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Being treated badly but I love him, do I leave?

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  • #177639
    Jen
    Participant

    Long story short, we had a long distance relationship of 6 years. But barring the initial two years of him pursuing and loving me, we have now gone to him turning distant and me doing all the chasing. In the name of being busy, he avoids, ignores me on his whims and fancies and talks more as  a matter of convenience. The biggest example being of him hanging up my call and leaving for work amid a fight leaving me crying. I love him a lot and its getting very difficult to leave. I don’t want to leave him alone but he hurts me so much that his extremely late sorry(s) don’t really undo all the pain i go through every time he’s busy with stuff so much that he cannot even answer my calls. Since ours is a long distance, communication becomes very important and it’s killing me. He’s not a bad guy, just that I don’t feel loved or valued nor appreciated. The worst thing is that while he treats me like a doormat when we’re together, when i finally gather the courage and force myself to leave, he comes round and then pursues me with all the love that i wanted while i am with him. I melt because I obviously love him and we get back again to only repeat the ill-treatment. It’s like the moment i get back with him, he starts taking me for granted. what bugs me is that i can’t keep doing this all my life, can’t keep leaving to make him show me some love and value.  What do I really do? please help. I’ve left now. This time I’ve broken completely with his ill-treatment and I’m staying away from everyone. What do i do? Should I try and make the relation work again, should I just leave and pay no attention to his pursuing now, should I give it a few months’ time and then go back, what do i do?

    #177683
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Jen:

    You wrote: “The biggest example being of him hanging up my call and leaving for work amid a fight leaving me crying”- can you elaborate of this example, what was that fight about, who  initiated it, how long was that fight/ call?

    anita

    #177705
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Jen, I’m sorry to hear about your pain. We really do teach others how to treat us by how we set and maintain our boundaries, without fear or defensiveness. In other words, when someone treats you poorly, it is not your job to fix their bad habits. Instead, communicate what you like when it happens, and remove yourself when they distance themselves. Men respond to distance more than words or tears. That said, here are a few things to consider: no relationship maintains the pursuit/ excitement of the beginning stages. But in the first two years her learned what you like. When he became lackluster to rude, you continued to make effort instead of letting him know lack of caring and kindness is not ok. Unfortunately this creates a lack of respect and appreciation. I think you deserve great love. At this point be open to new connections. I can guess your ex will be back, but instead of running back, or punishing, take a new tact. Calmly tell him what you love and what you cannot accept. No tears, no anger, no pleading. Love yourself more and require him to prove he is worthy of another chance (he may not be given what you shared). Keep in mind people only change in a lasting way when they want to for their own reasons. Set your standards higher. Wishing you much healing and love in your life.

    #177719
    Jen
    Participant

    Anita, it was about every time. Every time that I was vulnerable at a time that he had some other work too, I would always be avoided for the other things like office, ‘I have to go for dinner’, sleep etc. Most of the times that I was hurt by something and tried telling him that, he wouldn’t understand and turn it around on me, his total lack of acceptance made me cry and fight and he would just hang up and leave.

    A4U, thank you so much. This makes me feel so much better. Thank you.

    #177721
    Radhika
    Participant

    Hello Jen,

    I am so sorry dear to hear about your situation. No one should ever treat you in a bad way – ever. And that is a boundary that you will have to put up. You sound like a wonderful person and I wish you get all the happiness which you deserve. I however think, there might be a slim chance of getting them with the person you talk about in your post. He sounds like he has narcissistic personality disorder. I urge you to please, educate yourself about it – because the things you are talking about sound very similar to how they behave. I have a YouTube channel dedicated to healing from this particular type of abuse. Trust me, I have been where you are now. The whole of the internet is  a great resource too, you can simply search for it. Good boundaries and minimal contact are the way to go. Let him earn your love now, that he has treated you badly and please do check if he really means to change himself or if it is simply something he is saying to have you back. Here is my YouTube channel which talks about healing from NPD : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu123lYBkZxaFOzDrqTdkoA/

    #177733
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Jen:

    I asked for a specific example because I don’t know if your expectations of him to help you are reasonable or not, but you didn’t give me a specific example, so I don’t know if  you let’s say, called him too often when you felt badly, stayed on the phone too long, expecting him to make you feel better, pressuring him, until he lost his patience or ran out of time, in which case he didn’t mistreat you and your unreasonable expectations of him were the problem.

    Or if your expectations of him were reasonable and he indeed mistreated you, and if he mistreated you, then how did he?

    anita

    #177739
    Jen
    Participant

    Thanks Radhika 🙂

    Anita, oh, alright, I didn’t get it earlier.
    So this is one of the many examples. the background is-  He doesn’t talk to me when he’s in office, like never, not even a one second call. I know he gets lunch breaks in office since I have other friends in the same office and the work atmosphere is not really strict (since he’s at a comfortable post) but no matter what happens, he never answers my calls in office. Even when a close relative of mine died and I was all berserk, he didn’t call me once on his own until way after his office got over. Flip side, I used to excuse myself from my office meetings if he ever called, maybe wrong but just that he was always, always my priority. So i learnt my lesson early on that I will not contact him in his office simply because I’ve better odds at dying in the process than him talking to me.
    So this one time, we weren’t able to talk properly for many days, he was like always too busy to talk and it was getting difficult. Also, whenever we did talk, he used to talk about how stuck up he is and that i need to be patient. I understood for a few days and said I’m here if he wants to talk but it kept going. He never wanted to talk. I used to keep saying that I’m also busy and I don’t want us to talk for hours but a 5-10 minutes chat in a day is not that difficult, that if I’m laid off whenever there’s pressure of other things, where do I hold a place in his life. But anyhow, that’s how it kept going. He stopped calling, saying I’m busy and stuff and I was the only one calling (in retrospect, I feel I also should have stopped calling, was a lunatic to try talk to someone who wasn’t interested). Finally, really upset I called him one morning, he didn’t answer, he was in office. I had enough that day and I called multiple times, texted that I can’t take it anymore, talk now, he still didn’t answer. At night, too he didn’t call, From a common friend I happened to know he was with them at a party that night (he was stuck up and so not talking to me but partying.) I called him, he answered and said he’s out at the party and will talk later, he didn’t call, I only called late that night and asked him if he has time for everything else, why not two minutes time for the lady who’s been wanting to talk to him since days. by this time, i was so hurt, i began crying. He was like come on, you need to be patient, okay I’m sorry, but obviously I was hurt so i expected him to do more than a sorry, that too when he didn’t even call himself to make things okay between us. But when I was like saying stuff, he cut me midway and was like see I’m really tired from the party, goodnight, and hung up, leaving me crying.

    When I stopped calling the next day and the day after, he came with his sorry(s)  and eventually it got over. This same incident is repeated every month almost because he’ll say I’m busy or stuck and then treat me badly for 7-10 days when I’ll see him do everything apart from talking to me. If under tough circumstances I take a backseat, where am i in his life, specially when for me, he’s my all and I ditch other plans when he wants to talk.
    Feel free to tell me if I’m unreasonable.

    #177747
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Jen:

    I think I am closer to understanding. You wrote in your original post: “when i finally gather the courage and force myself to leave, he comes round and then pursues me with all the love that i wanted while i am with him”- does this mean that when you broke up with him, he called you while he was in the office, during his work day, and that he answered your calls while in office? How did he come around at those times when you broke up with him?

    anita

    #177753
    Jen
    Participant

    Anita,

    Exactly. When i leave, then I’m valued. Then office, sleep, friends, I’m above everything else, like i said, when i leave, he gives me the love that I wanted when i was with him. So then it makes me feel that all his ‘busy’ stuff are all excuses, all a manifestation of him not valuing me enough as he’s able to love me amid all that when i Leave but till I’m with him, I’m nowhere in his priority list.

    But I cannot do this all my life right, Anita, i can’t keep leaving him to make him show me love. Like people earlier said in posts, I’ve tried telling him what I want and told him how badly his behavior towards me hurts, I also questioned him how everything falls in place and he gets time to call me when I’m gone. Sometimes he understands, at other times he behaves as if I’m exaggerating, but in both situations, the result is the same, the moment I melt and get back, he again treats me badly within a month. I really want a life with him but i feel I’m in a maze, I can see no way to make him understand this.

    #177759
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Jen:

    It reads to me that you are reasonable. His behavior being different when you break up with him is very telling. Clearly, you need not melt (the verb you used), and stay solid when you do break up with him. You tried to “make him understand” again, and again. Well, he either does not understand or he does not care to understand.

    You asked “do I leave?”- I think it is the better choice. Leave and do not melt. If it helps, block him from contacting you, so you are less likely to melt.

    Post again anytime.

    anita

    #177883
    Jen
    Participant

    Thanks Anita. This gave me a lot of perspective.

    One last thing. Now I’ve left. I talked with him, also wrote him down a text (as by the time we got to the last leg, our conversations always inflated into a fight so, I could only sanely say all that I wanted to before I leave, through a message) and I’ve shut my phone down. I live alone on my own and while no phone makes certain things difficult, I need to zone out from everything in order to feel human again and also resist the constant yearning to call him or answer his calls (as I know he would have been calling everyday now that I’ve left). The usual thing is I leave for 10-15 days, he calls and we get back together but this time, I’ve been too hurt to go through the grind again. I know he’ll be taken aback this time as this is the longest I’ve ever been away without any contact.

    As I’ve read elsewhere too and as A4U also said that men understand distance more than words or tears, this time I’m determined to have both distance and silence for at least a longer period of time say even a few months if I have to, to help me be alone and feel better (I process thoughts better when I’m left on my own)  and also to let him see that he cannot goof up every time and get my love back with a few days of apologies. He’ll have to understand now and know that I at least want my share of love and respect and only then will I be back with him, because deep down, I really still want him, just that I want him to understand how his behavior is hurtful and having failed at making him understand, this silent distancing is my last shot. However, I’m everyday haunted by the thought of what if in the next 2-3 months of no contact, he forgets me? A part of me tells me that he won’t considering that we’ve been emotionally deeply involved for a long period of 6 years but another part of me can’t stop doubting. I do not know. Is it likely that the course I’m taking now might just fix this up between us or am I more likely to see him move on in his life? I’m just so confused, I can really do with someone else’s perspective on this.

    #177891
    Inky
    Participant

    Hi Jen,

    Usually long distance relationships don’t work. Add to the fact that he’s not good with the phone. Also that he’s “got your number” in that he knows your secret formula in what to do, say and be to always win you back.

    I think you made that right decision. Hopefully your last text was “I’m done.” Now be radio silence until at least the new year. He won’t forget you. I promise. However! He might move on. But he will never forget the lesson. Unfortunately, a new woman might reap the rewards of his learned lesson. So you have to be strong!

    By setting your standards higher, you will attract a higher quality person and will instantly be repelled by anyone not up to your new standards. For example, looking back to when I was younger I cannot believe I put up with so much bull crap for so long. Now I see people and I can read them from a mile away!

    Good Luck!

    Inky

    #177899
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Jen:

    When he hung up the phone on you when you were crying, when he didn’t answer your multiple calls all through the days, then went to a party without checking on you all through the day and night, knowing you were distressed,  this behavior is not because he doesn’t understand, I believe. This behavior means he doesn’t care… he doesn’t melt, using your word. It means he doesn’t have that feeling that you have for him.

    You cannot produce this feeling in him, this caring. You cannot teach him to care for you.

    And so, I think it is best for you to end contact with him, not for the purpose of teaching him what is impossible to teach, but for the purpose of ending the relationship all together and availing yourself for a future loving relationship with a man who does care for you.

    anita

    #180575
    Jen
    Participant

    Hi,

    Thank you so much you all, for all your advice, it’s been helping me stay strong. So it’s been 3 more weeks and in total around 2 months since I left, after being treated badly and feeling like a doormat. As always happens and was expected, he’s now pursuing me, now that I’ve stopped calling, texting, have broken up and shut my phone off. Every time I check my phone, it has messages and calls from him, sometimes for days together and sometimes at the gap of few days. Had it been any other time, I would have accepted his apologies, we would’ve got back together only to repeat the cycle again. This time, however, having been completely devastated and after advice from all of you, I’ve been keeping myself strong and not reacting to anything. I have replied a few times to his texts when he wrote really emotional stuff (couldn’t hold back) but nothing in affirmative. I’ve been trying as hard as I can to keep my guard this time and not let him in.

    However, what isn’t changing is the constant thought in my head. I’m having difficulty in really understanding what I really want at this stage. I know I’m not going back to him, not so soon at least, not until months or may be even a year, not until he really assures me that he won’t treat me like he does every time, again. I’m saying maybe not until even a year because when we were together and he didn’t love me enough, I also always had the feeling that if I really go away from his life, like disappear, he won’t wait or look out for me for long and that, may be, was one of the reasons why I quickly reconciled when he used to apologize. I was always scared of taking my time to process my hurt in case I lose him by that time. That is the reason I even today keep checking my phone to see if he’s still there for me or not, or sometimes even reply to his texts to keep my presence in his life, I have this fear that if I go radio silent, he might just forget and move on. He always gave me that vibe that he loves me because I’m there, the day I leave and disappear, he’ll be over me. Now i do not know whether that is true or just a thing in my head but this time, I want to get rid of this insecurity and so take my time to process all my feelings which I’ve kept suppressed all this while, may be even a year and see what happens after that. I am secretly wishing with all my heart that I still see him waiting for me after a year but I’m everyday ghosted with the possibility of what if I just decide to confront him after a year, only to see him having moved on.

    I don’t know if all this is even making sense. I read up on the net, read posts here and hear stories of men who waited on their women for years after a break up and hope that may be my love also proves to be that strong but I really don’t know. I don’t know what I want, I think I want a future with him but only after he takes the initiative to change his ways for real and doesn’t just say so to get us back, only after I’m assured that he does love me and will hold on for me both in the present and the future, even if we are parted for long, say months or a year. Does this really happen? Is there any chance that he may be there for me months later, or am I just being too optimistic? I don’t know. Please help, any advice will be great.

    #180607
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Jen:

    Glad you posted again with your most recent thoughts and feelings.

    When we are children, we are stuck with the parents we were born to. We don’t get to choose, nor would a baby be able to choose. We then do our best with what we are stuck with. We hold on to any sign of love and safety: the food we receive, a smile, a kind word, and  we minimize the unloving expressions, including clear verbal and  physical abuse. We stay in the relationships with our parents because we know nothing else, and we have nowhere to go.

    When  we did grow up stuck with unloving parents, when we make do with so little “love” (as food being  love…), unless we heal, unless we learn and  become  aware, we keep being stuck. Just like you are, stuck with this man, as if there is no other option, no other man out there, no  other possibility.

    So we hold on, as you do, to anything as an expression of love, as him chasing you after breakups, and you worry that you will lose even that. It doesn’t seem to matter that when in a relationship he is clearly unloving, what matters is that there is something, anything that feels like love.

    Waiting, hoping, wishing, trying for so little, is at best going to give you just that little. But oh, can you imagine, can you imagine there being so much more available, possible?

    All this energy, emotional energy you are spending, all this thinking… if you could target those to finding love, real love, that would  be  effective, at least, you will have a chance to truly love and be loved.

    anita

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