Submitted by ThrowRA_this_is_dumb t3_11tyfoe in relationship_advice

UPDATE (sorry it's kind of long): Holy crap! Thank you to everyone who responded to my original post; I really didn’t expect this kind of response. Sorry it took me a bit to get back to all of you, but it was a pleasantly busy night. Really quick, I wanted to address a couple of things people had mentioned or asked about.

  • I was pretty sure that there was nothing wrong with my reactions. However, a sliver of doubt had crept in upon hearing the people in our friend group support his actions.

  • The friend group were his original friends, and I was kind of adopted into the group.

  • Our friends’ gfs act how he thinks I should be reacting. When he goes out with friends, their gfs are calling and texting them the entire time. This is also how my bf’s previous gf acted.

  • As far as I know he hasn’t been watching/listening to anyone. He doesn’t have any social media accounts except Facebook. His YouTube history is all video game stuff. He’s never shown an interest in podcasts.

  • He’s been fine the times that I have gone out, but I’m an introvert and don’t go out very often.

  • Some people have stated that he didn’t suddenly change, but he really did. He went out with friends one night and he was fine. The next week when they went out, he was suddenly not fine.

I’m single! I mentioned in some comments that I had already gone to his place to get anything I had left there, and I was waiting for him to get home from work. When he arrived, I gave him his house key back, told him I was done, suggested he needs therapy, and good luck. He was confused and asked what happened. I took the advice of the comment section and told him that I’m smart and figured it out. It was satisfying to watch his face as he started putting the pieces together. Then the meltdown started. He started panicking and apologizing. I told him I wasn’t sure what happened, but the past couple months have been total garbage and I’m done. He said he could explain and told me a couple months ago one of our friends had mentioned that his ex would check on him when they were out, but I don’t. The friend said it would make him wonder what his gf was up to and if she even wanted him. He said it made him start questioning why I didn’t act like the other gfs. He decided that he needed to test me to see if I was invested in him and the relationship. He said he was sorry, and he wouldn’t test me anymore; he just wanted me to stay. I told him that he needs therapy; he allowed a single comment to disturb him enough that he blew up our relationship. Then he got angry, not violent angry, just frustrated angry. He said that if I continued down this path I was “dangerously close to losing a chance to keep him as a friend.” I told him I’m good with that and then left. When I left, I blocked him on everything and called my parents and brother to let them know what happened and to not give him any info if he reached out to them. I went home, changed the locks on my doors, had a couple friends over, and had a girl’s night. My phone has been blowing up with calls and messages from his friends and their gf, but I’ve just been blocking them as they come in. He came to my house this morning, but I didn’t answer. He hung out on my porch for about 30min. When he decided to give up he left behind my favorite plant (an orchid) and a note. I’m keeping the plant (it’s not the plant’s fault that he bought it) but the note went straight to the trash. It’s amazing how much better you feel after dropping 250lbs of garbage weight.

Original Post: My (28f) bf (32m) and I have been together for almost 2 years. Our relationship has been good up to this point; however, the past 2 months he's been doing weird things. He'll "test" me to see what my emotional response will be to different situations. Apparently, I'm failing these tests and not reacting how he thinks I should.

For example. He will call me to tell me that he's going to his friend's house for a few hours before he comes home. I'll tell him something along the lines of "Okay, thanks for letting me know." He thinks this is the wrong response because it's not emotional enough. He feels like I should be upset that he's not spending that time with me. Same thing when he took a trip to visit a friend. I told him to have fun and tell his friend I said hi. He thought I should be upset, crying, asking him not to go, and calling him every few hours while he was gone. He thinks that my "incorrect" responses are a sign that I don't love him and I'm not invested in the relationship.

He's started giving me the silent treatment when he's upset about something. I usually let him have his silence for a little bit and hope that he'll just come out and say what's wrong. But that doesn't happen. I have to acknowledge that he's upset and giving me the silent treatment. To break the silence and get the conversation going, I'll say, "Okay, you're obviously upset about something. Are you going to tell me what it is so we can talk about it and resolve the issue?" Every single time his response has been, "You're a smart girl, figure it out." This response just seems really dumb on multiple levels. It doesn't resolve anything, it essentially cuts off any discussion that could happen, and it's said to antagonize me. I don't play into it and just tell him, "Okay, you're not ready to talk, that's fine. I'm going to continue with what I'm doing and enjoying myself. When you're ready to talk, let me know and we can resolve this." Then I just continue on with whatever I was doing. He gets upset with these responses because they aren't the "correct" reactions. According to him, I'm supposed to be upset, keep asking him what's wrong, asking him what I can do to fix the situation, maybe cry, etc. I'm not doing any of that stuff. He thinks that I'm emotionally stunted and that I need to work on developing the "right" responses. I've told him that his "tests" are causing unnecessary strain on our relationship. I've also tried to talk to him about what prompted this change, but he gives me the same line of "You're a smart girl, figure it out." I don't feel like there's anything wrong with how I'm reacting, but the few friends that we have here all agree with him.

Are my emotional reactions wrong? I don't think they are, but would like input from other people on this. How do I approach this to get him to stop testing me?

TL:DR: My bf "tests" me to see what my emotional response will be to different scenarios. Then he gets upset when my reactions don't match what he thinks they should be.

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