Sadistic Boyfriend Makes Fun of Girlfriend with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, So She Dumps Him
“Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event. It is natural to feel afraid during and after a traumatic situation. Fear triggers many split-second changes in the body to help defend against danger or to avoid it. This ‘fight-or-flight’ response is a typical reaction meant to protect a person from harm,” according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH).
NIH further mentioned that almost everybody after trauma will experience a range of feelings. But most people naturally recover from the initial symptoms. Individuals who keep on experiencing problems may have a PTSD diagnosis. Persons with PTSD may feel scared or stressed even when there’s no threat or danger to them.
This young woman, who’s suffering from PTSD, has the misfortune of loving a man who turned out to be sadistic. With the username u/Admirable_Spirit_673, she shared her story on Reddit’s r/TrueOffMyChest: “I’m still a bit shaken up, so if this doesn’t make much sense, I apologize. TW for suicide. I (18f) have been with my boyfriend (20m) for almost two years. I moved in with him last August, and things have been pretty rocky. My whole life, I’ve struggled with my mental health, specifically depression, anxiety, and self-harm (I’ve been clean for a while though). I also have a history of trauma, but I don’t need to get into that. I made sure my boyfriend knew this when we started dating, because I wanted him to be able to nope out of the relationship if that was too much for him to deal with. He assured me it wasn’t an issue.”
However, as time went by, OP started to realize that her boyfriend did not have a full grasp of mental health problems. He would remark that negative feelings like depression are just ‘spicy sad’ and traumatized persons should just make the effort to get over it. It’s also his belief that only soldiers could be afflicted with PTSD. OP tried explaining the matter to him, but he just ignored her. And so, she just tried her best to ignore him too.
Then, their situation started to turn for the worse as OP revealed: “Recently he started watching couple prank channels on YouTube, and he started pranking me. At first, it was just small things like putting way too much flavor in my water or salt in a bite of my food. I laughed it off, it didn’t really bother me. But then he started jumping out and scaring me. That kind of stuff really affects me sometimes because of my PTSD, and I tried to explain that to him. He would apologize but do it again the next day. I was getting annoyed and frustrated, but I tried to let it be.”
But the pranks grew more insensitive and cruel as her boyfriend began placing noise-makers under the toilet seat. It victimized her one night, and she ended up having a full-blown panic attack. Her boyfriend found her crying and dazed on the bathroom floor, but he just laughed at her.
The following day, OP made it clear that he couldn’t go on frightening her the way he did that night with a toilet noise-maker. He must also stop from playing his other pranks like jumping out at her. Her boyfriend just rolled his eyes, but he did promise to stop. And for a week, everything felt fine.
That was, until her boyfriend felt an urge for some excitement again. OP continued to relate in her post, “Yesterday, I got home from being out with a friend, actually feeling better for the first time in a while. When I walked in the house, all the lights were off, so I assumed he was still at work, which isn’t abnormal because sometimes he works late. I plug my phone in because it died on my way back home, and when it powered on, I got a notification that he sent me a text. It just read ‘so sorry, I love you.’ I replied, saying, ‘It’s okay, I’ll see you when you get home, love you.’ And I heard his phone ding in the bathroom. That was weird, I thought.”
OP went up to get his phone, but then she was taken aback by what she saw in the bathroom. “I saw him lying in the bathtub. The bath was full of water, there was an empty bottle of pills on the sink, and he was covered in blood. His wrists were cut, and there was just so much blood. My heart just sank. I started having a panic attack. I was hyperventilating, crying, and I was just frozen. After a minute I ran to the living room to get my phone to call 911.”
That was when she heard water splashing, followed by his laughter. OP turned around, and her boyfriend was in the hallway, saying he got her. OP’s world crumbled completely.
She said in her post, “I don’t even know how to describe the feelings I was experiencing. I was so mad and sad and scared. I didn’t even say anything; I just walked out of the house. I just kept walking, and eventually, I figured I needed to call my friend to come get me. At first, I didn’t tell her what happened, I just told her I needed her to come get me and that it was an emergency. She came and took me back to her house, where I am now.”
Yes, her boyfriend tried to apologize through text messages. He told her that it was just a joke and that she just overreacting again. He wanted her to come home. But OP no longer answered. What else could she say to such a person?
She ended her post with the following words: “My friend is going over to his house tomorrow to get my things when he’s at work. She said I can stay with her however long I need. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I just feel numb.”
