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Author Topic: Quiet BPD. Never experienced anything like this.  (Read 804 times)
vitalsign0

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What is your sexual orientation: Straight
Who in your life has "personality" issues: Ex-romantic partner
Relationship status: Broken Up
Posts: 3


« on: April 15, 2020, 11:15:05 AM »

I wanted to tell my story as I am going through the breakup right now.

I met my now ex-gf a year ago and we hit it off right away. The conversations were endless. We seemed to agree on everything. She praised my intelligence. Told me how much she likes being with an older man (I'm 42, she was 32). Things moved pretty fast. Within 2 months she told me she loved me. There were frequent text messages throughout the day and usually at least 2 phone calls a day just to chat. It was wonderful.

She did tell me she had a problem with her mood. She took Lamictal. She had a 12 year old daughter who was out of control. Her daughter had violent outburts, screaming, and breakdowns. The police once showed up because she was stomping and yelling in the apartment. My ex-gf told me was verbally abusive to her ex-husband because he was so lazy and unmotivated. She said she never wanted to be like that again.

In November out of the blue she got quiet for a couple days. No phone calls. Then she called and said that we should break up because I once said that I would be concerned about staying in a place with conflict. We talked through it and she quickly changed her mind and we were right back to where we were. I said at the time I was going to get more active and join a gym for personal training which I did.

Fast forward to March. Everything seemed fine. I took her to a resort for her birthday and we had a romantic weekend. We bought tickets for a family vacation in June. She was frequently sending me pictures of houses in the area we could move into together. The daily texts with I love yous and heart emojiis continued.

Then one day the contact stopped again. I didn't hear from her for a couple days. Every text I sent was replied to with a brief word or two. She wouldn't talk on the phone. After a week I finally got her to say she didn't want to be with me because I was reminding her of her ex husband because I took a nap at her house during the day one day and she felt rage coming on. Also that we weren't intimate enough. We hadn't been having a lot of sex but some. I had recently had oral surgery that prevented me from doing much of anything as I was in a lot of pain. I had also been dealing with some anxiety issues that I was addressing with medication. She also starting saying things like I never supported her enough when she was having problems with her daughter, that I wasn't taking getting in shape seriously, etc.

This came out of nowhere. There were no discussions. She never brought up anything that was bothering her. The day before she went silent was all I love yous and emojiis. The last couple of texts we had she told me talking to me pisses her off, she threw stuff in my face, accused me of belittling her and not putting in any effort and told me not to text her again.

I feel really broken. I thought I knew this person and I loved what I knew. I'm struggling to function right now and I don't understand how someone can be this cruel. I didn't feel an ounce of empathy from her.
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Dungahass
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What is your sexual orientation: Straight
Who in your life has "personality" issues: Romantic partner
Relationship status: Broken up
Posts: 50


« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2020, 12:44:50 PM »

Hey vitalsign0,

Welcome. You'll find many people here with similar stories.

First of all, sorry about the sudden break up and the crap you're going through right now because of it. I don't know your entire story, and mine is a little different just as everyone else's is, but many of us have some common bits.
Excerpt
I met my now ex-gf a year ago and we hit it off right away. The conversations were endless. We seemed to agree on everything. She praised my intelligence. ... Things moved pretty fast... There were frequent text messages throughout the day and usually at least 2 phone calls a day just to chat. It was wonderful.
Absolutely the same for me, and for many others here. My ex and I were texting literally the entire day, from morning to night. We would talk on the phone for hours on end, night after night. We became each other's main focus each day, and I thought of little else.

Excerpt
Then one day the contact stopped again. I didn't hear from her for a couple days. Every text I sent was replied to with a brief word or two.
There are different versions of this people have experienced. I've lived it, where my texts and calls suddenly started being ignored, because she had decided that it was over, because I had asked her for 2 days of space after she cheated on me and tried to get me back.

Excerpt
She also starting saying things like I never supported her enough when she was having problems with her daughter, that I wasn't taking getting in shape seriously, etc.
Do you think this is true? I'm gonna make a confident guess that it's not true. I've been accused of not doing enough, of not loving her, of not supporting her enough. Many of us have. My ex wanted all the love and support, I gave her as much as I could, it was never enough and she reduced all my efforts down to nothing many times. As a person, all of my existence was boiled down to a few mischaracterisation she made of me. Any flaws started defining me as a man in a relationship, erasing anything else I would provide. Meanwhile she herself would have failed by the strict and sometimes changing standards she would set on me.

Excerpt
This came out of nowhere. There were no discussions. She never brought up anything that was bothering her. The day before she went silent was all I love yous and emojiis. The last couple of texts we had she told me talking to me pisses her off, she threw stuff in my face, accused me of belittling her and not putting in any effort and told me not to text her again.
The suddenness of it all is something you'll often read about here. If she has BPD traits, she bases herself entirely on the feelings she has at the moment. Feelings are king for a pwBPD, and for HER own reasons, her feelings were that she should get out of the relationship. It's not about the real reasons she gave you, at least not at surface value. It was about what was going on internal to her, projected on to you as failures you had apparently made (and weren't even warned about).

My ex and I have been broken up for a year, I had been trying to get her back. In December, I was with her, and even though she was pushing back on the relationship idea at the time, telling me several times that she was not attracted to me anymore emotionally or physically, she one night crawled into my bed, started kissing me passionately, saying I love you, that she just wanted to lay next to me and have sex all night. Two days later, I was back to being called a source of anxiety in her life and that we can't be together, because of unreasonable expecations. Things would change very quickly with her
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vitalsign0

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What is your sexual orientation: Straight
Who in your life has "personality" issues: Ex-romantic partner
Relationship status: Broken Up
Posts: 3


« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2020, 01:25:42 PM »


Do you think this is true? I'm gonna make a confident guess that it's not true. I've been accused of not doing enough, of not loving her, of not supporting her enough. Many of us have. My ex wanted all the love and support, I gave her as much as I could, it was never enough and she reduced all my efforts down to nothing many times. As a person, all of my existence was boiled down to a few mischaracterisation she made of me. Any flaws started defining me as a man in a relationship, erasing anything else I would provide. Meanwhile she herself would have failed by the strict and sometimes changing standards she would set on me.

I don't believe it was true at all. Whenever she had trouble with her daughter I was all ears. Listening and offering her support. Even spending time looking up doctors in the area and possible medications that could be used.

I started doing the personal trainer for a few months. However I wasn't seeing a lot of weight loss so I stopped and was going to switch to going to my regular gym more and focus on cardio. I couldn't for the month of March because of my oral surgery.

This has been the most hurtful thing someone has done to me. I dont' feel I deserved this. A face to face discussion or bringing things up as they happen seems like something adults would do. Who does this to someone they "love"?
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daze507
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Gender: Male
What is your sexual orientation: Straight
Who in your life has "personality" issues: Ex-romantic partner
Posts: 165


« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2020, 06:00:19 AM »

I want to say "been there, done that".
Ask yourself that, even these two reasons were true, does it justifies ending a relationship, especially that way?
Last conversation I had with my ex was on the phone, call me at work to tell me it was over but it was just a confirmation at this point. Gave me two new reason (but there were others before):
- I was cheap because I made a joke when she took a yagurt, saying that she was eating all my work lunch, I was obviously kidding.
- I was racist because I supposedly made fun of her origins (South Italy). Doesn't matter if I am from the same origins.
For me, even without knowing anything about BPD, it was the confirmation that something was very off with her.

Excerpt
This has been the most hurtful thing someone has done to me. I dont' feel I deserved this. A face to face discussion or bringing things up as they happen seems like something adults would do. Who does this to someone they "love"?

Because they have a mental illness and because they don't love the way you and me love. Like Dungahass said, they work on emotions, so in the honeymoon phase they can only see you as perfect. When they start seeing "imperfection", they amplify them and interpret that as a lie, you lied to them for not being the mister perfect she envisioned. This is when they split you black, at this point you're just an all bad insignificant or even evil person.
They don't see shades of grey like us, it's all or nothing.
Don't take what she said to you personally. Again, they have a mental illness, they don't see the world around them like you and me.
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What is your sexual orientation: Straight
Who in your life has "personality" issues: Ex-romantic partner
Posts: 31


« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2020, 01:36:26 PM »

It is hard.  It is challenging. 

I have found it's helpful to admit that my exBPD is abusive.  Sometimes I write it down. I allow myself to validate the good and the bad from my exBPD. 

It does not take the pain of loss away (we obviously love these men and women), but it helps with the confusion.

It goes something like this in my head,
"Why would someone who I love and who loves me, treat me so horribly... invalidate my feelings, gaslight me, and abuse me?"  That's where a lot of people get stuck I think, sometimes going back to the relationship to seek relief.

Simply acknowledging to myself that the person was abusive helps allow me to feel what is needed, you have the right to be hurt.

Mindfullness has helped me recently to see what i'm doing in the aftermath of the breakup and pain/confusion of having been in a severely abusive relationship.
https://bpdfamily.com/content/triggering-and-mindfulness-and-wise-mind
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Who in your life has "personality" issues: Ex-romantic partner
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« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2020, 08:03:11 PM »

The last couple of texts we had she told me talking to me pisses her off, she threw stuff in my face, accused me of belittling her and not putting in any effort and told me not to text her again.

ouch. what did she say?
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     and I think it's gonna be all right; yeah; the worst is over now; the mornin' sun is shinin' like a red rubber ball…
teawoman5

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What is your sexual orientation: Straight
Who in your life has "personality" issues: Ex-romantic partner
Relationship status: broken up
Posts: 26


« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2020, 07:47:18 AM »

This is a terrible experience to go through and your confusion is understandable. Unfortunately many people here can relate. A relationship with a pwBPD is one of the more difficult things anyone can go through emotionally. Each relationship is unique but there are a lot of similarities.

I had that same reaction of "wth is this? I never experienced anything like this." I can relate to the positive beginning with the pwBPD being in frequent contact, showing a lot of care and love and talking about the future together. This makes you feel secure in the relationship which makes the upcoming devaluation/discard extremely painful. I didn't know about BPD at the time so I didn't know this was an idealization phase.

I can also relate to the pwBPD talking about difficulties in their past like unstable moods and volatile relationships which are pieces of the puzzle many people only put together later. And the part of the devaluation cycle where they cut contact suddenly and take on a cold tone they never had before. It leaves you searching for what you did to cause it. But you didn't "cause" it. The silent treatment and sudden inexplicable changes in communication (esp. text and social media) are common in pwBPD and they are recurring themes on this forum.
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