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Anonymous48672
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Default May 05, 2019 at 06:26 PM
  #1
In my 20s and 30s, I dated men who would start with a pattern of verbal abuse that eventually led to each of them physically abusing me:

-alcoholic who would show up to my work bldg., when I was leaving for the day, who would grab my arm and pull me, try to strangle me at night while we slept, or slap me

-physical abuser guy first love bombed me, then in public would haul off and hit me across the face and walk ahead of me and not wait for me

-borderline bipolar guy would rant and rave and verbally abuse me and grab me

-guy who called me a psycho after he grabbed my arm when I called him out for doing it

Those are 3 examples of more than a few 'wrong' types of guys I dated. Recently, I met this guy through another acquaintance and the two times we've hung out, I initiated b/c it's pretty one-sided on his part (he has a harem of women 'friends' aka ex-girlfriends b/c he's a divorced single dad with a college age child) and he is a raging, and I mean, raging alcoholic.

We went to see a move recently and before the movie I told him that I get pretty excited and like to react out loud. I explained that I normally don't go to movies with guys anymore b/c I don't like being controlled or told how to behave by a guy. He assured me he wouldn't act that way but he did.

During a really exciting part of suspense, I let out a "Oh my god!" comment and he grabbed my right arm which triggered me.

What I wanted to do: jump up, slap him, and scream bloody murder at him for triggering my past physical abuse. What I did: pulled my arm away, glared at him, shifted in my seat to sit farther away from him and stayed silent the rest of the movie.

He told me he grabbed my arm at that moment, b/c he wanted to be closer to me. Of course I don't believe that b/c that's not how you treat someone you want to be closer to. I could see if he put his arm around me, but he grabbed my right arm when I made that loud comment at a suspenseful moment in the movie. I would never just grab someone like that, especially someone I barely know. It's about boundaries for me. I feel like he intentionally invaded my boundaries and was trying to control me, trying to signal me to be quiet by grabbing my arm.

So far, from what I know of his personality and from what our mutual acquaintance told me about him; he's very passive aggressive and has a lot of emotion bubbling under the surface. He comes across as passive but his true nature is one of aggression. I caught a glimpse of that, when he grabbed my arm.

Another person I told this story to, thinks I'm overreacting but my gut told me, his grabbing my arm like that was his way to try to abuse and control me; a highlight of what would be to come if I continued to throw away my time towards investing in a guy who is drunk 24/7 already, stuffs his feelings with alcohol, has a harem of ex-girlfriends and sends women like me whom he barely knows, bed-selfies (him drunk in bed, fully clothed, telling me that he finds me attractive but I know he's sloshed 100%).

I wanted to confront him after the movie but I chickened out b/c I don't know him well. He invited me back to his house and I said no. He ignored it and suggested I visit his house when his child (a college student) comes back to visit for the summer.

Also, when I told him what one of my hobbies was, he countered, "I can't see you doing that, really." All the red flags point to him probably being an abuser but I don't really know him.

I'm still freaked out a week later about the way he grabbed my arm b/c it brought back all the times I've been physically abused.

Does your past physical abuse still get triggered? How do you bring it up when the person triggers it by touching you or saying something to you that a former abuser used to say?
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Hugs from:
Anonymous43949, Crypts_Of_The_Mind, Open Eyes
 
Thanks for this!
Anonymous45127
 
attentionThis is an old thread. You probably should not post your reply to it, as the original poster is unlikely to see it.




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