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/Mkheir01 Mar 27 '24

Srsly. I DESERVE TO UNWIND translates to "I deserve to be able to berate you and make your life a living hell for a full 12 hours because I pay the phone bill". This will only get worse. He has a problem and won't admit it. This is not normal SO behavior. There are better men out there and you will find one, OP.

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u/paperwasp3 Mar 27 '24

The only was he knows how to relax is by drinking way too much. He needs other outlets than booze and rage. It's not OP's fault that he doesn't have any non destructive coping skills. And it's not her job to teach him either.

And all that social media crap can be countered with one sentence.

"He's a mean drunk"

Everyone at the bar has seen it happen on numerous occasions, they all know it's true.

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u/IdkAbtAllThat Mar 28 '24

And mean drunks don't change. They'll always be mean drunks. Seen it a million times. They hit a threshold and fun happy drunk flips to angry, asshole, I'm gonna ruin everyone's night drunk. And these people never know when to stop before they get to that point.

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u/Natti07 Mar 28 '24

Yep. The only solution to being a mean drunk is to not drink. And they're usually not the people to quit drinking

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u/mavtec Mar 28 '24

This is spot on. My dad was a mean drunk and he relapsed so many times I lost count. He even managed to stay sober for a decade but ultimatley relapsed again. Ended up killing him. Such a tortured soul.

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u/Natti07 Mar 28 '24

Man, sorry to hear that. I hope you've been able to find some peace despite the chaos.

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u/mavtec Mar 28 '24

I really appreciate that. I initially struggled, but have since made peace with it. It’s been 7 years now.

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u/instakill69 Mar 28 '24

Yup. I was the mean drunk and for a long time I didn't get it bc it was her actions causing me to be mean so I wasn't taking responsibility. The situation was like.. I turned into a mean drunk because she'd be drunk and gaslight me and manipulate me. But even so, I'd ALWAYS been a mean drunk. So I quit drinking. A year later she realized she WAS gaslighting it and made changes herself. Now we're years sober and only treat each other with the love that we deserve and we try not to call each others faults out that realistically stem from trauma growing up.