and he never changed. In the end I just didn’t want to be part of it anymore. I couldn’t work after a couple of years became I was just so anxious all the time. I walked on egg shells, I felt so worthless. He treated me like a second class citizen and said I brought nothing into the relationship. So why didn’t he just leave me? I was the one to leave.

So he has moved on and he has stopped all those things he did. Doesn’t drink or smoke and doesn’t shout and put her down. She works and I suppose contributes more. She fulfils his needs much better then I did. But then he doesn’t treat her like he did me. We share a daughter and she tells me these things. Let’s just say it is true. Why has he stopped for her but didn’t for me? I can’t help but think I was the reason to blame. I made him feel unloved and so he took to other things to numb the feeling. The only thing was he wasn’t nice. He never once considered my feelings. My agenda in life was not soley him and his needs I had my own and my own issues etc. He just seemed to stop seeing any worth in me. Unless I was fulfilling what he wanted.

OP posts:
MorrisZapp · 01/02/2024 08:39

You are still deeply enmeshed in this abusive relationship. Instead of being well shot of him, and happy that your DD has a good time when she goes to his, you're stuck where you always were, obsessing over what you might have done wrong to make him act as he does.

The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference. You still want him to validate you, but this is impossible. If these feelings aren't easing over time then you could seek support from counselling, or if you have supportive family have it all out with them.

Please don't put your daughter in a situation where you send her to her dad's but want her to hate him and have a shit time. She didn't choose this guy for a father and it's instinctive in kids to love and defend their parents. If he takes her on day trips be happy about it.

Ohyeahwaitaminute · 01/02/2024 08:40

I hadn’t realised you’d just updated this thread…

Up until your post this morning, I’d have said “Give it time…”

Looks like some time has indeed passed, and the shit is hitting the fan.

Get yourself some therapy if you can. Anti depressants too? I’ve been in your shoes and am coming out the other side… eventually!

MorrisZapp · 01/02/2024 08:41

Just seen the update. That's awful for his partner, hope she has support.

21seconds12 · 01/02/2024 08:53

Oh I’m in much better place. Daughter goes and has a mixed time and it’s lucky that the girl friend is nice and looks after her well. She does get scared of his shouting. I don’t send her wanting her to have a crap time I want her to go and have the time she has. I’m not going to big him up but I support however she comes home and tells me. She often comes home split between loving but scared and we talk about it that it must be hard for her to feel so split as she loves her dad. He will talk about me and she tells me because she loves me and loves him. I just tell her that mummy supports how she feels and that how I feel about daddy is not important because she will ask me.

OP posts:
bombastix · 01/02/2024 09:21

21seconds12 · 01/02/2024 08:37

@bombastix its difficult because his need to come across as the innocent party is much stronger then protecting her mental health. She is struggling with her big emotions atm and the school are getting some help in to assess her for more support. I’ve told him as I have to being the resident parent but he is more concerned with it all being my fault, which is no help to her whatsoever. There is fault on both sides. Although I didn’t know and didn’t purposefully allow it I was the other half of a toxic relationship. Fault doesn’t help her so I try not to dwell but teach her the things I’ve learned. Behaviour is the symptom of something and I know she struggles.

This too has been true for me. I completely empathize. There is little support. However children do grow and understand more ime, with time comes a better understanding. Your daughter will not always think like this, and his battle to be right in the end will affect her negatively. Carry on, be strong and consistent. Morally this man is the pits: one day she will see it.

I don't underestimate any of the pain this causes.

bombastix · 01/02/2024 09:25

I would also suggest you need to record and note her being scared. There may be a reason and it could be domestic abuse. That could mean far less contact for your daughter.

Ignore him on being right. You keep the records and hold him accountable for what he does to her. It is hard. She may be traumatized and he will nice and nasty.

bombastix · 01/02/2024 09:33

Btw I also totally disagree on enmeshment. Abusive men like nothing better than a triangle of women, nice to one, nasty to the other, round and round getting their kicks from their distress. This includes you, your daughter and the girlfriend. It is a classic pattern of an abusive man and if your daughter saw a decent therapist I imagine it would come out very quickly.

You get her that support and get someone with good credentials to explore with her her feelings. He will resist it like crazy because he knows what will be seen.

21seconds12 · 01/02/2024 09:46

@bombastix he is saying it’s down to her having ADHD. He may be right but she absolutely can have ADHD and trauma and the trauma making her adhd much worse. It doesn’t really matter the label as her brain IS affected. She is constantly on alert as I suspect her nervous system is very sensitive. She needs regulation. It’s very difficult. He may or may not be aggressive like he was to me to his current gf but the damage was done in those early years. Me sitting at home depressed because it’s all my fault is what I suspect he wants but I don’t see how that will help her. If I’ve done something it’s my job to help her make it better. I did and I do feel bad that contact was stopped for so many years, I suspect that is a trauma of hers also. But the alternative was to spend time with a dad drinking, smoking weed, shouting and swearing at her mum infront of her, throwing things etc. We should be working together to make this better.

OP posts:
WandaWonder · 01/02/2024 09:51

21seconds12 · 01/02/2024 09:46

@bombastix he is saying it’s down to her having ADHD. He may be right but she absolutely can have ADHD and trauma and the trauma making her adhd much worse. It doesn’t really matter the label as her brain IS affected. She is constantly on alert as I suspect her nervous system is very sensitive. She needs regulation. It’s very difficult. He may or may not be aggressive like he was to me to his current gf but the damage was done in those early years. Me sitting at home depressed because it’s all my fault is what I suspect he wants but I don’t see how that will help her. If I’ve done something it’s my job to help her make it better. I did and I do feel bad that contact was stopped for so many years, I suspect that is a trauma of hers also. But the alternative was to spend time with a dad drinking, smoking weed, shouting and swearing at her mum infront of her, throwing things etc. We should be working together to make this better.

Why on earth are you getting involved with this? Do you seek out the drama deliberately?

bombastix · 01/02/2024 09:51

I get it but this man isn't v worth your trust: get her the help, and what can he do? Honestly he will look dire if he says no support.

His fantasy is I suspect making you both incapable; do not underestimate that. Abusive men resent any kind of boundary and they will certainly punish a child psychologically for you leaving.

Get some support for yourself; and remember that he's not working to the same purpose. He's in it for himself and what he looks like to others.

21seconds12 · 01/02/2024 09:55

@bombastix yep. I was ordered to pass on information to him otherwise I’d not. The school also required both parents consent for the help they getting her. I give him the info and the opportunity then I know I’ve done my part that’s on the court order. I don’t respond to his msgs other than the facts of what’s happening, it’s all documented and kept for evidence.

OP posts:
21seconds12 · 01/02/2024 09:58

@WandaWonder no I don’t seek drama but we share a child and it was court ordered I pass on all information regarding our child to him. I also have to over see the video calls as ordered which Id rather not. Plus picks ups and drop offs at my house which I’d rather not.

OP posts:
Beenalongwinter · 01/02/2024 10:09

He is not.

PrinceHaz · 03/02/2024 19:23

I wouldn’t want a daughter going to him to be scared of his shouting. I would keep a log of her descriptions of her times at his and then get advice about changing contact so that it’s supervised at a contact centre.

21seconds12 · 04/02/2024 19:56

@PrinceHaz we were at court for years, they don’t really (or should I say don’t have the resources) to care until something really serious happens.

OP posts:
21seconds12 · 06/02/2024 12:35

I have been thinking about this thread again and the mindset I was in at the time. I think I’ve come to realise that no he isn’t treating her any differently. My own childhood experiences and that of growing up have shaped me and it’s individual what hurts me and triggers me. His next girlfriend may not be triggered by those same things. She is different when she met him. She is independent financially. Has a big family who she lives close to whereas I was alone many miles away from any family and we aren’t close and not financially independent.

I was probably tied to him a lot more. He needs her more then she needs him
so the power dynamic is different. I should not compare.

OP posts:
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