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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

in pain, confused and can't see a way forwards.

316 replies

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 28/01/2010 13:09

I've posted about DH more times than a care to remember. But lately things were better. He has been depressed for nearly 3 years. I supported him, got him help and he turned on me.

He spent all of last year (while I was preg with DC3) blaming me for everything and basically making my life a living hell.

I kicked him out, then we worked on things, he changed meds and things got better (slowly).

He's still ill, but much better. He's worked throughout and has put a lot of time into rebuilding his relationship with the DCs.

I think I just want a bit of sympathy really. I don't have anyone to talk to in RL at the moment.

I had a minor op this week. He took me to hospital (no one else to do it and he wasn't keen on missing work but agreed) and was completely distant and cold even though he knew I was terrified. I challenged him on it and he said nothing. On the way home from hospital I told him how upset I was. Nothing.

In the evening I begged him to talk to me, even though I was tired, in pain and still woozy from the general anaesthetic.

Still nothing.

And now he's saying that comfort is a "two way street", that "if I don't ask for help he can't be expected to give it" (bearing in mind I begged him that first evening for him just to talk to me).

I'm on my own with 2DCs, the house is a tip, I'm still too ill to sort it and everything he promised to do is undone. I even had to clean things before I could give the DCs their breakfast.

I don't want to talk to him. I don't know how to get passed this.

If I'm honest I thought that if he could look after me this week it would make up for all the crap he put me through when I was pregnant. It would prove he was different and could be there for me when I needed him.

Sorry for the very self-indulgent post. Just feeling so sad and tired of it all.

When will it end?

OP posts:
ItsGraceAgain · 29/01/2010 18:12

Thank you for making a sad thread very funny!

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 18:15

Hey, if I didn't laugh I'd cry. Nothing like a bit of gallows humour.

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BelleDameSansMerci · 29/01/2010 18:16

Not sure this is relevant but does he take any medication for the depression or does he just go with the ups and downs with therapy? Just wondering if there is a way to stabilise things a bit while you get things worked out?

Really feeling for you.

AnyFucker · 29/01/2010 18:17

I have a curry on the hob

it could do with the addition of a little "something"

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 18:19

He's on medication. Changed last year as the other one seemed to not have much of an affect, upped the dosage on this one a couple of times. It's now at its maximum.

Will check that he hasn't come off them behind my back (he's done that before when he's decided he's "cured").

That would at least explain things. Albeit in a selfish kind of a way.

OP posts:
YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 18:19

AF - meat or veg?

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BelleDameSansMerci · 29/01/2010 18:20

Yes, that's what I was wondering really. If he's decided there's nothing wrong he may have either reduced dose or stopped altogether.

AF more chilli or something more intoxicating?

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 18:21

I hadn't thought of that until now Belle, thanks, will definitely put that on the list of things to check (although coming off his meds in the weeks before my op is up there as an entirely selfish thing to do!)

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AnyFucker · 29/01/2010 18:28

belle, you clever girl, that is an insightful point...

err, I need the addition of veg to my curry...send his 'nads this way...

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 18:29

Plucking them as I type (one handed).

Have popped them in a jiffy bag and will have them couriered over in a... well... in a jiffy.

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 29/01/2010 18:31

has he noticed ?

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 18:34

Nope, he wasn't using them anyway.

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YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 18:35

Now I'm a horrible person. But I feel soooo much better.

I spend so much time putting up with stuff and polishing my halo, it feels good to use it as a frisbee.

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WhoIsAsking · 29/01/2010 18:39

Meh, you're not a horrible person. You should hear some of the stuff I say about folk.

Just wanted to point out something you posted earlier:

"when he's not depressed he can better guard against his... I don't know... anger I suppose"

So telling. How exhausting for you, to be living with someone so mercurial. Can I ask you how you felt when you split up?

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 18:45

I felt relieved and free and happy. But he was a very very nasty man back then and I was very very pregnant.

I've seen a glimpse of the him I want. He managed it for a few months. So maybe it was just an act. I don't know. I want that man, but if he's not real and he comes with the price of that other man always being there, then the price may be too high.

He's been upstairs for 2 hours now.

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WhoIsAsking · 29/01/2010 18:51

But YouKnow, It seems as if he can't handle any kind of disruption. Anything that affects YOU - which then presumably impacts HIM in a negative way - and it's "toys out of the pram" time. (I'm trying really hard not to be disrespectful to him but DAMN I'm fucking angry on your behalf)

My XH was a little bit like this, everything was fine and dandy all the time he had enough of my attention, enough of a routine, not too much shouting, basically, as long as I was passive. Does this sound familiar?

Listen, this is NOT normal, this is NOT fair, this is SHITE. He is acting like a SHIT. (Whoops lost the respectful tone for a moment there - trying to reign myself in here)

AND YOU BEING SO ILL AS WELL?! GAH! (totally lost it now - sorry)

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 19:03

Yes that does sound familiar. As long as I never have any crises for the rest of my life then we should have a happy marriage

And I know that's not fair. I haven't asked anything of him in a long time (not since DD was born, and I won't even go into how he fecked that up), but I was really willing to trust him with this. That's why I feel so raw and so hurt. I had reasonable rational expectations of him in the first time for... years. And I shouldn't be surprised that he let me down. But I REALLY AM.

And that makes me an idiot

And not in a self-pitying kind of a way, but in a very literal, "Well d'uh!" kind of a way.

Keep telling me it's not normal though.

And I'm not that ill, so don't worry too much. It was pretty minor. It was the fear involved that I needed help with.

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WhoIsAsking · 29/01/2010 19:15

After I had our first son, I had to go back out to work full-time when DS1 was just 13 weeks. I was shattered. I can remember getting the commuter train home and just thinking.."C'mon Who, chin up girl!" because if I showed and hint of being tired/grumpy/sad it would result in a barrage of: "What's the matter? Why have you got the hump? Oh God, this is so out of order, I can't believe you've come home in this mood blah blah blah" followed by either a sulk or a temper tantrum. God it was awful.

I talk a lot about "managing expectations". Sometimes I read things here and I think "Well, good Lord, why would you expect anything other than this?" Honestly? I don't get this feeling when reading your posts.

XH and I split up for a while and got back together. I tried so hard. I refused to listen to any criticism of him, like you I felt I deserved a good man. And I loved him very much. In the end though, I loved myself more and I loved my children even more than that. I wanted them to grow up knowing that home was a safe place with calm and that no one person has the right to put everything out of kilter because they're SELFISH FUCKERS. (sorry, it's going again)

Oh, and it's NOT normal
Oh, and the FEAR that you had of your minor op, that you communicated to him - WHICH HE CHOSE TO IGNORE, is not "nothing really" or "minor" it was REAL and it HURT you. THE FUCKER.

sorry.

AnyFucker · 29/01/2010 19:19

whoisasking, you are giving fuckers a bad name...

WhoIsAsking · 29/01/2010 19:26

Ah, you're exempt.

AnyFucker · 29/01/2010 19:29
Grin
YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 19:29

Yes it was real. And I was very clear about how scared I was and what I needed from him.

When he's normal I can be in a bad mood and he will check I'm ok and look after me. When he's not him I recall one memorable evening hiding in the bathroom to cry, when he overheard me and I got a barage of "How could you make me feel like this?! You know you being sad makes my depression worse!"

And I want to stress that it is NOT like that anymore.

But when something is happening that is just about me... he finds a way to make it about him.

I went upstairs a moment ago, he says he's "Trying to think about what he can do". So while he sits there thinking (and nothing gets done) I'll just do everything else then. I couldn't look at him with anything but disgust.

OP posts:
YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 19:31

You're not just any fucker, anyfucker, you are the anyfucker

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 29/01/2010 19:33

you are the crunchy

sweet and inviting and very moreish

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 29/01/2010 19:35

And I go straight to the arse.

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