#babys first idea of manipulation is why i didnt recognize my ex was a manipulative jackass and stayed with him for 5 years

[unforth]

Saw a post where people in the notes were arguing that behavior is only manipulative if it's intentional and planned, and tried to "prove" it with, like, Baby's First Example Of Manipulation ("if you don't do xyz, I'm gonna do abc.") and it's been ten minutes and it's still giving me hives. They were literally like "do we need to take 'manipulative' away and put it on the shelf" because they don't understand what manipulative behavior is.

Look if you (generic) think manipulative behavior has to be conscious, intentional, and planned, you are absolutely clueless and ripe for being manipulated. People can be i.n.s.a.n.e.l.y. manipulative without realizing they're doing it, and not recognizing that is, frankly, dangerous.

Signed, someone who has been repeatedly abused by people who certainly thought they weren't manipulative BUT ABSOLUTELY WERE.

[surviving---not---living]

What the fuck do I do?...

**tw emotional/physical abuse mentions**

posted this on reddit with different ages and such so he wont find it but he doesnt use tumblr so I wanted to post here to see if yall had some suggestions as well any help would be greatly appreciated or to just know someone read would also be enough... with that said I'll paste the post.

to start I'm 23f and the fiance is 38m

I have an idea of what i should do i just sincerely dont want to i dont want to leave him homeless and without money or a job...

but the last few months have me scared and confused...

(during arguments he let's me write down what's happening when I hear something that stands out to me in Hope's itll help me fix my behaviour i got from my parents so ive been able to write down exact wording on some things said) theres just so much going on...

to preface this hes never been physically abusive to me and thankfully it's not there yet. in his defense though i was raised very incorrectly due to shit parents and I have a lot of mental issues that cause self sabotage, delusional thinking- meaning If I personally believe something it usually takes a small war to get my mind to recognize im actually wrong, as well as terrible memory so if I do acknowledge I've done something wrong more often than not my head forgets what happened or what i even did wrong if anything and the next time it inevitably happens again I have no information to pull from to tell me what I did was wrong or why. so basically I'm kind of a fuck up, I'm doing my best to fix my shit but yeah my fiance has been dealing with all of that for 4 years now.

(*some minorly important issues

•he's been interrupting me not letting me finish what I'm saying and just outright changing the topic since we first got together, although wrong of me I started doing that as well because i saw no other way to be able to speak to him except even when I'm doing the exact same shit hes doing it seems like hes the only allowed to be upset.

•we were in an open relationship except he didnt follow the rules we agreed to one time and that broke my trust I had for him. we said no coworkers, we said only people we were both interested in we said no one that's taken and yet all of those got broken over an ugly bitch. and I still get shit for bringing it up to this day.

•he said that until I start prefacing all of my conversations with him he wont count any attempt I've made at talking to him about my problems. so basically everything I've tried talking to him about doesnt fucking matter and it doesnt fucking count. not even when I tried telling him 3 separate times I'm feeling suicidal to top it off everytime i mentioned it, it ended in an argument.

•he told me he got suicidal thoughts for the first time in 10 years due to me and honestly I didnt know how to fucking respond to that. it made me sad yeah but where was the care I needed when I brought up the same thing? where was his give a fuck hes supposed to show if he actually cares about me??

•he says he interrupts me because what I have to say is either false, not grounded in reality, or they're excuses. except he has little to no way of knowing any of that is true unless he hears me all the way out I could be agreeing with him and he still interrupts and gets pissed.

•I believe hes a hypocrite but he says nah hes only doing this because I'm doing bad.

•hes said multiple times that i wont see any improvement in him until he sees I've got my shit together. even though hes the one that caused the first problems in this relationship I'm supposed to be the first one to fix my shit? instead of both of us working on our shit together??? and when I ask those questions he responds with yes you are supposed to be the first one to fix your shit because I'm at the end of my rope and I wont take this anymore.)

but on to why I've been scared. this person told me he used to be abusive with an equally abusive ex for many reasons and after splitting up he vowed to never do that again and never end up like they did.

fast forward to our relationship and well a few months ago he told me he wanted to hit me and made it a point to say he wasnt going to but he really wanted to.

he said that because we were both in my car and he wanted to leave with the car except I wasnt going to get out of MY car so he started yelling, i got scared and left later on he told me that was the first time hes ever wanted to hit me and I should think about what it is I did to get him to that point. after that I left it alone for a month because things got a bit better and then came the next time he said he wanted to hit me. now I dont remember the reason for him saying it the second time but I wasnt going to let that slip as easily as the first so I spoke up about it and what he had to say about me telling him it made me scared of him to know he wanted to hit me was " well if you Weren't a coward, normally when someone says they want to hit you it's a signal that you're doing something so wrong that they want to hit you." and me knowing him i knew this was one of those times he just wasnt going to budge.

so on to the next argument.

he told me I'm the one who thrust those thoughts into him, that I'm the reason they ever came to be, I'm why the exist in the first place. and he doesnt seem to understand when I say that no I'm not the reason your head wants to hurt me they exist there because of your last relationship letting that be an option. he also said he keeps the option of abuse in his head with a line in front of it to remind him to never pass that line and he doesn't understand that keeping that idea in his head at all is not a good thing because now the option is available whether you want to take it or not and

he. just. kept. arguing. and defending.

now on to the last argument.

he says he wants me to stop putting him in a position to do all the thinking and decision making for me, when I've asked him multiple times to stop doing that because I want to do shit for myself and all he keeps saying is show me that you can actually think for yourself and I'll stop needing to do that. like motherfucker at least give me the time to make decisions or thoughts.

I know it's not his fault that I take longer to process things but he knows this fact and keeps expecting me to already have a response half a second later to something I'm barely registering 5 seconds after it happened and again yes I know its something I have to work on and I am but atm it's still an existing issue.

hes trying to call thinking for me and making decisions for me "a gift" (the exact context for him saying this wasnt written down as I was too upset at the audacity of that claim.)

he wants me to show overwhelming efforts to fix my fucked behavioral issues but the efforts I'm putting in atm dont matter to him and that hes hanging on a single thread hes no longer willing to take anything but Absolute compliance(yes he used the actual words absolute compliance) if he doesnt see me losing sleep to figure out and fix my shit he wont be convinced I'm trying. he ended that segment with him saying hes not using these words to control or manipulate me. he says this is a requirement a yes or no and he wont make his decision on whether he wants to break up with me until I say yes or no to his absolute compliance. he said his decision is solely based on my answer and If i say yes i dont get to back off or get out of it.

I also wrote down a quote he said that was just so arrogant i couldnt leave it out.

"You sit before an artisan of problem solving." -my fiance

soo haha yeahh the last argument happened right before going to bed and I started typing this as soon as I got up and finished my hygiene stuff.

I'm pretty sure if he had never told me he'd wanted to hit me this wouldn't be such a difficult thing to answer... I love him and I have no idea if I should pick him and risk any form of my safety or just let him leave me.. he has no job, no money, and no family to go to.. I know he doesnt care about being homeless but I do care..I fucking love him and I dont want that for him not even for a day... as shitty as he and I can both be I still dont believe that's what he deserves... if he ever finds this hell be even more pissed that I'm even concerned about what he'll do if he leaves.. he always told me to not care and that if I ever do want to leave him to not worry about that and just get it over with sooner.. thing is I dont want to leave I just want my baby back... the one that didnt yell or didnt want to hit me at all... I want our old relationship back.. I guess I want to know if that's even possible at this point. any words from anyone would be really nice right now.. if only to just feel like someone's talking to me.. my fiance is literally the only person I talk to and the closest thing to a friend I have. and i dont tell my parents any of what's happening because they're stressed enough so I've been basically alone for 4 years with no one but my fiance to talk to..

granted it's my fault I havent made other friends but I've been so stressed recently that I havent done much about it for many reasons..

update: he just finished telling me that hes only had half a burger in the last 3 days, (due to stress) he just wanted to let me know that apparently.

[milkacchan]

Request for @onlyslightlydamaged :

Hi, me again! So I was wondering if I could request a Klaus x fem!reader oneshot where her horrible, maniputive ex has somehow made contact with her again. Maybe a little of Klaus being protective? If that's how he'd be. Thank you! 💚

On many days Klaus had to deal with the aftermath that was Lee.

He held her through nightmares and Panic attacks, he reassured her she was wanted and he wasn't mad at her for dropping a plate or forgetting to fold the laundry.

He encouraged her to wear what she wanted and to do her makeup as she liked.

And she was so thankful for him. She was do thankful the universe sent her someone who wasn't a Lee. Who wasn't abusive or manipulative. And over time, she didnt have as many panic attacks, and she was comfortable wearing clothes she enjoyed. Klaus was proud of the progress.

"Do you want to share an ice cream? Theres no way I can finish one myself." She hummed, holding Klaus' hand and looking through the glass at the ice creams.

"Strawberry?"

"Strawberry."

"Fudge?"

"No thank you."

He ordered for the two, leading her to a seat when the icecream cone was handed to them. They sat in the same side of the light blue booth and she leaned into him, of course he took that opportunity to push the ice cream into her face.

"You dick!" She playfully hit his chest, then reached for the napkin.

"I think the look suits you." He stated, "It compliments your skin."

"Fuck off." She rolled her eyes and wiped her face off. He pressed a soft kiss to her lips and smiled.

Her phone pinged and she pulled it out of her pocket to check, just in case it was a family member. It wasn't. It was an unknown number.

She opened the text with a frown and immediately regretted it. She recognized that number. It was Lee.

'Hey baby, miss me?'

She shook her head and set the phone down.

"What's wrong?" Klaus questioned, concern clear in his voice.

"Lee texted me." She mumbled.

"How did he get your new number?"

"I don't know, but I really don't care. I'm not his anymore." She smiled, looking at Klaus with loving eyes.

"Oh princess." He gasped.

"I know, I know." She batted her eyelashes. "You don't have to say it."

"I...I love...you." he playfully choked out.

She let out a fake cry. "I love you too."

"Wow we're gross and I love it."

"Right!"

That was incident one. That first text. In all honesty, Y/N didn't care. She meant what she said. She wasn't his anymore- sure, she occasionally had an intruding thought or nightmares of the beatings and the things he said- but she no longer panicked thinking about him. He wasn't every thought on her mind.

Two days later he texted her again. She told Klaus but ignored it otherwise. Only it got worse. She was texted again later that day. 4 more times.

Incident two was when he tried to call. He left stupid voicemails and threatened to call the police if she didn't go back with him.

The calling didn't stop. She'd get spammed in the shower, when she and Klaus were trying to sleep, or at random times early in the morning.

Eventually she snapped and pick up.

"What. What do you want. Stop fucking calling me you creep, I don't want you anymore." And then she hung up, rolling her eyes.

Klaus squeezed her hand and looked at her. "You okay?"

"I'm okay." She smiled. "It's just annoying."

"Come here-" he whispered, pulling her on top of him so she straddled his legs. He kissed her softly, his hand rubbing soothing circles on her hip while her hands laid around his neck.

Incident three was bad. It was really bad.

Klaus had never seen a picture of Lee. He had no idea what Lee looked like but he knew as soon as a knock sounded at 8 in the morning, something wasn't right. Diego was the only one they were expecting and he was already sitting on the couch, talking with Y/N as Klaus made tea. Klaus looked through the peep hole.

"Diego, keep your phone ready." Diego didn't ask questions and Klaus opened the door. "Well Hello there- may I help you?"

"Is Y/N around?" The man asked, wasting no time.

Y/N quickly took Diego's hand, her heart dropping.

"Why? Who are you?" Klaus knew damn well who it was.

"Just a friend in the area." He tried to orak inside. "'I wanted to catch up is all?"

"At 8 in the morning?"

"Yes..?"

"Get the fuck off my property. I don't want to see you again. If you text or call her again I'll get the police involved."

"They won't do anything."

Klaus grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "Then I'll take matters into my own hands and trust me, you really don't want that."

Y/N saw his hands start to glow and Lee whimpered before pushing away and taking off the street. Klaus closed the door and went back to making tea as if nothing happened.

"Do you two want sugar?"