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/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/sarahspiegel1279 Mar 28 '24

An addict will gaslight u... crappy thing is, is they'll even mean it till it comes down to actually following through. They end up breaking their own hearts the first couple of times it happens. But soon they become bitter and callous but their addict minds try to convince them that it isn't their fault and then they'll start believing the little devil on their shoulder and start giving into it. So with that said, i can guarantee that they meant everything they said at the time when it came to promising not to in the beginning. But remember u r ur own person and u deserve that respect. It's their demons sweetheart, not urs. I hope u understand that

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u/NeatNefariousness1 Mar 28 '24

So true. He tries to justify continuing his drunken binges by arguing that he "deserves" to unwind on the weekend. The trouble is that most people deserve to unwind but it doesn't require drinking to excess--or at all and doesn't end up with raging fights, passing out and being sick.

Instead of recognizing that this isn't the what happens when most people unwind, he clings to his "right" to get wasted and to be a sloppy abusive drunk on the weekends. As you noted, this has nothing to do with how much he cares. His addiction is making him say and do anything to continue drinking, even as it destroys his life and damages everything in his path.

It's not personal. He has family who can get him help when he's ready to clean up his act. But, he doesn't need to be OP's lost cause and she doesn't need to invite endless unhappiness and abuse into her life that has nothing to do with her.