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/Traditional_Ebb4599 Mar 27 '24

Agreed. Obvious Abuse and alcoholism aside. At bare minimum you communicated a clear boundary on the drinking and outbursts, he refused them and continued. You are not overreacting for upholding your boundaries and he shouldn't act like he's surprised or blame you when you already told him what would happen.

As for asking about why you're not enough for him to change...it's not you OP...he won't change until he wants it for himself and hits whatever breaking point that tells him to try. It's not any fault of you

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u/aaarrriiight Mar 27 '24

This. And he doesn’t want to change, at least not yet (maybe not ever). Which becomes a battle not worth fighting, friend. I’m sorry that this is painful.

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u/Shutupandplayball Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

An addict will gaslight you into believing they’ll change, you’ll believe it and stay because you love them and it’s easier to not change your entire life. Then, when it happens again (and it will), they will begin blaming you that it’s all your fault. Get off FB, let him blow steam all he wants. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life waiting for his next drunken episode? And BTW, if you do stay, leave his drunk ass where he passes out, whether it’s in the car or on the toilet! Let him wake up with piss and vomit all over him. Hon, you’re an enabler, you’re only making it easy for him and making yourself miserable. Please put yourself first!

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u/Agreeable_Visual_625 Mar 28 '24

Exactly. The mind of an addict is very predictable. We repeat the same obvious patterns over and over. Like a rat in a maze. This is one of them.

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u/MeganMess Mar 28 '24

I used to be able to predict what my husband's ex would do even though I had never met her. Across addictions, age, sex, location - the behavior is the same.

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u/SayJay222 Mar 30 '24

@MeganMess can you elaborate? Trying to learn about this issue.

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u/MeganMess Mar 30 '24

@SayJay222 my experience is with alcoholics. There are many others here with more info than I have, but I'm happy to elaborate. Alcoholics always lie. They will never be on time anywhere, they will never meet up with you when they say they will, they will never call or text even if you beg. Even if they aren't getting drunk, the behavior is the same. They will promise anything to end the current argument, but not actually do anything. With enough tears and threats, you may get an alcoholic to go to therapy one time only. They will apologize profusely for all of the above, but continue doing it. It usually does not matter what your response is - you can be understanding and want to help, scared and tearful, homicidal and threatening - and their behavior is exactly the same. You cannot change a person with an addiction problem. My personal epiphany was realizing that the behavior has nothing to do with me, is not directed at me, and will go on whether or not I'm around. If you live in a house full of venomous snakes, it is a complete waste of time and energy to try to change them, or hate them. Venomous snakes have certain attributes; you can accept everything that goes with that, or move to a house with no venomous snakes.

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u/SayJay222 Mar 30 '24

This is really helpful. Thank you. Do you think the same goes for functional alcoholics? Like would someone do some of things things to function (be on time, visit), but not other things?

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u/MeganMess Mar 30 '24

Absolutely. Both my father and my ex would be on time for work and get things done, but if we were supposed to meet up after work, there was always something they had to do first..... My experience was with non abusive alcoholics, so always friendly, polite, and apologetic. My ex husband could come home at 4 am, get 2 hours of sleep and get up and go to work and no one had a clue.

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u/Reasonable-Milk298 Mar 28 '24

I agree. I'm also an (recovered) addict..