LETTER TO LOVEFRAUD: I no longer attract needy, disordered men

Editor’s note: This is the story of a long-time member of the Lovefraud community, Stargazer.

Spath-proofing my life

I have been a poster on Lovefraud for over five years. It just occurred to me I’ve never written an article. I wanted to tell my story and write about what I have done to spath-proof my life in the last five years. It was never my intention to spath-proof my life. I only wanted to be happy. In taking the steps to make myself happy, I have successfully created a life where disordered people don’t dare to enter. If they do, they don’t stay very long. Why? I’m too happy for them. I don’t buy into their sob stories; I have no need to fix them; and I have no need for their drama or gossip. If I notice someone in my life draining my energy or find myself feeling guilty or obligated around them, I cut them off immediately. I was not always like this. Here is how I used to be when the spath came along ”¦

My Life in 2008

I was 20 pounds heavier because I rarely exercised. My main form of social life was sitting in front of the computer. I was heavily addicted to a reptile internet forum where I was the most frequent and popular poster. I clung to this outlet as it was my only source of joy. Often I’d sit at home and play myself at Scrabble. (Guess who won?) Needless to say, I got very good at Scrabble, but I was very lonely. The worst part is that I didn’t even realize I was lonely. I’d been a loner so much of my life, I didn’t know it could be different. A beautiful woman at 48, I rarely ever dated.

Along comes a sociopath

A new member of my reptile forum reached out to me. He lived about an hour away and wanted to meet me and my snakes. I had met several forum members and so was not expecting anything more than a friendly visit from a like-minded friend. However, he had a different agenda.

He made reference to his picture — did I see it? (Meaning, did I think he was attractive?). I found this odd. When we first met, he gave me a giant hug. This was inappropriate to our level of casual conversation in the previous few weeks. It was very odd. He spent the afternoon at my house, all the time telling me what great taste I have, how beautiful I am, and how much he loves my snakes.

As a middle-aged lonely woman, I thought his attention was refreshing and charming. He hinted how he would some day buy me new snake cages, and how he would love to take care of me. This is all I needed to hear to feed my Cinderella complex. However, he kept standing very close to me trying to touch me. I found it very weird. He wanted to see me again and spend time with me. So I made it very clear that it would be strictly friendship, because he had been coming on a little strong.

The next time I saw him, he toned it down and treated me like a friend. He was also a total gentleman, buying me dinner and driving us around. This was very attractive to me. He and I helped one of my good friends remodel a home, for which my friend paid him for the work. He met several of my friends. They all loved him and thought we were a good pair. I became infatuated with this boy-next-door, clean shaven Iraq vet who was 10 years my junior.

The problems begin

A few weeks after we started seeing each other as friends, I found out his story. He was apparently still married and waiting for his divorce to come through. I don’t date married men, so I decided to keep my distance. The divorce was supposed to come through the following week along with his medical discharge from the Army. At that time, he and I would be free to date. A week was not long to wait. So I waited.

Weeks went by. He complained how the Army was prolonging the discharge and the divorce. They were doing a lot of testing on him because he had a head injury. I could see no outward signs of injury but I had no reason not to believe him. The Army brought him in for routine tests, including brain probes. One of these alleged brain surgeries was the first reason for him to stand me up without a phone call. At least this was his excuse — brain surgery.

When I finally contacted him a day or two later, I was upset and thought this was strange, but a few of my friends explained to me how the Army “owns” you and you have to just do what they say. We had been seeing each other over a month and a half by this point, and we had now been intimate. I broke my own rule about dating a married man, because I truly believed that the divorce was coming through any day.

Caught in a few lies

There were small signs of a disorder I didn’t understand. He told me he would NEVER communicate with one certain forum member because this member had treated me very badly. Then I found out he had friended the other member on another forum. When confronted, he said it was a computer glitch.

Then I found out he was living with his wife (whom he told me he was separated from). He apologized for lying and said the Army required them to live together until the divorce. He had promised to call me on several occasions. But when the calls never came, he always had an excuse — he lost his phone, his “ex” wife was in the room, etc., etc. I became very stressed from all the drama.

I knew something was wrong but he convinced me that it would all be over soon — that the Army was on the verge of giving him his medical discharge and divorce. I didn’t know what to believe. He seemed so sincere.

The last straw

After about 2-1/2 months of the drama, I went camping by myself for four days to clear my head. As much pain as it caused me, I had to admit, things just didn’t add up. His stories did not make sense. There were too many excuses.

When I returned, there were 15 calls from him on my voice mail! He told me his divorce and medical discharge had finally come through, and we were free to be together! I was so relieved. He came up to see me that night, the night of his daughter’s birthday.

It was the 4th of July. We slept together, but as usual, he couldn’t spend the night. He told me he would bring his daughter up to meet me that Saturday. Well, guess what? He never showed up. Never called.

This time I was furious and very confused. I saw him posting on the reptile site as if nothing happened, and I asked him what was up. “Nothing” he said. “I have no excuse. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I don’t recall the exact verbiage exchanged in our emails. But I remember telling him that was the cruelest way any man ever broken up with me.

“I didn’t break up with you!” he replied. “I just figured you’d never want to see me again!” (Can you spot the gaslighting going on here?) “You’re right,” I replied. “In fact, if I ever see you, hear from you, or even so much as see you posting on the reptile forum, I will call your commanding officer and turn you in for adultery.”

Invincible sociopath

He called my bluff. The next day, I saw him post a picture on the reptile site of one of his new snakes. Seems he had collected ten boa constrictors in two months! This was very irresponsible, especially since he was planning to move. He kept them in his young daughter’s room — again, irresponsible. But the biggest “tell” was that in the picture, taken that day, he was WEARING HIS WEDDING RING! I still believed that he was newly divorced or at least separated. He had never worn a ring with me.

I kept good on my word. I called the Army commander and told him the story.

More to the story

I found out from the commanding officer that they were trying to get him on fraud. They thought he was faking a head injury to get a phony medical discharge. They thought his wife was in on it, too. Apparently, she had divorced him once due to his pathological lying. Then she remarried him.

But they had no evidence. He was faking a limp and a facial tic with the Army. He told them he had no feeling from the waist down and that he couldn’t drive. I considered it my duty as a taxpayer, who paid his salary, to sign a sworn statement that he could drive and do everything a normal person could do. Four of my friends also signed sworn statements, including the guy whose house he helped remodel.

He claimed we were lying, that we were just friends, and insisted he couldn’t walk without a cane. Imagine the Army’s surprise when I sent them pictures of him standing and holding a 75-pound Burmese python at a reptile show, and when I sent them a tape of 25 voice mails he’d left me thanking me for “last night” and telling me he was in love with me.

The sworn statements and the evidence fried him. He ended up getting convicted of fraud and adultery, thanks to my friends and me. I don’t know how he was ever punished. I never saw or heard from him again. He did try to return to the reptile site a year later, but my friends drove him off by exposing him. During his trial, his platoon sergeant who was very sympathetic to me because she’d once been conned by a sociopath called me and told me he was threatening suicide. She asked me if I still wanted to go through with the sworn statements. Darn straight I did. I knew all about the pity ploy by that time. Classic sociopathic behavior.

Post-relationship confusion

Still not fathoming what was happening — and still hoping against hope that he loved me, I had one of my long distance forum friends call him. She introduced herself and asked him why he was wearing a wedding ring in the picture. She 3-wayed me in so I could listen. Without skipping a beat, he said, “Oh that’s not a wedding ring.” Then he proceeded to give her the whole sob story of how he was waiting for his discharge and divorce, how much he cared for me, yada, yada yada. He lied three times in the conversation with my friend. He sounded so sincere that she believed him. That was when I knew there was some sickness deeper than I’d ever seen before. I was crushed and horrified.

The word “sociopath”

Still reeling several weeks later, I told the story to my pet sitter at the end of July. Her eyes got very wide. She told me to google “seductive sociopath.” I did. This brought me to Lovefraud. When I read the description he fit it to a tee. I spent the next several months learning about sociopaths.

Trying to reel me back in

After his discard, for which he never took responsibility, he showed up at a reptile show where he knew I would be. I was there with a male friend. The spath followed me from booth to booth and stood very close to me, trying to smell my hair.

I had bought a snake hook and gave it to my male friend to carry. When the spath sneaked up behind me at one booth, my friend jabbed him in the crotch with the snake hook. He did it twice, and the second time, the hook got caught on spath’s zipper and almost took it down! The spath left shortly thereafter.

I had no idea what had happened. When my friend told me over lunch, I laughed so hard, I spit out my lunch. Of course I wanted to believe that he was following me because he really loved me. But a very wise counselor told me he did it to try to regain power over me. It was a power play. It almost worked. Almost.

A year of depression and recovery

Though I only dated him less than three months, recovery was relatively long and painful. I was suicidal for months. Somehow I found myself at the feet of a traveling Hindu guru who happened to be in town giving blessings one day. I sat before her and sobbed for a long time. She gave me some ashes to put on my tongue every night before I went to bed, which I did. Every time I did, I could feel some of the negativity clearing out of my system. I believe my visit to her saved my life.

5 YEARS LATER

It took a year to break my addiction to the sociopath. But it has taken me close to 5 years to break my relationship addiction. There were a few other men in my life I became very infatuated with, and suffered over greatly when they didn’t return my affection. After going through more pain and more healing, I am finally happy — and happy by myself.

I have had a lot of energy work and done a lot of grieving over my past — distant past as well. Outwardly, I did things for myself, too. First, in 2010, I traveled alone to Costa Rica. This was a life-changing trip in many ways. When I returned, I studied Spanish for a year, then returned to Costa Rica with my new skill. It opened so many doors for me. When in Costa Rica the first time, I watched two salsa dancers and said to myself, “I am going to learn to do that.”

Now, I am a solid intermediate salsa dancer and an assistant teacher in a salsa class. It took two years to get myself into shape. I started doing Zumba (which I still do regularly). Then I got into salsa. I started eating very healthy. I lost 20 lbs. I’m very active now. I finally have the self-confidence and self-knowledge to call myself a healer. I look forward to discovering more ways I can reach out to others in this capacity.

Dating in my 50’s

I am currently dating several men. They are not the best looking, nor the most charismatic. But they all treat me very well, are fun to be around, and have proven to be good friends. I am not in any hurry to get involved with any of them, so I keep it casual and enjoy their friendship. I have not even kissed any of them because this would be serious for me.

It will take a lot to settle me down at this point. I enjoy my freedom and my independence. I no longer feel the need for a man to take care of me. Because I am genuinely happy and do not need anyone to tell me how wonderful I am or take care of me, I no longer attract needy, disordered men. And to come full circle on the topic of this post, this is how I have spath-proofed my life.

I hope my story can help others on this forum. My best regards to all of you.

Stargazer