How do I heal after an emotionally abusive relationship?
I was in it for about two years. It was a long distance relationship due to college. At first, everything was nice. Sometime after the first few months, he started to be controlling. When I would say that I was going to hang out with friends, he would ask which friends, where would we be going, what we would be doing, if there would be any guys, etc. Anytime that he messaged me, I had to reply as soon as I got it. No matter what. Watching a movie, sleeping, spending time with family...he didn’t care. To him, if didn’t reply it obviously meant that I was cheating. We tried to stay intimate even though we were several hundred miles apart with video chatting and nudes, but he became demanding with them. He would make me take nudes in poses that he thought was sexy, regardless of if I wanted to or not. He would often ask for them at around 3am or 4am when I had to wake up early for classes and not let me go to sleep until I sent all of the nudes that he wanted. On the rare days that he didn’t want nudes, I still couldn’t sleep until it was the time that he let me to sleep, which was usually around midnight or later. If I didn’t do what he wanted, he would get angry and make me feel like it was my fault that he was unhappy and he would threaten to leave me. He got it into my head thinking this was love, so I sucked it up and sent whatever it was that he wanted to so he wouldn’t leave. If I woke up later than what he prefers, he would get mad at me again, even though it would be because of him making me stay up late the night before. He controlled what I wore. Almost every time that I went out, I had to take a picture of my outfit and send it to him. When I would tell him that I’m painting my nails, he would get mad and ask who I’m painting them for, so I rarely painted them. He always hated me having long nails because that meant he couldn’t watch me finger myself. I wasn’t allowed to use vibrators or dildos because he wanted to be the only thing to give me pleasure. He only let me touch and finger myself because it would be sexy to him. He didn’t want dildos to “stretch me out” (I know that’s not possible, but I kept it to myself to avoid arguments.) I had to walk on eggshells throughout the entire relationship. I’m not very emotionally strong and he knew it, so he took advantage of that and made it so that I wouldn’t stand up for myself. I know this was a long message and I’m sorry for it, but I just needed to get it off of my chest. I worked up the courage to leave him yesterday and live my life how I want to. I’ve started by painting my nails a pretty shade of rose gold and sleeping in today.
Achieve your health goals from period to parenting.