If you guys only knew him! He's wealthy attractive extremely likable. I was the envy of many many girls and even some guys. Everyone thinks he hung the moon and I'm the one who needs help
Suspicious, people who manipulate in relationships are extremely likable. They have to be, if they weren't - no one would let them get close and you have to get close to manipulate people. You have to figure out what makes them tick before you can manipulate them.
My s/o thinks my father is one of the nicest people he's met. He can't reconcile my stories of my father with the man he sees. Most people who know my father think he's wonderful - that I'm fortunate to have such a generous and loving parent. Its very common for everyone to see people like your boyfriend and my father that way. Only the spouses and children see the manipulator.
I learned by the age of 10 that my father used what was important to me to manipulate me. If there was something I really liked, it was either taken away from me or I was berated for liking whatever it was. If something made me feel good about myself, like all A's in every class except a B in gym, I was berated for the B in gym. Suddenly gym was the most important class ever and if I wasn't getting the best grade of all of them in gym, I was a failure. I was in the wrong. I could do no right. I'd never be successful in anything if I got a B in gym. A's in chemistry, trig, french and english were irrelevant, all that mattered was that B because I suck at gymnastics. As we all know, if you can't do a cartwheel, you'll never get into college, get a job or find a man who will marry you. I heard all that. Did the B in gym matter to my Dad? Not a bit. What mattered was I was feeling good about myself and that was a no-no, I needed to be made to feel bad about myself, because you can't manipulate and control people who feel good about themselves.
By twelve, I knew my father's opinion about me was nonsense and what mattered was how I felt about myself. Which is good, but I also learned self defense mechanisms to protect myself - which aren't good. I don't reveal much about myself, especially anything that is important to me. I equate the word 'promise' with 'I'm lying to you.' If anyone uses the word promise in a sentence, I believe they're lying to me. It doesn't matter if it's a plumber saying 'I promise to be at your house at 10am to fix the leaky faucet' or my s/o saying 'I promise love and fidelity.'
Why does the word promise have a different meaning to me? Because of my father. He will want me to do A, so he will promise B (something he has deduced I want - not because I have said I do). I'll do A. I'll go to collect on B and will be told "I lied." Just that simple, he will say "I lied," as if it's acceptable to lie to people to further his objectives, because after all, what he wanted me to do in his opinion was good for me, so I'm wrong in thinking his method of lying to me was wrong.
Your boyfriend's texts and emails are littered with that mentality. The rules of healthy relationships don't apply to him. Never. Ever. He's somehow special and gets to manipulate people and when caught, it's your fault, not his. Always. You need to stay firm and end it with him before you take destructive self defense mechanisms you learned to protect yourself from him into your next relationship.
I read his side of the boiled over pot on the stove and I saw my father's tactics. Your boyfriend used it as a lesson to get you to say he was right. When you didn't, you were at fault. If you had boiled the water the way he told you and it boiled over, it would still be your fault and you would have to tell him he's right. If you had boiled the water his way or your way and it hadn't boiled over, you would still be wrong because the food didn't taste right. You are always on the losing end of any discussion, issue or act because he designs it that way. You have to always be made to see he's all powerful and always right.
You texted him that you were ending the relationship and wanted no further contact with him. How does he respond? Not with "I understand. I'll miss you, I love you, I hope you have a good life. Good bye." Instead, he tells you what is wrong with you and you're the hinderance in making the relationship he has with you work.
You can leave a boyfriend, fiance or spouse who loves you in a way that is unhealthy. You don't have to stay in the dysfunction. You don't have to be loved that way. No matter how strong you may think the love is between you, how good that love is and you won't ever find it with another man - none of that trumps how destructive it is to you.
A healthy, once in a lifetime love is never destructive to you. What you have with your boyfriend is very destructive. Just because everyone else thinks he's the greatest person ever, that doesn't make him so. What it makes him is a person who has learned honey catches more flies with people he doesn't have direct control over and vinegar works ever better with people he does have control over.
If someone has to use honey or vinegar to catch your interest and maintain it - there is something wrong. I'm not talking about being considerate or nice with honey, I'm talking about being overly generous, attentive, etc.
He used honey early on in your relationship with him and about the time when most relationships would begin to think about the commitment of marriage, he switched to vinegar. It has nothing to do with what you did. It had everything to do with he knew marriage was important to you and he could use it against you to control you.
You have now told him the relationship is over. He's going to pull every tactic he can to reel you back in. Why? Because he doesn't want to start all over with someone else, it's a lot of work to gain control over them. Love to him is power and control. He has to constantly prove he has control over you, he will change the conditions hourly.
I know 36 seems old. It's not. You've barely started life. Look at him as a blessing, he has taught you what love is not. Some people get to 70 without learning that. You've learned it early and have decades to enjoy learning what love is, with a man who also knows that love is not control and power over another.
If you must, read his texts and emails he sends for the next few days to reinforce what you have with him is not love. Then block him. Heal your heart and mind and then move onto what love really is with a new man. I know that man is out there for you. I know in a few years you will return to SI to tell us all about him and give hope to everyone else who is untangling themselves from a man similar to the man you once untangled yourself from.
[This message edited by Matisse at 7:25 PM, April 2nd (Tuesday)]