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Toxic relationship – told I am 'impossible'

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  • #180413
    Rachael65
    Participant

    Hi, I have just come out of a 4 year relationship. I knew it wasn’t right not long after we met. He has always been generous and I supportive but loves to be ‘right’ all the time and very self opininated and I believe has ‘narcassitic’ traits. Everyone one around me told me that I should break free. I was afraid and kept ‘saying sorry’ to him after he had dumped me (twice on my birthday and other times – Valentine’s Day and before Christmas). He has got himself worked up and convinces himself that I am ‘impossible’ and sweeps everything at my door. He wants me to think that I am impossible and unempathetic. People call me a lovely person and I consider myself a gentle soul. I have bought him really nice gifts and taken him on holiday twice and paid for meals but he insists on telling me how much he has done for me. All the thanks yous is never enough. He would exaggerate the ‘bad’ things he sees in me and convinces me and himself that it is ‘not working’. He has been emotionally abusive to me and jumps down my throat. If I tell me when I am upset with him and I cry, he brushes it off as ‘most people would not get upset’. When I ‘upset’ him, he lets me know in know uncertain terms. He lives in a big house with his adult children and their partners and grandchildren. If I give him a kiss and act passionately (cuddles) in HIS kitchen he thinks I am ‘trying to prove a point’, when his daughter or son or grandchild walks into HIS kitchen. He Crititizes me and wants to make me feel I am at fault etc. if things upset me, it is difficult to talk to him as he will ‘blow up’ on me and I end up feeling bad and I apologise even through my own tears. I could go on but this is the type of toxic relationship I endured. If I can’t be me, then he is not accepting me for me (I can’t even kiss him in fear of being accused of it being for the wrong reasons). I bought him a red rose last week and a little thank you card for the support and love he offers. He accused me of buying it as a ‘sorry’ gift because in his eyes I was ‘horrible’ to him. He complains that I have a snarl and that my botton lip drops and that I have a tone. He has even told me that he feels sufficated when kissing and pulls me away and said he doesn’t want to breathe in my ‘carbon dioxide’. I have had him yell at me when I felt ignored by him. He convinces me and himself and everyone that I am to ‘blame’ and that I have the ‘problem’. I had counselling after an appointment with my doctor and I told her about my feelings and how I felt when faced with emotional abuse and I then burst into tears. She thought I had been treated like a second class citizen and sent me off to counselling. I asked the relationship if he would like to join so he could put his views across but to write a ‘letter first’. He wrote the letter to the counsellor (it was more like a psychiatric report) where he spoke about ‘my dysfunctional family and that I do this and that and pin pointed all the things he perceived about me to be true. For example he said that I put on a face of positivity but I am in denial, he said that I go from high to low, and other ridiculous lies. He keeps telling me to look at the mirror. He needs to look at his own mirror because he will see all the things he said about me in his own reflection. He adores his children and grandchildren and they are always first. Their feelings are paramount, My feelings are not. There are other thiings in the relationship that I could put down here but yesterday he finally ended it. We were on a train to London and it was not going well. We were not in sync but each time I answered his three questions I said a ‘no’ answer. He doesn’t like the ‘negative’ and ripped into me. We got off the train and he dumped me on a platform. The railway guards saw what was happening and they came up to me after the relationship had ‘walked off” and asked if I was OK. I said I was OK. I went looking for the relationship after being dumped. He told me I was impossible and said I didn’t show any empathy. I ran to the other platform – up and down stairs – and saw him waiting for the return train. He stonewalled me. He said it was over and walked away. He wanted to tell me how ‘impossible’ I am and I just took this level of abuse and other put downs. I texted him later that afternoon and said ‘sorry to him and asked him if he was OK’. I didn’t empathise with me but a ‘go back to your own home’ text, do not come to my home. I spoke to him today and he tried to convince himself and me how awful I am and that I was impossible (again) and that he didn’t want to be in the relationship. He went on about my kissing him in his kitchen as being a ‘point scoring exercise to prove a point’. I told him I kissed him becasue I cared about him. He told me that the reason why I bought the red rose last week was because ‘I was sorry to have upset him earlier’. I bought the red rose to show love and care. No matter how much I tried to defend myself (calmly) he said I had a tone of voice and said he wanted to finish the relationship. He said he would be a friend if I need help with anything but that would be it.  I kept telling myself I was unhappy becasue I felt pain, emotional pain and often in tears. He doesn’t sympathise when I am in tears and complains that most people would ‘brush off the perceived slight’.  He can’t possibly be wrong can he?  He has a loving tone of voice for his adult children but then his tone changes when he talk to me.

    #180419
    Peter
    Participant

    Your post seems to indicate you know your in a toxic relationship yet continue to to try to soothe things over perhaps playing the peacekeeper role.  It it possible that a part of you doesn’t feel you deserve better? If so why? If you don’t have a answer to that you could be unconsciously creating confrontations to re-enforce this belief.

    Based on what you wrote its possible that the two of you are in a codependent relationship triggering each others “ghosts” in hopes of healing but that instead feed off of each-other.  It is also likely at this time your partner does not have the skills to navigate whatever is behind his behavior and that a peacemaker approach is not going to help. It actually appears to be reinforcing the behavior.

    It is unfortunate that but sometimes Love requires a end to a relationship. It’s a paradox that it is often the pain of a ending that we learn what is needed to begin. Trust your intuition. If the relationship is toxic you know what you need to do for you.

    #180461
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Rachael65:

    It is about two  days since he  broke  up with you. Do you think this relationship has  indeed ended or is it one  of multiple breakups and  makeups?

    I was wondering, of what  he told you and  the counselor about you, is true, if anything, in your mind?

    anita

    #180499
    Inky
    Participant

    Hi Rachael65,

    I wonder what would happen if you (for once!) never back down and don’t apologize ever again, by word or gift. I wonder what would happen if you say (calmly, and with no tears) “Actually, you are the impossible one.” If you said, when he berates you, “No one else I know would get this upset”. What would happen if you withheld kisses and treated him like you were a polite stranger and then withheld anything sexual.

    “My dear, if we are not affectionate publically, then I’m not feeling sexual privately. Interesting. Why are you getting so upset? None of my past boyfriends ever got so worked up. You are being a tad impossible, don’t you think?”

    Of course, he’s all “I’m ending it with you.” But no man who conveniently breaks up on Valentines Day, Christmas and your birthday (twice!) would ever be out of your life for long.

    I suggest contacting him (give it a month and a half) by text or letter as if YOU are breaking up with HIM (you are): “I hope you are doing OK. I just wanted to let you know that I met someone.” (Impossible!! he’ll exclaim to himself.) “I wanted you to hear it from me first. I think it is best if we leave the past in the past, so this will be the last communication between us. You will always hold a special place in my heart. Good Luck in all your endeavors!”

    Then block his number and return to sender any letters. Lock down any social media accounts, but leave a maddening picture of you with an attractive guy as your Profile Pic.

    Good Luck!

    Inky

    #180501
    Rachael65
    Participant

     

    Thank you for your reply. It makes a lot of sense and you are spot on, I can see that the peacemaker approach is reinforcing the behaviour.  I feel as if I can’t do right for doing wrong and he constantly puts me down.  He is a business man in his mid 60s and I am 57 but I feel his behaviour is immature. He deflects everything back at me.  I can see that what he doesn’t ‘like’ about me, I can see in him.  He makes me feel small and treats me like a ‘child’.  He assumes I don’t know much and he knows ‘it all’.  I continued to cooked the mini chicken pieces last week after he started them off in a pan.  I asked (just out of conversation really) how long they were cooking.  He snapped at me and thought I was asking him for ‘advice’ (I am a trained chef), then he said in a very curt, snappy and insulting way  “it doesn’t matter how long they have been cooking for, it is about the thickness etc”.  The point here is that he disslikes any ‘attitude’ I portray. I don’t think I am as sharp and obvioulsy brutel.  he reduced me to tears and saw me with tears in my eyes and then drew away and said “oh for Goodness sake” in a very stand offish way and didn’t want to empathise with me.  He told me yesterday on the phone (the breakup phone call) that I am not empathetic and rams it down my throat many times when we are together. I always ask how he is and try to talk to about current issues (his flat sale that pulled through for example) but everything I said that was positive, he knocked me down and said “you can see by my expression and body language that what you were saying didn’t resonate with me, but you kept on and on”.  I was talking about a story of a Secret Millionaire who made a lot of money from being positive and taking positive action.  He said that I am in denial.  I see a lot of paralles with him.  He can’t admit that he has ‘faults’ and thinks he is perfect and that he is so successful and treats me like a child. He even used to call me ‘little girl’. He doesn’t trust my judgement on things and I lived a life before he came along nearly 4 years ago.

    I bought him a red rose last week as a gift when we were Christmas shopping.  He said he was touched but then it didn’t last.  He even threw it back in my face metaphorically but saying “you only bought it to say sorry for YOUR bahaviour’.

    I had changed my mind about the shopping destination and as it was cold I suggested we go to a shopping mall. Earlier he had suggested a couple of seasidy towns with shops up and down the high street.  He got really upset with me for saying that I would be OK to walk down to the high street in the town outside the shopping mall. He thought I was illogical and really ‘went for me’. Not physically but emotionally. He thinks he is right and I am wrong.  He complains that I contradict myself and that I talk nonsense. He puts me down a lot.  I can’t do right for doing wrong.  He often lists all the things he has done for me. I never do that to him. I have treated him to two holidays and bought expensive gifts.

    My son bought him a bottle of expensive fine wine that this relationship said he liked. When I notieced it was gone from his wine rack, I asked where it was and he told me that it ‘wasn’t that nice’ and even couldn’t recall who had bought it’.  He had forgotten.  He can recall everyone else”s gifts and presents and gladly tells me in detail who bought what (his family usually or a connection to his family).

    He wrote a letter to the counsellor about me, and my counsellor showed it and said I could keep it.  The relationship didn’t know the counsellor had given it to me. I think the relationship ‘guessed’ I saw it by some of the things I quoted.

    He doesn’t feel proud to have me and all my friends say I am better off without him and that I will find a loving, loyal, kind, tender and good man to love and him love me.

    I am not upset today strangely.

    #180503
    Rachael65
    Participant

    Thank you everyone for your replies. If I withheld kisses I would be accussed of not being loving’. He has an answer for everything and even if I defend myself (quietly and calmly) he exaggerates and tells me that ‘we are going round and round’. He doesn’t value my opinion and doesn’t really listen to me. A couple of times I attempted ‘talking’ but all I got was him not addressing the ‘problems’ and accusing me of getting him ‘exhausted by these exhausting conversations’.  He doesn’t listen to me at all and if I ‘critisize’ him, he would repel and it would end up with him berating me for ‘belittling him’.

    Great idea about sending the text saying I have met someone and then shutting down all social media and blocking his number.  I will leave it a month and consider this.

    The thing is, I have always been the peacemaker and he has never come running back to me, ever.  I am 8 years younger than him and told by others that I am ‘pretty and attractive, have a nice figure, intelligent and a lovely person’.    I wonder if this relationship resents me.

    He has not let go of his past. He was married now widowed 5 years.  He was married for 40 years.  He and his wife didn’t share the same bed for the last 10 years before she passed away and then they were celebate for previous 10 years.  He said when I first met him that he had not been ‘kissed’ like that for 40 years!  He won’t allow me to show him how it is done but does it his way on his terms and everything is on his terms.

     

    #180505
    Rachael65
    Participant

    If I said it to him that ‘he was the impossible one’, then he would look angry and walk around the room as in a temper and would end the relationship or at best he would cite all the things he has done for me.

    #180513
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Rachael65:

    I would like to re-read previous posts on thiis thread and read the  recent ones tomorrow (in about17 hours from now) and reply to you then. For now, I agree with your friends, that you are better off  without him. I am sorry  for all the pain you had experienced in  this relationship and hope you feel better and  better soon enough.

    anita

    #180581
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Rachael65

    First part of  my  post, a summary of your story here:

    It was a four year relationship, you are now 57 and he is 65. He lives in a big house with his adult children and his grandchildren.  You felt the relationship “wasn’t right not long after we met”, and “Everyone around me told  me that I should break free”. He broke up with you a few times, last time was the  day before your thread, claiming that you are impossible and not empathetic.

    You repeatedly mentioned that you bought him nice, expensive gifts and paid for meals and holidays with him  but he did not appreciate those and has repeated how much he does for you.

    When you kissed him or cuddle with him in his kitchen he responded with accusing you that you are trying  to “prove a point” to his adult children or grandchildren present. When he expresses anger at you, you apologize. He told  you and everyone that you are “to blame” and that you  “have the problem”. He  complained that you have “a snarl and that my bottom lip drops  and that I have  a  tone”. In a letter  to your counselor, a letter you requested, he wrote about your dysfunctional family. He claimed that you “put on a face of positivity but (you) are in denial”, that you “go from high to low”.

    You wrote that he  adores his adult children and  grandchildren, that their feelings are paramount, more important than anything  else, and that your feelings are  not important to him.

    He complained that you keep going  on and  on talking even though he is  clearly uncomfortable with your talking, telling you: “You can see by my body language that what you were saying didn’t resonate  with me, but you kept on and  on.” He complained that when you talk you contradict yourself and talk nonsense.

    You told of the train to London incident. He “ripped into (you)” and dumped you on a platform. You then went looking  for him. He then told you that you are impossible and not empathetic. He told you “it was over” and he “walked away”. You later texted him, apologizing. He told you to “go back to your own home” and not to come  to his home.

    You wrote: “He keeps telling me  to look a t the mirror. He needs to look at his own mirror because he  will see all the  things he said about me in his  own reflection”.

    Second part of my post, my input: I think the  two of you, individually, should look at the mirror. I think that you have been passive-aggressive with him, that you expressed anger at him in indirect ways, told him you loved him when angry, probably with a  tone  of voice or facial expression that contradicted the loving  words you said. The reason I  think this is because a person cannot take all the abuse you took without getting angry. And because what he wrote to the counselor, that you “put  on a face of  positivity but (you) are in denial”, makes sense to me.

    And so, it  is impossible really, to have a relationship with a person who is not honest about her feelings, saying I-love-you, I-care-for-you while appearing  and sounding  angry.

    I think that you have  been jealous of his relationships with  his adult children and grandchildren and that  indeed you tried to compete with them when expressing  physical affection to him in their presence, or hoping they witness it.

    He has his own refection in the  mirror to deal with, but he is not the one reading my reply. The only thing he did  right in this relationship is to end it. Although, unfortunately for him, for you, and for his family, you may be still chasing him and he may, once  again, reunite with you for more  of the same-old-same-old.

    I hope not.

    anita

     

     

     

     

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