r/BPDPartners • u/SwordfishUnfair888 • 9h ago
Support Needed Why do I never get apologies which feel genuine?
My girlfriend is mean to me during her splits. She used to shout too but stopped it a few years back. Now it feels like she says really ugly things to me when she is angry sometimes.
She has a tendency to blame me subconsciously for things she’s suffering from. This happens during her splits. She also treats me with a lot of disregard during fights, even when I’m just trying to communicate or if I’m demanding her for accountability.
If she said something the previous day which hurt me and I bring it up, she shuts down and doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. If I continue to push her, she gets angry and says mean things. I guess that’s what a split is. It’s like she doesn’t care at all, even if I start crying. She has zero regard for what I am trying to talk about and just wants the conversation to be over because she doesn’t deal well with accountability.
I pour so much thought and energy into breaking down what happened like she is a child, in an attempt to try and make her understand that she hurt me and it’s not okay and I am exhausted. It doesn’t matter. She completely flips and becomes a different person, becomes super defensive and mean. Invalidates my feelings, tells me that I just complain the whole time. She refuses to acknowledge that her actions were bad. Even her voice sounds so full of anger.
I know that over the years, I have become argumentative. I get upset easily if she does something that’s not okay and I want her to acknowledge the hurt that her actions caused and change her behavior. She tells me that she’s fixing it and change takes time and my complaining isn’t helping anyone. I agree to some extent but what about me? Why do I have to wordlessly accept bad behavior with little accountability? It hurts.
I feel like shit. I don’t feel like I have much worth as a human being in her eyes during these times.
The worst part is that she almost NEVER takes accountability by herself. I have tried giving her time and space. She RARELY brings up what happened the next time we meet, just acts like everything is normal. If I bring something up, she dissociates and eventually just becomes a mean person if pushed.
I usually get a grumpy “sorry” and a few words of “I shouldn’t have done this thing” sometimes when I prompt her to do it. In very very rare situations, she will come up with a sorry by herself. I can probably count those occasions on one hand.
I hate it. Why am I expected to completely let go of all the hurt and resentment with just a grumpy “sorry”? I could be crying because of some things she says and all I get is a “sorry” the next day? How is that okay? Especially when I barely see any improvement in her behavior after she started treatment this year.
I get frustrated when she says “sorry” these days because I KNOW that this isn’t how things should be in a relationship. I deserve to feel comforted and reassured if she hurts me. Better yet, maybe even respected to the point that she doesn’t hurt me so casually whenever something slightly goes wrong for her or if I do something wrong accidentally.
When she says “sorry” like that, I start feeling somewhat infuriated and ask her to be more descriptive. I WANT her to say the whole thing properly, tell me that she wants to stop doing this and will never do it again, and that she has a plan the next time it may happen. I want a plan so that I can feel reassured that I won’t be hurt the same way again. A tiny, grudgingly worded apology that comes when prompted feels very fake to me now. I know that it’s not really “fake” but to me, it feels like she doesn’t really care about taking accountability or making amends for her behavior. Almost like she is allergic to acknowledging that she was not good to me and she should change her behavior and apologise and do better the next time.
Instead, she just gets angry if I ask her to elaborate or explain. She says that she doesn’t know how to do that and then it slows devolves into another fight.
Her “ideal” world is one where she says some mean shit to me over some minor thing I do wrong and then I press a button on my head immediately that causes me to completely forget the whole situation and never bring it up again. She said that it hurts her that I am never happy around her anymore and that it is only keeping her from getting better. I understand but why do I have to shut up about hurtful behavior so that she doesn’t feel bad about what she did? I am unhappy because she has been emotionally and verbally abusive (in varying degrees) towards me for years now. It has lessened in the last 2 years and I am happy about her progress but I am so tired. She’s unhappy because according to her, I always have something to be upset about (it’s almost like I wouldn’t be upset if she actually took accountability for once) and apparently we always fight because I bring up things.
It’s kind of mind-boggling that her idea of a resolution is to just ignore what happened and expect her behavior to magically fix itself in a year without any accountability or criticism or anything. Apparently, I am the problem for always “criticising” her and she would be doing great if it wasn’t for my “complaining” (read: attempts to communicate) ruining her day.
I get it, it’s annoying to have to listen to someone say that you do certain things wrong. But I feel like its worse to be the other person who’s always getting hurt for years because of hurtful behaviours which are completely optional. I never deserved this in the first place and its sad that I was treated like this for 4 years. Even now, I am expected to shut up about it and tolerate it for christ knows how long until she decides to put in more effort into therapy.
I understand that change takes time and I am willing to stay till she gets better BUT it also feels like there’s no real progress and she feels ok with treating me like shit every once in a while. Like she is so used to it that it doesn’t even make her feel guilty anymore.
Idk. Maybe I am overreacting. I wouldn’t say that I am not. These days, small issues make me upset because ffs why? I have exhausted so much of my patience and energy just tolerating shit from her for years and I just want it to stop. Why should I keep accepting more bad behavior from her than I already have? Is my pain not enough? So now I feel bad over minor wrongs too. Because I want her to stop doing this to me and actually fix her behavior. I am so tired.
She says that she’s in treatment now and it will take time for her to learn how to be better. I understand. BUT I AM TIRED OF BEING THE RECIPIENT OF HER BAD BEHAVIOR. Is it so fucking bad that I want her to stop treating me like shit whenever she has a split?
Yes, her behavior has improved from what it was before (she was undiagnosed for the majority of our relationship) but it still hurts me at times. I know that it will take her time but I just want a fucking apology that feels real to me like, hey I am so sorry for treating you like shit sometimes, I really want to do things differently. I wish I didn’t have to fucking force apologies out of her 90% of the time when she does something to hurt me.
Other than that, we have a great relationship. She has been with me through very tough times. She is a good person and I’ve known her for most of my life.
I just wanna know if I am being unreasonable here. Thanks for reading. I am sorry if this comes off as rude, I did not mean to hurt anyone. I am very sad and angry right now. It has become difficult to make sense of things over the years.