FORUMS

Connect with people who understand what you are going through, seek advice and surround yourself with support. We're free, anonymous, and professionally moderated 24/7.

  • 47,612Members
  • 1,358,869Posts
  • 1,400,000Visitors
Friends, families and carers

How do you enforce boundaries?

How do you enforce boundaries?

How do I keep my boundaries, except to repeat them how ever many times a day he walks over them? I was told this week that I don't need to keep telling him how to behave, because he has an ABI, he can behave how he likes (including urinating outside). I shouldn't ask for a question to be answered, and not multiple times, or remind him people answer questions out loud, or not to be yelled at because I expect an answer, be argued with on everything (he even says he isn't arguing when I ask him not to argue), or expect him to shower, clean food off his face, clean his teeth, clean his dentures, change his clothes, wash his hands, with soap and for more than 2 seconds, after touching animals before touching food, or touching raw meat, or use the dish cloth on the floor then on the plates, or not be told every little thing I should be doing and when. And "That's OK." That's one of few phrases I get to everything when I eventually get an answer.

I also get "I don't remember," "not sure" or "yeah" with an upward inflection on the end. Yeah doesn't mean yes. It may mean no. Its not worth trying to come up with a real answer, just one of the phrases will do. Its not being untruthful to say yeah instead of no. It's ok. I've started ignoring him when he asks questions, but I'm being rude if I do it, and he isn't.

I shouldn't expect that pain has anything to do with why I don't do all the things he has decided I should do. I shouldn't expect that he will do as he's asked if it doesn't suit him and get anger, excuses or lies about why he hasn't bothered, but I should do whatever he's planned for me for the day. I get told what I'll be doing as soon as I wake up. It's not negotiable. Its like he has an anxiety attack if the day doesn't go as he's decided. I can't expect to be in another room for more than a minute before he comes to see where I am (includes the bathroom if I don't expressly mention that's where I'm going). And I can't expect to talk to my friends or family on the phone with any privacy. At the moment, I have to go outside because the phone signal in the house we're staying in is non-existent. He will come and stand by me. He gets very angry and gestures threateningly if I tell him to go away.

I've calculated the horrific financial cost of his ABI since he had his surgery 4 years ago (he was starved of oxygen - probably - it can only be diagnosed with autopsy). It wasn't diagnosed for 3 years, because we had moved overseas, and he has had no help. He doesn't want help. He says the problem is all mine, and it's ok. I didn't have such bad arthritis before his ABI - though I had a lot of hard days, but I worked. He insists that my osteo-arthritis is curable, but it doesn't have to be for others.

He's told me I should leave if he's so horrible. I get the carers pension and he is on disability. We have no home - we live in a caravan, wandering aimlessly and currently are housesitting. He says I'll be fine - I barely move some days due to arthritis. We don't have enough money between us but he's sure half will be enough. He has no concept of money, but he's quite obsessed with spending it. He can't understand budgets and loses his temper if I tell him he can't spend money. He has no access to the accounts, because he'd manage to bleed them dry. He breaks and damages so much through being careless we're doing a good job anyway. We have lost hundreds of thousands since his surgery, in part due to his complete disinterest in the business we had just purchased in the same month as his surgery. We lost it and a lot more besides, before I consider what we haven't been able to earn since this happened.

His solution for me is that I sell myself or go hook up with someone else. Or simply, I'll be fine, and something will come along. That should be easy to find someone he says. He seems to find my pain very amusing. I have a plan to get out, but it will take time. I need to be in one location, I want to buy a house, but he's obsessed with running and has made sure so far I don't get to talk to agents about houses that are in our price range. He's obsessed with keeping me isolated and alone. My best friend is dying and he says I don't need to see her again this week. I have plenty of time according to him. According to her, she has weeks at best. I can't get there if he doesn't drive me, due to the arthritis.

I am very angry that the life we had planned is gone. That I am trapped with someone who treats me like the enemy. That the man I married died during that operation. Someone on here said that I had a lot of grief to deal with. Until she wrote that, I hadn't even recognised I had anything to grieve. Which makes me angry at the counsellors I've seen who never mentioned that at all. And more than that, I'm exhausted.

67 replies

11 - 20 of 67
123...7

In response to: How do you enforce boundaries?

Re: How do you enforce boundaries?

Thank you all so much on here for being supportive. It makes an enormous difference to me.

In response to: How do you enforce boundaries?

Meltdown moment

I woke up in a lot of back pain, and he was into one of his bad days. I can tell within a few minutes of waking. So he just kept going and I lost it.He got bored with it. He always does. He says he knows he's the problem, but he sounds and behaves like he's proud of that. He says I go on at him. He's right but only to a degree. I just give in to most of it, but I refuse to let him push over my boundaries every single time, especially the hygiene. That's what tipped me over this morning, again. He says he cares, but I asked (again) how can I possibly see what he thinks is caring, when he doesn't do a single thing that shows it. Then he started on his "believe me" phrase repetition which didn't help. I don't believe him. He's a compuslive liar. He will lie outright and thinks it's funny if I call him on it, or just not bother to take the time to think of the answer to something.

I said he can say what he likes, but words without actions have no meaning. He says he's trying, but I shouldn't expect to see anything that proves that. Then he started on the exact same phrase, with the exact same mannerisms as my mother (who is a psychopath and is the reason I suffer PTSD). And I told him this time he must have studied her very hard to learn that, when he can't learn anything I ask him to change. I feel like I'm at the edge of the slippery slope again and he's just standing there, pushing and pushing and pushing and he won't ever stop.

I created some analogies. It's like I had a beautiful, rare piece of china (my life) and it got knocked down and shattered into a hundred pieces. I don't even know if I found all the pieces, but I try to put it back together again. When I join a few pieces together, he comes along and drops it again. He says he'll leave, and I wish it were that simple, but that still leave me with a broken plate.

Tomorrow he won't remember or care how distressed I was today. And the physical pain just isn't going anywhere either. The last doctor shrugged his shoulders when I asked what to do - in a long line of doctors who don't do anything and tell me it's bad luck or bad genes. And the physical pain is being made worse by the stress and emotional trauma.

In response to: Meltdown moment

Re: Meltdown moment

Today I got the afternoon alone with a friend. I even managed to drive to see her and she drove also, so we could meet half way. We will do this again in a fortnight, if he doesn't mess it up for me.

In response to: Re: Meltdown moment

Re: Meltdown moment

YOU DESERVE FRIENDSHIP

In response to: Re: Meltdown moment

Re: Meltdown moment

Yes I do @Appleblossom and I am prepared to fight to keep them, though obviously I'd prefer not to have to argue that along with everything else 🙂

In response to: Re: Meltdown moment

Re: Meltdown moment

We arrived at the housesit that is next to his friends. It is disgusting and looks like a warzone. It almost belongs on an episode of hoarders but he thinks it's fine because it's the disastrous state he would get everything into if I didn't stop him. Now I'm sick and have been for weeks, so I'm getting out even less than I did, and he's being even more controlling and bullying and his behaviour is so bad it's scaring me.

I've been sick enough to end up in A&E and he alternates between obsessive and demanding - take pills, take pills, take pills or outright hostile.

Since I'm so sick, I'm scared, because it's really showing up his total incompetence to manage. He cooks, but the meals are strange combinations, lacking in vegetables, which may have enormous amounts of salt added, or other condiments. He can't get money for himself, but expects I have money for him to shop even though I'm too sick to get out to get any.

He has thrown stuff at me (fortunately he was only holding paper) because he did shop and I said he'd bought the wrong thing. I'm lucky he wasn't holding the can of food. He got very angry when I told him off and very argumentative and can't see that it's inappropriate behaviour. He is acting like my illness is the biggest inconvenience he's ever experienced and I'm scared because I don't know how I can manage alone with my kind of illnesses.

But I need to be better prepared. He's getting nastier by the day knowing we're getting closer to heading to my family (and my support) over Xmas and doing his best to sabotage that.

In response to: Re: Meltdown moment

Re: Meltdown moment

@ivana Thankyou for the links!
I have read the PDF and found it very useful. I think hubby has every single thing mentioned.

I also believe the difficulty I'm having in getting help - other than hubby has little self awareness and refuses all assistance, is that his injury is caused by the medical profession. It seems to make them close shop to protect themselves instead of accepting they are the problem. The hospital covered up the whole thing and I don't have enough evidence, other than my husband, to prove what they did.

I will contact synapse when I get a few moments alone. I don't get many of those and I can't make those kind of calls when he's around. It makes him agressive and he'll do anything to distract a call, and he'll be intolerable for the rest of the day. And I just don't have enough personal resources left to cope with it.

I'm feeling a little better today (recovering from flu/bronchitis/asthma) and so he's not so abusive, because he doesn't have to keep up the pretence that he cares.

In response to: Re: Meltdown moment

Re: Meltdown moment

Its good that you can check in occasionally @artee ...

now that you have explained that fear of being sued is part of the medical profession's lack of support ... its important that you find an avenue or advocacy group to help you get the support you need ... @ivana has great awareness of the web and various govt and non-govt agencies.

In response to: Re: Meltdown moment

Re: Meltdown moment

Hi @artee

I'm so sorry you're going through this.

It's really not fair and it's not okay that he causes you fear - your safety is at risk and it's important to reach out, like you have here, to get support.

You mentioned your worried about being alone with your illness, and you're unsure if you're able to manage it. Can you share with us what support your husband is providing for your illness - whether that be practical (ie: cooking) or some emotional support etc?

Hopefully we can offer some suggestions on how else you can get the support you need for your illness, so you don't have to rely on your husband.

Thinking of you

Nik

11 - 20 of 67
123...7