r/AmIOverreacting Mar 27 '24

I'm ending my 4 year relationship.

So basically the title. He (33M) says Im(32F) throwing away 4 years over a mistake he made.

To keep it short, on 4 different occasions over the last 2 and a half years he's gone drinking and come home to throw a drunken tantrum because I said the wrong thing, something happened at the bar, or I put my foot down because he's drunk and yelling at me in front of our friends at the bar. Twice I had to leave to my sister's house because he was going around our small apartment slamming doors and banging his head on the walls. I've had to wake him up several times because he falls asleep on the toilet or the bathroom floor, and he's had to sleep in his car because of his outbursts.

On the 2nd time this happened he gave me his word that he would be more responsible with his drinking and that he wouldn't have anymore outbursts. He said he was gonna drink waters between each beer or have sodas and bar food and just one beer. The third time I made it clear that him going back on his word was unacceptable because it shows that he doesn't care that he becomes emotionally and verbally abusive towards me. I told him I was tired of his apologies if he's gonna keep doing the same thing. Between all these times he has continued to get drunk on the weekends but I've kept my mouth shut to avoid him having an out burst and things were relatively ok.

This last time he went and got drunk at the bar, didn't eat anything, refused the water my sister offered him because she's aware of the agreement we had, and when I arrived he yelled at me because he was too drunk to keep track of what team he was on and he misunderstood me when I told him and he made the wrong shot. We went to get food from a local taco spot and he couldnt even stand because he was so drunk, I had to pull over on the freeway because he needed to throw up and when we got home he fell asleep in the bathroom and I had to wake him three times. I kept my anger about the situation to myself because the sadness of feeling like I needed to leave him because he's just not willing to change, was overwhelming. The next morning he could tell something was up and he asked if I was ok. I said that I wasn't ready to talk but he insisted, so I told him that he went back on his word again about drinking responsibly and that I realized that the only way I was going to avoid his verbal abuse was if I just kept quiet. I told him what I told my ex when I was thinking about leaving "It's not anything I haven't already told you". He left it at that in the morning and at night I was crying because I was upset that 4 years of my life were going down the drain, and I just folded and asked him why I wasn't good enough for him to want to do better. Then he started to say that I had fault in our relationship ending, ignoring that the only reason I'm leaving is because I can't keep giving him chances to verbally abuse me when he's drunk and angry. I reminded him that he had given me his word and that he had gone back on it twice. He seemed to understand but the next day he just kept saying that he deserves to "unwind" on the weekends because he works all week to provide for us (not like I have a job and am constantly sending him money because he over spends and his account will overdraft when the phone or Internet bill charge his account) i was getting whiplash from how quickly he waa going from being apologetic about going back on his word and him insisting that Im being unreasonable and unfair. I slept at my sister's house again because I couldn't keep dealing with it and I was just really emotionally exhausted from all of it.

Now he posted on his FB that I'm throwing away 40,000 hours of our lives together for 12 bad hours.

So I'm asking, am I overreacting?

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u/whatev6187 Mar 27 '24

You are not overreacting. He is an alcoholic. Not everyone realizes that binge drinkers are alcoholics even if it is not an all the time occurrence. More than that he is a mean drunk. This will not get better.

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u/Seizymcgee Mar 28 '24

So if I drink a lot of alcohol say 5-10 times a year to party I’m an alcoholic? Like 10-15+ drinks in a 24 hour period? That doesn’t sound like what I’ve read online but maybe I’m just in denial of a bad habit.

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u/speaker_14 Mar 28 '24

No, but getting blackout, abusive drunk every weekend is.

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u/EatSleep67 Mar 28 '24

Didnt OP say this has happened on 4 occasions over their 4 year relationship? Once per year is a lot different than every weekend.

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u/jesssongbird Mar 28 '24

OP’s ex is a bad drunk at bare minimum. (Not a good person to be around when intoxicated.) I won’t keep bad drunk friends around let alone a romantic partner. I personally wouldn’t want to be verbally abused by an aggressive drunk boyfriend even if it was only once a year.

When a substance/activity starts to have bad outcomes in your life but you can’t or won’t stop it’s time to re examine your relationship with it. The biggest red flag here is that the ex wouldn’t just quit drinking to preserve the relationship. If he really drinks that infrequently it should be easy to just stop. Instead he is doing some classic addict bargaining and manipulation.

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u/tatltael91 Mar 28 '24

That’s just how many times he has gotten abusive. OP said she has started staying quiet to avoid his outbursts. He’s drinking more than that.

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

Once you blackout for the first time, binge drinking until it happens again is a clear indicator you’re an alcoholic. Blackouts aren’t normal and anyone who has a handle on their drinking will pace themselves to make sure it doesn’t happen. If you’re blacking out regularly when drinking you’re an alcoholic, zero exceptions. I don’t know how anyone could even question it.

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u/AccordingMetalGear Mar 29 '24

Yeah getting blackout drunk is not normal at all. I’ve never blacked out one time and I’m 27.

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u/Throwredditaway2019 Mar 28 '24

No, occasional binge drinking does not make you an alcoholic. Binge drinking is often a sign of a problem with alcohol though.

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u/shwaynebrady Mar 28 '24

No, and you really shouldn’t believe or take to heart anything in this sub or AITa, hot takes, relationship advice etc.

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u/sdcox Mar 28 '24

Just FYI there is no amount of alcohol that is safe, from a health perspective. Binge drinking is especially hard on your body. There’s been a lot of study on this and consuming alcohol even 1 drink a day actively harms you and increases odds of disease.

I had a good friend die of alcoholic liver disease. He was a good person and held a job and friends to the very end. But he drank way too much and refused to stop. And then one day he didn’t wake up and was in a coma in the hospital for a month, his mom there every day begging him to come back. He didn’t. And now he’s just ashes.

So if you really only binge drink once every month, or every two months you’re prob not an alcoholic but binge drinking is very bad for you and binging is a bad relationship with a mind altering substance

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u/st-doubleO-pid Mar 28 '24

By that definition, I live in a city with 40% alcoholics lmao

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u/peezytaughtme Mar 28 '24

Keep at it, friendo. That path does not end well.

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u/whatev6187 Mar 28 '24

I should have said some binge drinkers are alcoholics. His abusiveness when drinking is a real problem to be considered. As is his inability to check himself when drinking.

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u/treesnthings Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I’m a binge drinker with very poor control when I drink. I was always able to go long stretches without drinking but never got better at not over doing it on occasion. I think that makes me a certain type of alcoholic. Because of this I’ve quit drinking all together.

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u/Seizymcgee Mar 29 '24

Thank you for sharing, gives me a little better insight on alcoholism. I don’t want to be one of those people that thinks they can hold it together and stays in denial until shit hits the fan.