How did emotional manipulation look like in your relationship?

2 comments

1. “I can’t live without you.”

   Younger me would feel guilty and stay. Older me now understood those words are just emotional shackles.

2. *walking down the street together, hand in hand… and a random dude walks past us on his phone*

   Him: *noticeably releases my hand in a frustrated way*

   Me: “you ok?”

   Him: “I saw you looking at him”

   Me: “who?”

   Him: “that guy who just walked by, who do you think? Stop playing dumb”

   Me: “i never even noticed him”

   Him: “stop lying to me, your eyes directly looked at him, I was watching you. Are you calling me a liar?”

   Me: “no? Maybe I did glance at him but it was just in passing? I didn’t even notice.”

   Him: “see. you did look at him. Why do you always lie to me, I’m so sick of it”

   Cue another 2 hours of me trying to get back on good terms with him while he has a paranoid breakdown and then eventually i’m the one sobbing in the car home while he threatens to break up with me for being dishonest and basically a cheater. I spend the afternoon in bed, emotionally exhausted and tearstained and then he comes in, sweet as pie, apologizing and hugs me and then breaks down crying about how bad he feels for the way he treated me.

   Rinse and repeat for 6 months. By the end of it (when i finally dumped him) my aunt told me I looked physically sick. I had lost 15 lbs, I was always pale and tired looking and I stopped caring about my appearance.

   I was 18 and it was my first serious relationship.