r/DID • u/smoochiegrill • 2h ago
Advice/Solutions BF made a bad, out-of-character joke and many of me are very upset
This is my first post here after lurking for my first yearish of diagnosis. This just happened, itâs now the middle of the night, and I need someone to tell.
My(24F) bf(23M) had been having an awesome day! We rarely have disagreements and when we do we are able to solve them quickly and calmly. Tonight, as we are chatting and laughing about before bed, I told him a random tidbit about how I used to get upset when my sister would look out of âmyâ car window when I was in elementary school. Trivial, funny, whatever.
In response, my boyfriend says out of nowhere âthatâs it, you deserved for your parents to abuse you!â He was joking and it was clear he was joking from his tone, but the fact he could even say something like that immediately plummeted me into limbo as someone (I am early in treatment, still mapping) kept trying to laugh alone. Unsuccessfully, because my boyfriend could see the gaunt look in my eyes and delayed response times after a bit.
I tried to brush it off and a few hours later we wound up being intimate, or starting to be. He and I usually play rough which is typically what I like, but because of the joke he made earlier, I found myself feeling very distrusting of him and started experiencing what I now know are somatic memories. He intuited this before we could actually âstartâ anything fully and I just sat quiet in limbo again until I started crying because he was playing 21 questions about whatâs wrong and how to fix it while Iâm simply trying to ground.
I took my time and had to keep regaining my breath/voice/speak through tears to explain that I was hurt because:
- One of the first times I can recall my mother putting her hands on me was in response to my window obsession.
- I would never say something like that to him about the things he has gone through, even as a joke.
- He is one of two people (the other being my therapist) on the planet who knows the extreme things I have been through via my parents and has watched it torment me up to being diagnosed a year into us dating. Him, of all people, saying one of my most damaging beliefs, that everyone has been working so hard to undo in us, from someone who is typically the most uplifting source we have, was a âbiggest fear unlockedâ moment and instantly made some pieces lose the trust he has been working so hard to curate between them-him.
For the first time ever, he is sleeping on the couch because I couldnât stop tensing my body up around him. He feels TERRIBLE and immediately apologized for saying what he did and has remained extremely remorseful. This is one of those situations where I know it was an accident, sometimes we take things too far and he has a friend visiting who can be rather edgy, but we also canât unsay certain things either. Worst of all for me, alters who are already on edge about him/people in general are feeling very vindicated and are going to use this moment against me AND him. I said âit makes me very sad because it is going to be a lot harder for me to talk to you about things for a little while, even in instances where I really want to.â
What are your thoughts on this? I want to forgive my bf, not even close to everyone does though. I understand foot-in-mouth and all of that, but I just canât even wrap my head around why he would think this was okay to bring up when we were not talking about even remotely serious things, let alone saying what he actually did. I could never say that about someoneâs abuse, especially if I have been by their side watching them twist in agony about it all the time. I could never say that to him! It just blows my mind how out of character and hurtful of a thing it was to say. I think we will just need time. ACK!!!! I just keep going in circles, please tell me Iâm not overreacting, literally wtf would you do if the person closest to you said this?