UPDATED FOR 2024. Editor’s note: Lovefraud received this e-mail from a man who posts as “Drained.’
I guess I have been in a bit of a hole for a while now and have generally been going through a rough time, which in hindsight may have made me ripe for the picking by my sociopathic ex girlfriend.
I had been unhappy in a previous long term relationship (prior to meeting my SP) for a considerable time, my ex partner is an amazing person, however we grew apart and were more suited as friends than lovers. I had been in this relationship for 12 years. My father passed away last year after losing his battle with cancer, which was incredibly hard to watch. I have been battling depression for some time and have a high stress job. I am a VERY empathetic person and prone to stress, suffering insomnia, loss of appetite and digestion problems when stressed. After my Dad died, my long term relationship was very strained and I had a mini melt down feeling unsupported by my partner, who was also badly affected by my Dad’s passing. I had great difficulty coping with life at this time and my partner and I separated for a period.
I decided to take off overseas for a holiday to get away from everything. I never thought I would cheat on my partner but I did while I was on holiday, and I now feel terrible about the hurt it caused. I guess it was my gutless way of ending the unhappy relationship as I let myself get caught. This resulted in me being the bad guy, which I accepted and having to move out leaving most of the possessions we had accumulated together with my ex partner and getting a small place on my own.
Big mistake, the loneliness was almost too much to bear. I have friends who were great to me during this time but they all had their own lives and were busy with partners and children. At the end of the day I would always go back to my small flat and watch TV feeling sooooo alone. This went on for a couple of months — and then a sociopath entered my life.
Girl from Germany
I met a truly unique person who was visiting my country (New Zealand) from Germany on a work exchange. From the very first moment I met her, I knew there was something different about her. She was young, beautiful, intelligent and seemed to ooze energy and sex appeal. Of course, she seemed extra sexy being from Germany in my part of the world. I didn’t really rate my chances from the outset, having relatively low self esteem, but was excited when I learnt we would be working together. Can’t hurt to have a hot chick around for a bit right — wrong!
At first I don’t think I really liked her apart from her appearance. She had a hot young body and I was drawn to her eyes, big eyes and the most amazing blue/grey colour. She was incredibly photogenic and could instantly pull off an expression that would give a model a run for her money. She had what I thought at the time was an amazing smile and seductive eyes. I thought, however, she was over opinionated and a bit of a ‘spoilt brat.’ She could talk almost nonstop about herself.
People in my work were bending over backwards to accommodate her and ensure she had an amazing time, seeing more of the organisation and having more opportunities in a few weeks than I had in over 8 years. But I reasoned she was a guest from another country, and a young attractive female in a male dominated profession, so I could understand it.
The beginning
After she had been around my work group about a week, I asked if she would like to accompany several of us who were going to see a movie the following day. She jumped at the chance. I felt at this stage I was just trying to be nice and include her. The following day she made out she forgot her cash card, so a friend of mine paid for her movie ticket under the agreement that she would pay him back later (she never did) from there we went out for dinner, still not having any money another friend offered to pay for her meal, after some tooing and froing, she reluctantly accepted (and never paid him back either). I thought it was really rude of her to turn up with no money and was sure I wasn’t going to pay for her (I would pay later though!).
A few nights later a small group of us went out for drinks and she came along. That was the night I started to fall for her. She was flirting and it ended up with three of us still at the bar, the third person being a male workmate of mine. I think now she was playing us off against each other. He was keen on her and had been spending a lot of time with her. She was flirting with me and he wanted her to leave with him as they had been travelling to and from work together as ‘friends.’ I tried to encourage her to stay out with me, but she decided to leave with my colleague (to go to the place she was staying) but not before giving me her cell phone number, without me even having to ask. A friend of mine whose wife was present earlier in the night later told her husband how obvious it was that my SP liked me and asked him if there was anything going on between us.
So we started sending each other SMS messages. She left to go to another city for the weekend and experience more of my organisation and the SMS messages went back and forth. I asked her if she would like to do something when she got back into town. She stated she would and asked me out as she was driving 700 kms back to my city. I told her we could do something the following day as she would be very tired but she was keen to go out that night, being due back at about midnight! I thought that was very keen, now I see it as impulsive. So as she sped back to my city she would message me and I got ready to meet her.
Pity play
Next thing we were in a bar and I was buying drinks. She straight away opened up to me about problems she was having within my organisation, wanting pity from me. There had been an incident where she had started kissing a guy in another work group when the group had gone out together for drinks and one of the females had complained that she thought the behaviour was inappropriate. A manager had spoken to her regarding it and she didn’t like what he had to say. She was very open with me, I thought, and instead of seeing it as a red flag I thought she was just very honest and sensitive, she justified her behaviour by saying she was lonely and that there was nothing wrong with what two single people did outside of work, and I thought, well that is true.
So I tried to console her and make her feel better about herself — next thing we were going back to my place. It was all very whirlwind. Now I am a red blooded male, and she was, I thought, an incredibly attractive female, but I wasn’t going to assume anything so offered her my bed and said I would take the couch. She wouldn’t hear of it and we ended up in bed together. Things got hot and heavy and then she told me that she couldn’t go any further as she didn’t know me that well. I thought at the time it was kind of presumptuous, as I never said I wanted to sleep with her on the first date, but fell into the role of the macho male and said I understood.
Two weeks
She had two weeks left in my country at that stage, and what a two weeks it was. She spent the majority of it at my place being very well looked after, if I do say so myself (meals brought or cooked for her, gifts, being waited on in bed, using my car, everything being paid for as she explained she did not have much money). The sex was great, I couldn’t believe that after all my bad times of the past few years this amazing young woman had crashed into my life. I am slightly religious and believe in fate and really thought things had picked up for me at last.
Within a week I had fallen in love and told her I was falling for her. I introduced her to my mother, being my only close family in my city. I wanted to keep our relationship private to keep her reputation at work intact, but she was keen for people to know, making it obvious by dropping my house keys in front of my workmates after I had discretely handed them to her when she wanted to go home early. Well, I didn’t mind, I was proud I was with her but now I see it differently.
I was already dreading her leaving and would get down when I thought about it, she would tell me to cheer up and live in the moment, make the most of our time together. I tried but I told her how much she had come to mean to me already and how much I was going to miss her. She would look in shops when we were out together and I would buy her things she liked. I spent a lot on her; she would throw up token protest but took it all. She would insist on buying the odd small item for herself saying she didn’t want me to spend all my money on her.
I recall one of the odd comments she made when we drove past an older gentleman in a nice new BMW, “Nice car! I should go and be with him but not sleep with him and get all his money for us, eh?” I looked at her with a strange expression, thinking where did that come from, and she laughed.
Figured out
She had me figured out within days, if not sooner. She knew exactly what I wanted and would ask me all sorts of probing questions at odd times. She wanted to know if I believed in God, I told her I did but didn’t go to church, but considered myself Christian. She mirrored this.
She wanted to know all about my previous relationships, she insisted I go through each of them and outline what went wrong. She quickly established most of my earlier relationships had not gone well and stated she struggled with my 12 year relationship. I told her I had been unhappy for some time, and she said she couldn’t understand why I would stay with someone if I was unhappy. I tried to explain that we were still close and had both invested a lot in the relationship, so I had tried to make it work. She wanted to be assured that I was with her because of who she was not simply because I didn’t want to be alone and all those sorts of things.
I think now she was brainwashing me in a way, because in the back of my mind I knew it was too soon to get into a serious relationship for me but I had a shot with this unique amazing girl and I honestly thought I would be a fool not to pursue it. Pursue it I did — to my detriment!
Sex life
She is 12 years younger than I am but she was obviously smart and would often point out her father was about the same amount older than her mother and to look how happy they were together. This was, of course, appealing to the fact I was looking for a long and serious relationship, which she had established.
She once asked about my sex life, wanting to know if I had done it in a car, however, I made it clear that I didn’t like talking about that and didn’t want her to tell me about her past, that had been a source of hurt for me in the past with my ex who was more experienced than I was. I am not a prude but feel it is hurtful to throw what you have done with others in the face of the person you are with, and serves no purpose, so I would rather not discuss it. She tailored herself to mirror me stating she had only had four boyfriends (which I later found to be a lie).
She was openly attracted to one of my supervisors at work and made no effort to conceal this. I am not the jealous type, he was married anyway and I knew she was young so I never reacted, but she progressively shoved it in my face more and more as time passed. She would blatantly flirt with him to the point he was uncomfortable. I figured she had a crush on him but knew it couldn’t go anywhere and figured maybe she was trying to figure if I was the jealous type. I let it slide.
She’s going home
The time went by and it was nearly time for her to go home, but she told me she would be back at the end of the year for a holiday. I asked if she was my girlfriend, she sad yes. I felt happy and didn’t know how but hoped we could have a real relationship. One day she commented that she would really like to move to New Zealand, get a job in my organisation, for us to get married and raise little ones. I couldn’t hide the delight in my face and kissed her, I knew it was a pipe dream but it was just what I wanted to hear.
The time came for her to leave and I was devastated, it would be three months until her planned return. I had her e-mail and all her phone numbers and vowed to write and call. She explained how busy she was going to be as she had exams to study for, so she might not be able to e-mail me back as much. I told her that was fine and in reality at that stage I was going to accept whatever I could get of a relationship with her, no matter how out of balance it was and would turn out to be. I was in love, more intensely than I had ever been in my life.
I overlooked the odd outburst she had during those two weeks as cultural differences or the fact she was under a lot of stress. But she did have a temper on her that is for sure!
I was getting teary eyed at the thought of her leaving fairly regularly the closer it came to time for her to leave. She never did the same. I told her at the airport as I hugged her goodbye that I loved her, and I meant it. I had fallen head over heels in love in two weeks! To someone who has never met a sociopath I know that sounds stupid but I was in love.
She knew she had me wrapped around her little finger from that point forward (well actually a lot sooner than that).
Long distance
So the long distance relationship started. She would SMS and call regularly, and I craved hearing from her so much. My whole world was put on hold; I lived to hear from her. We would SMS back and forth and she would call early on but quickly told me how expensive it was for her to call, it was apparently about a quarter of the price for me to call her cell phone than the other way around, so that became the norm.
I would write long e-mails getting the occasional brief reply. After a while I sent a bunch of flowers and a teddy bear to her home, she said she loved them but quickly let me know her favourite type of flowers by posting me an internet link. She sent a photo of her with the flowers. I tried again a few weeks later making sure to order the right ones this time — no photos this time.
Her SMS messages stopped abruptly but she explained her phone bill had been massive and she had to cut back. I continued to SMS her. She stopped sending e-mails at all, I continued to e-mail, happily at first then feeling that it was not fair. She would explain that she just didn’t have time with all her study and would rather use it talking, which we did regularly but she asked me several times to continue e-mailing as she loved to get them. I told her I would love to hear from her occasionally too, but she didn’t budge and the e-mails and SMS went fully one way.
It took her a while to agree to my friend request on Facebook and she only did so on the proviso that I not post any personal things on there, i.e., nothing indicating we were a couple, saying she didn’t like to live publicly. I thought that was fair enough at the time but I now I realise she didn’t want to appear in a relationship with me so she could carry on a different life with others.
Missing her
She sent me a card telling me she was so happy she had found me, and how she thought of me and missed me every day, this took pride of place on my dresser, but I now realise it was a complete lie. She lead such a busy life, with sports, study, partying (she still had time to do that) and I felt so boring by comparison, all I did was miss her CONSTANTLY.
One day on the phone she called me lazy, which really hurt. She tried to take it back by saying she was joking, but she wasn’t. I tried to explain that I had done my study and passed my exams and now did shiftwork in a stressful job and had been suffering poor health recently so didn’t have the energy she did, but received zero sympathy/empathy and NO apology.
Then she asked me for a big favour. She had to write a lengthy essay as part of her studies for her job, she gave me a sob story about how much stress she was under and how much she had on her plate with sports commitments and other study for exams and how being in New Zealand had set her back behind her classmates. I could see where it was going and I really hoped she didn’t ask me, but she did. “You know you studied (the same subject at university) could you find an old essay I could use or could you write it for me?” I told her I didn’t feel comfortable and she could get into trouble and it would be better for her to do it, but she begged and joked about what she would do to repay me in bed. I ended up reluctantly agreeing, knowing I was being used and doing it anyway.
It took me hours and hours of my spare time and it really stressed me out having it hanging over me, but I got it done. I sent a draft off to her and told her it needed proof reading but that I had done all I could, she critiqued the formatting and then slipped in a ‘but it’s good’ and that was as close to a thank you as I ever got.
Our phone calls turned into me listening to her problems and trying to offer support and then being berated for not having enough to say about my life. Talk or else I’m hanging up didn’t work for me.
Christmas
I spent hundreds of dollars on phone calls and SMS messages. I sent her a beautful Christmas present. She asked me if I had sent anything and I told her I might have. She explained that she didn’t have time with the exams and the partying that followed. She said she really wanted to put some thought into my gift and so didn’t send anything. She later told me she had sent a card but turned out it was way too late and didn’t reach me until 2 weeks after Christmas; it contained a very inexpensive leather bracelet and necklace with her initial on, but it was the thought that counts, right?
One day she called and matter of factly told me she wouldn’t be able to come over in December as she wasn’t going to get enough holidays so it wouldn’t be worthwhile. She told me to think logically. I was shattered. I had been suffering every day, missing her so badly, to now find out she wasn’t coming and she didn’t even seem upset. I had been counting the days down. This sent me into a tailspin; I had to be with her at all costs.
Ticket to Germany
I booked a one way ticket to Germany after telling her this was what I was going to do. I wasn’t met with enthusiasm. I enquired about talking two years leave without pay from my job and submitted an application within the next few days. I figured I could support us using my superannuation money. I talked it over with her and she was resistant from the outset, she told me it was too drastic and that we had only known each other for two weeks, she told me this over and over. It really hurt because I was so in love and she was playing down our relationship.
I spent considerable time and effort trying to convince her I was happy to do it because I wanted to be with her. As it pans out I couldn’t get two years approved from work, one year was the maximum. She would constantly tell me that was too long and meant giving up too much. This made me more determined, I would have done anything to be with who I thought was the love of my life. She said she wanted to date like normal people but obviously this wasn’t an option with 22,000 miles separating us.
In the end I had to settle for five months off work due to great difficulty with trying to get a visa for Germany. This meant my plans of two years with this ‘wonderful’ woman in Germany were cut back to three months; nothing was going my way. She kept throwing up reasons why it wouldn’t work and two weeks before I was due to leave suggested I cancel my leave without pay and just come over for a holiday after I had made numerous enquiries with work and had all the paperwork submitted for five months off.
One week before I left she told me over the phone that she had made up her mind that she would not leave Germany in the next five years and wanted to be with her family and friends and focus on her career. I didn’t know what to think, I thought I was going over to continue a relationship, I didn’t have any guarantees from her but thought we could see how it played out, given she loved New Zealand so much and had previously stated several times she was keen to settle there. I didn’t know what to think and was shattered.
I talked to my friends who assured me all would be well and to just get over there, have a hug, sit down over a coffee and things would settle down and we would pick up where we left off.
Cool reception
I had a hell of a stressful time moving out of my flat and sorting everything before I left. I received zero empathy from her over the phone and zero enthusiasm about me coming over for the few days before I left.
When I arrived in Germany I was emotionally drained but had no idea what was come next.
She hugged me at the airport and held me in a way I could not hug her back, trapping my arms. I tried to kiss her, which she shrugged off.
I was so happy to see her, but something was different. I put it down to not having seen each other for several months. She had to drive considerable distance to pick me up from the airport. I offered to pay for her petrol as she pulled into a garage, which she took.
We arrived her place and I got into bed with her, she said goodnight rolled over and went to sleep (literally). I now know sociopaths can fall asleep and wake almost instantly, which is her to a T. She never liked to hug or cuddle, she liked her space in bed. She was tucked up in a separate blanket and I tried to sleep. During the night I tried to cuddle her and touched her backside, she woke instantly and told me that she needed time rattling off a prepared speech. I told her I understood and apologised.
Within a couple of days she explained that because she couldn’t see things going anywhere anymore we shouldn’t kiss or have any intimate contact, as it would stir up intense feelings and make it all the harder when the time came to go our separate ways. She said it would be like a one night stand if we slept together because she knew it was going to come to an end. I was blown away. I told her that she should have told me that before I came. For all intents and purposes we were basically just friends now who shared a bed. It was too much for me and I told her I couldn’t stay under that arrangement. She said so it’s all or nothing then? She called my bluff but I couldn’t bring myself to leave, and where the hell was I going to go?
Her rules
So I stayed on, playing completely by her rules. Of course it sounds like I am just a pushy male wanting sex, but it wasn’t like that, I can tell you. I loved this girl, or at least who I thought she was, and it was torture to go from what I thought we had to not even be allowed to kiss her! She wouldn’t cuddle or show me any affection. I didn’t understand what the hell was going on. As time passed she would occasionally kiss me, get me aroused and then leave me to suffer. She would let me pleasure her but only in ways that did not allow me any pleasure and then would not return the favour. I did this several times, while she was studying in bed. Once she was finished she would push me aside saying she had to study now.
I was incredibly frustrated and I’m sure she got off on that fact.
Here I was in a strange country, not having done much travel. She took me out one time to a spa, which was fun. The other outings were to the gym once and shopping once. One time her parents asked us out for lunch. In nearly two weeks that was it. The rest of the time I was in her room waiting for her to come home. She didn’t have a spare key for me so I could only really go out when she leant me her key, which she only did twice. She never offered me any drawers or cupboard space, despite having some spare. Instead I lived out of my pack on the floor.
Her move
I should mention that the unfortunate timing of my arrival coincided with her moving out and she was very keen on me helping her move and paint the inside of the flat she had been renting. The moving started within days of my arrival, my job was packing and carrying items to the car and into the basement of her new place. The main move and painting is to occur this coming weekend. After this she has a two week holiday and was keen for us to go to Egypt for a holiday, she recently (before I left for Germany) advised she no longer has the money for this holiday due to buying her new apartment. Of course, muggins me offered to pay, telling her how much she needed a break from her stressful life she is always complaining about. After this two weeks off she is due to start work proper, which I was recently told consists of a five week residential course in another city.
So her revised plan is for me to arrive, us have no sexual contact or only one way sexual contact, help her shift, paint her flat, take her on holiday then disappear and her to start work. My sister lives in Italy and I had planned to see her after 3 months in Germany but SP suggested I do this after the holiday.
I paid
As you can imagine I was a bit confused about everything. She took money from me to pay for the groceries, which is fair enough, however she paid for almost nothing in New Zealand. She paid for my lunch when we went out with her parents but only grudgingly and I was to pay her back. I went to the ATM however it only gave me a 50 euro note, lunch was 12.50. I told her I would pay her when I had some change, she later had a dig at me about this. I had literally spent hundreds of dollars on her on gifts and meals. I couldn’t believe it.
Everything is someone else’s fault. She took me to a shopping mall one night under the pretence of doing it for me but she wanted to go to a couple of shops, which is the real reason. She drives like a maniac, I was constantly telling her to slow down but she is proud of it. So she goes racing down a street and a speed camera goes off! Whose fault is it? Mine, she had study to do, but felt obliged to take me out and was speeding so we would have as much time as possible together at the mall. I tried to talk with her and tell her I was worried about her and she needed to slow down in life! She got angry, looked right through me and told me she didn’t need to be lectured. I tried to hug her and she pushed me away.
Another day I wrote her a lengthy heartfelt letter outlining how I felt about her, how much I loved her and even (regrettably now) how I thought she would be an excellent mother (not anymore) and how proud I would be for her to be the mother of my children. She read it and didn’t say a word to me about it. Later on she said, “I read it,” and that was it. Zero emotion.
Waiting on her
Then there was all the waiting on her I was expected to do. She would give me chore after chore, fill her hot water bottle, make her a cup of tea, get this, do that, massage her. I told her she was a spoilt brat and should have been smacked when she was a child. She didn’t like this.
One night I stood up to her. I had asked if she wanted a cup of tea before I turned in. She said no. She was studying in bed and I was dozing off to sleep, she asked me to make her a cup of tea. I refused — did that get interesting. She initially started pleading, you said you would make me one before — I told her I was tired and trying to sleep and to make it herself. She lost the plot, she started to hit me around the ribs, not overly hard but enough to be annoying, I told her to leave me alone and make it herself, she wouldn’t give up; she kept at me, it started to get scary. She couldn’t handle hearing no. When I flat out refused she told me to get out of her bed and sleep on the floor — she was serious too. I told her I wasn’t going to do that and pointed out that I was not a dog. She scoffed, ‘a dog that gets taken out for lunch!’ Then she made comment about the 50 euro note sarcastically, I asked her if she wanted 50 euro for lunch? She said no.
Other guys
Another night she went out drinking with her classmates to celebrate completing her course and didn’t come home, making up a plausible story. I couldn’t sleep all that night and was churning everything over. I am not proud of it but I did some snooping and found pictures of ex boyfriends on her laptop, some in bed together, like trophies. We all have exes, but it was weird seeing her with different guys, like we were interchangeable.
I also found her ‘list’ and was horrified to find I shared something in common with 16 other guys. Bit different to the four boyfriends she told me about. Many only had first names listed, and where they were from. I’m assuming that is because she didn’t know the surnames of those ones and the locations were to help her remember. I am not overly judgmental and have had a conservative number (much less) of partners, but given how much younger than I am she is, I felt quite sick. And to think she had told me how having sex with a guy who was in love with her and respected her (me) would have been ‘like a one night stand’, what a load of crap.
She was so inconsistent. When I told her about a friend of mine who was getting divorced, she asked how long they had been together and then commented, that’s the problem with New Zealanders, they get married too young with the first person they go out with. Other times she would say (in defence of not wanting to sleep with me) that she wanted a boyfriend for life not someone that was going to leave after a few months.
I spent the night reading on the net about my situation and one thing lead to another before I stumbled across a site about sociopaths, since then I have spent dozens of hours reading on the subject and feel that she displays 80-90 per cent of the characteristics commonly listed or attributed to a sociopaths.
Party
We had a big argument the following day; she had arranged for tickets to a party for us that night. She got a little annoyed with me but didn’t show much in the way of emotion. I told her a lot of what she had done that hurt me. I told her our relationship wasn’t fair and all she did was take take take. She told me that was just the way she was. She had told me previously that she couldn’t tell me she loved me, which had the effect of making me want to do more for her, to show her how much I loved her.
After showing zero empathy she went about fixing her make up and getting dressed for the party. I couldn’t believe it! Nothing was going to stop her going, she admired herself in the mirror as I lay in bed watching her, dumb struck. The she asked me to drop her off so she could drink!!! Which I was stupid enough to do!!!!! She came home at 5 am and turned that around, when I asked if she had a good time, it was ‘no, I was drinking to take my mind of us, I’m sooo stressed out.’ Then instantly off to sleep!
Sociopathic traits
Some of the most stand out traits for me were her eyes, when I was upset and talking with her she would ‘scan’ me, her eyes empty and wide, taking it all in, in a cold kind of way, hard to describe but very eerie. I have heard others comment on this also. The fake smile that at first I thought was beautiful, but now think of as a ‘Cheshire cat’ smile, all teeth but the eyes are not smiling. Even when crying the eyes DON’T ring true. The tears are streaming but the eyes look fake.
She is intelligent and sooo manipulative. She would ask me specifically what certain facial expressions I would make meant. Sounds mean, but it was like she was an alien trying to learn all she could about humans. I read about the eyes darting side to side when scamming, I noticed this too when she was pouring her heart and soul out to me! The baby speak she would do when referring to her Mum and Dad, pointing to them and saying ‘Mamma, Dadda’ in a truly infant like voice.
Her sense of entitlement was amazing; the world owed her everything. She had no empathy and couldn’t relate to my pain at losing my Dad. When I told her I felt sorry for my Mum, as several of her friends passed away in close succession recently, I was met by, ‘well that’s the age she is getting to.’ She is promiscuous, carrying a condom in her wallet despite being in a ‘relationship’ with me. The falling asleep almost instantly no matter how stressed I was from some of our interactions. The thrill seeker in her, bungy jumping, sky diving, drawn to high risk behaviour and occupation. The absolute control freak in her. The charm and sex appeal oozed from her and she had all the guys at work eating out of her hand. She is so preoccupied with money, and material things, clothes, jewelry, I watched her in shops, her face lit up as she ran around the store in an almost manic state. I joked to her she was like a magpie surrounded by shiny objects.
Getting out
My sister was my lifeline to sanity and talked me into getting out. I packed my bag one morning when she was out and left a note before taking off to another city. This was after one and a half weeks with her in Germany. I had to leave before the weekend as I was determined not to do all the moving and painting chores she had lined up for me. I tried to salvage the little shred of self respect I had left.
Now I am trying to kill time while staying sane before I can get to see my sister in another country and have some support. I feel like I am going crazy and in a sick way I miss my SP, she sent me one SMS when she found out I had left asking me to call, pretending she wanted to know I was safe, but I know the truth now, she never cared for me at all — only what I could do for her.
I still check my phone to see if she has called or messaged me. I can’t eat and have lost a lot of weight and have difficulty sleeping, I feel so unwell and alone and all that after a grand total of three and a half weeks of being in the same countries (with four months of long distance relationship in the middle). I can’t imagine what it would be like to marry or have children with a sociopath.
I guess on the plus side I am lucky to have found out when I did, but I am still hurting so badly 🙁 I have to find out how to undo the damage she has done to me. I now have five months before I am guaranteed my job back and have nowhere to live when I return home, and to think I wanted to sell my car and take two years off work all for a dream girl who never even really existed!!!
I really feel like my soul has been attacked by this person. I read the term emotional vampires and I think it quite apt. I will never be able to trust people the same way again, ever. I know that if I would have read my story before I met her, I would not have thought this could have happened to me. It is also easy to look back with hindsight, but when you are the target a sociopath, who basically morphs into your ideal mate, it is a very powerful and seductive process, watch out! I wouldn’t wish this experience on my worst enemy. I feel for all the others who have had their lives rocked by a sociopath. Interestingly, I don’t feel anger towards her, I truly now think she is ill but somehow it doesn’t help me. I want the woman I fell in love with back so badly but I know that is impossible.
Drained
Learn more: Sociopathic seduction — How you got hooked and why you stayed
Lovefraud originally posted this story on Feb. 5, 2011.
Hi Silvermoon,
you don’t have to muster goodwill, yes I definately saw warning signs. And to set the record straight she did encourage me, right from telling me how she could see herself moving to NZ, us getting married and having ‘little ones’, to at the airport as I held her before she left to ‘never forget how I felt right then’ to calling me from airports on the way home saying that she had put of lot thought into it and that she wanted a relationship with me. Talking about her plans to move to NZ to be with me. Talking to me me for hours each day a lot of things were said and there was a lot of encouraging in amongst that. Calling me and telling me how much she missed me in the middle of the night and telling me to come over. As for the occasions I mentioned where she was less than encouraging, I put a lot of that down to reverse psychology, she is a VERY strong willled person and would never go along with something she did not want, she manipulated me and had me going down the path she wanted for me, if not she would have used her ability to manipulate me into the direction she wanted or simply told me to ‘f off’ without any hesitation and cut any contact, I have no doubt about that. Sociopaths are very good when it comes to psychology, planting a seed in someones head early on, then putting forward some of the rational arguments against following them so the ‘victim/other parties’ argues against them cements the ideas in that persons head. They end up arguing against their own voice of reason.
Leading someone down the garden path for months and then telling them one week before they leave their country after having given up their home and stored their possessions, arranged time off work without pay, invested a hell of a lot of energy and money into a ‘relationship’ that you have flat out changed your mind and deciding all of a sudden you now absolutely wont be leaving your country in the next 5 years is probably a little bit late and unfair on the other party, despite the fact ‘their train was rolling’.
Yes I am grateful I got when I did. I have to learn to accept my part in the pain that I have felt as I alluded to in my recent post, I understand that I played a role in my own situation and yes I did ignore some red flags, which are a lot clearer with hindsight. The reason i shared my story was that I was incredibly hurt and in a bad space was it was to try and help me heal and hopefully help some others along the way.
With all due respect your initial comments don’t really help me, but thanks for your input all the same and I will check out Eckhardt Tolle.
Thanks for your post Ox Drover, I am greatful I have the intellectual grasp I have on what has happened that you talk about. I have been told I am very psychologically aware. It’s just the massive gap between what I think and how I feel that I am having trouble reconciling, but I am sure it will come right with time. Thanks for the support.
“I know my friends are thinking, well it was a fling, didn’t work out, get over it”. What’s wrong with this guy? I was conned into thinking it was something so much more and that relationship, the connection she pretended we had was so very important to me while all the time it meant nothing to her.”
Unless somebody has had contact with the a sociopath, they cannot understand how deeply a relationship with a sociopath can affect somebody, even a short-term one.
Sociopaths could not be better skilled at hooking people if they obtained a PhD in manipulation.
Each of their tactics alone, from mirroring and flattery to pity plays and “intermittent reward” is highly effective at hooking people. Sociopaths use them all, often simultaneously.
In one week, I went from thinking I found a soulmate to being dumped.
Even less than that. I was dumped on a Saturday. The Tuesday before I sent him a text message because I was feeling vulnerable yet he re-assured me everything was OK and that he was very much looking forward to seeing me.
Yet four days later he was gone. I believe I was dumped because I was close to unmasking him, as later on I discovered an online profile of his that strongly indicated he was HIV+, without explicitly saying so. Other evidence, including his “rough around the edges” look confirms this, but he never actually stated such.
Thus even after the fact, their lies and manipulations cause continued rumination.
Sociopaths are emotional vampires. There is only one way to deal with a vampire. Not matter how charming, not matter how seductive, not matter how flattering, you must accept that they are a vampire, then close your eyes and put a stake into their heart.
That stake is no contact. First, you need to accept that they are a sociopath.
a silver bullet in the heart works better….
Erin, Thanks chica. The mass was a bit larger than originally anticipated. Results of biopsy tomorrow. The procedure, other than the initial needle stick, was the only painful part. The rest was a breeze. I got a great doc!
Sky- I prefer not to call on others here, via private means, to assist others on the blog. Questy will eventually see this and I’m sure will post.
drained- Something I see here often, and that can feel somewhat discouraging early in the process, is when others here encourage you to look inward, rather than ruminate. I can tell you that obsessing is part of the process. It’s your minds way of trying to make sense of nonsense. ALL of us here have done it. It DOES eventually become about us. But this is kind of a slippery slope I think. When I read the blog, I have to be VERY careful and kind to myself about my process because it feels to me, at times, that I’m being pushed to stop ruminating and to hurry up and look inside. In other words, this is NOT an overnight process, Drained. It TAKES TIME…..what I’ve discovered in the early part of this process (to which I’m experiencing now), is that it’s necessary to obsess for awhile, because as you do, a transition happens…..an ever so slight switch happens…..from “he/she is so evil!!” (VERY VALID)< to "What the hell happened that I allowed this???" Give yourself the gift of No contact and obsess as much as you need too, keep reading here, understand more about spaths, read posts…..and eventually the switch WILL happen. You can also read books, etc.
I recall MANY times in my life when I knew friends that were in abusive relationshits and would ruminate, worry, obsess, cry, get angry, leave go back, leave, go back ….and I would be SO frustrated with them that I'd leave them in the dust (nevermind that I was doing the same thing, but it's so much easier to give advice to others rather than take it, or forget what it is to BE THERE), and guess what? Eventually, quite a few DID leave. I often wonder if I knew then what I know NOW about spaths (more than one friend I'm sure was involved with one), if I would not have stuck around and shared about spathy behavior or led them to read about it, that a light may or may not have gone off in their heads…..
Don't beat yourself up about your process. I believe you'll get there because you're seeing some light about your responsibility in it all, but when it's early, it can feel like shit when you're still obsessing about the person. A spath spends all of the relationshit blaming YOU for everything. When you're obsessing and told YOUR responsibility in the part of the relationshit, it can feel like more blame. Be very careful about taking that part of it on yourself too early. You have every right to be pissed off at this woman and you SHOULD be. I'd worry if you WEREN'T. It can take a LONG time to get past all of obsessing…and start to focus on yourself but as with everyone else here that DOES come with time, when you're mind is ready to accept that responsibility.; What happened WAS NOT your fault. No matter the reasons right now for your vulnerability, you were TAKEN. PERIOD. The reasons for that come later. This is what makes these people so evil. They target our vulnerabilities. They take innocence and attempt to DESTROY it. What will happen from here on out, is that if you remain NC, obsessing away, dealing with that part, the rest of YOUR responsibility WILL come.
I can give you a good analogy, even though you're a guy, hopefully it'll give you some understanding as to where others on this board are coming from, as wise as they are…..childbirth was THE most painful experience of my life. But once the pain is over and the child is born, the pain is forgotten. Only now do I have dim memories of that pain. I can tell a new mother to be what the pain might be like for HER and how to deal with it, show love and compassion to her about the process, but she is the one that will have to deal with it on her own and every labor is different. So what I can offer is compassion to her as she goes through the process, remembering, even if dimly, what the pain was like and that it WILL PASS. I KNOW that, but SHE doesn't, frightened of what the FUTURE will be during labor.
That's kind of how it is early on in this process too. A lot of people here have walked the road already. As you read the posts you see that everyone is in a different place of process. It can feel very discouraging early on. I think it's critical to feel what you feel and let it pass. Be angry, ruminate, obsess….because ultimately it leads you to YOU! You'll start uncovering things about yourself while you obsess….but AGAIN, remember the process can be a very slow one, because you're sorting through a whole bunch of garbage and this experience is DEEPLY painful…..
I wish you well on your healing journey. I think you can do it. You'll see, I think, as time goes on, that this will be a gift to you.
LL
Renewed Hope – if you are still reading, this is for you.
We hit milestones in our healing that stump us and stop us, and often we need to work up a good snit to break through and accept the truth that is struggling to come to the fore. At those times, lf posters can look like real jerks – as we project our frustration with the process on to them. I think you may be at one of those milestones.
I have seen AMAZING breakthroughs in the people who stick around and argue their points when they get stuck. We all learn something, and the person who sticks it out gains the most. It took me a few months to identify this process happening on lf – but I now consider it to be one of the greatest gifts of the blog.
LL – One down and one to go! Good luck tomorrow!
I empathize and identify with this process of ‘muttering in the dark’ that i see you going through. I am doing it constantly now – overwhelmed, not sure what is affecting me, because things masquerade as other things….and some days all i can do is mutter ALOT. mind you, my muttering is filled with profanity and is often about others, ie ‘effing a**hole, who did…..’ but still – it’s about things being in a jumble. big ball of yarn – i am the damn cat that got wound up in it, and can’t figure out some days how to just stand up and leave it alone! (((best wishes for your results.)))
One,
YOU are absolutely correct!!! You said what I was thinking, but could not verbalize. That is SO TRUE! One of the things this is helping me to do, is to stand up for what I believe….what THAT is, is a new person evolving! Sometimes, I’m not so happy about my own reactions here, and I feel badly for having said/done something I shouldn’t but at other times there is RESOLVE….and the RESOLVE IS ME. Neato!
How’s things in your world one?
Yep, muttering in the dark. More than once effing asshole has rolled off my tongue this last week. THE ANGRY STAGE…then sad, then processing inward, then outward….all OVER the place!!
Ain’t it FUN! Thank GOD for therapy today. I LIVE for it every week. I think that’s SUCH a good sign!
ONe, are you in therapy or have been? If you’ve mentioned this, I’ve missed it??
LL
Hens
Snowed in must be tough on the wieners too. When the weather is good, are they outside often?
I think my wiener is in “Hibernating” mode….
LL
LL Yes they love the outdoors when weather is good. I have a petdoor on my back door and they can go in and out as they want when I am gone. I have a fenced back area around the pool etc. But they prefer to get out the front door and roam the woods, I have 3 acres and they know every inch of it. I have told stories about their antics etc. Crickit got bit by a rattlesnake last summer and about died. She is bad to disappear for hours. They are all three sitting at the window watching the birds at the feeder waiting for Stub to appear then their off like a bullet out the pet door to chase him off. I have a squirrel ( how do u spell squirrell?) with no tail, I call him Stub, he harrasses the wiener’s, I found his tail in my bed one nite, often in the summer I get frogs in my bed..One time they killed a possum and I heard this noise at the back door and it was crickit coming through the pet door backwards trying to bring in her possum, to put in my bed i am sure….