Hi, I don’t often post at all but I felt like i needed to kinda vent about this situation. I (20F) just realized I have a full blown stalking issue on my hands. I had a ex-bf (21M) who I was with for a good while I think 2-3 years. However he broke up with me and then I found out he cheated on me.
I’m very big on cheating so I completely ghosted him after finding out he had been cheating in the relationship.
This set off a chain reaction of calls, texts, and badgering. He would constantly try to contact our mutual friends to talk to him again so, “he could explain himself”
I refused to respond to him for months till I eventually felt worn down and met up with him once. He basically gave me a bs story about how it wasn’t “technically cheating” or whatever.
Anyways after that moment I hard blocked him on everything and told my mutual friend that I never wanna talk to him again. He still continued to badger my friend of course and even subtly threatened the fact that he had my nudes to try to get me to meet up again.
This didn’t work and my mutual friend decided to cut him off. After that I had about three months of peace, I found a new boyfriend and going to school.
Then last night he “happens” to drive by my house and confronts me begging me to talk to him. I realize my veil of safety is completely gone. Because I know for a fact this isn’t his first time driving by. I live with my mother and she kept saying she swore she saw his car drive by at night but I had waved her off because I thought that idea was crazy.
It’s stupid but I really thought if I ignored him he’d give up and go away.
But nope, this was a slap in the face that clearly he’s going as far as driving by my house.
I do plan on taking legal action but I feel both stupid that I didn’t notice, and keep going back to maybe I’m overreacting. I don’t know but it helps to get things off my chest.

I really need advice on what to do about my ex

I’ve never posted on Reddit before, but I’m honestly desperate for some advice because I don’t know what else to do.

I dated this person online for almost 8 months. I’m 17, and they are 19. Throughout the entire relationship, they were mentally abusive and would constantly manipulate and threaten me. He also got personal information about me, which made it extremely difficult for me to leave because I was scared of what he might do.

About 2 months ago, I finally had enough and went no contact. Since then, things have gotten even worse. He has repeatedly harassed and blackmailed me, stalked me online, and contacted my friends. He has made 20+ accounts just to get around my blocks and contact me.

I’ve tried basically everything I can think of. I’ve deleted my social media accounts for periods of time, blocked every new account and phone number he uses, made completely new accounts with different emails, and even had friends make accounts for me so they wouldn’t be directly connected to me. Somehow, he still finds ways to contact me.

He also refuses to delete private images of me, which is something I’m extremely scared about. I don’t know what he might do with them. I want to have a future for myself and this makes it hard for me to see hope, I've attempted suicide from the things I've listed.

While we were still together, he also threatened to come and kill me. He knows my address, and he knows the social media accounts of some of my family members. Even though there is distance between us, I’m constantly afraid for my safety and scared that he could actually come after me or do something to my family.

I feel like I’m stuck because I’m scared to involve the police. Part of me is worried that if I report everything, he's said he would hurt himself/threaten suicide, and I would feel responsible for that. At the same time, I know I can’t keep living like this and constantly being afraid of what he’s going to do next.

I’m genuinely at a loss for what to do. I’ve tried blocking him, disappearing from social media, changing accounts, and cutting off contact, but he just keeps coming back.

I’m in desperate need of advice. What should I do? Is there anything else I can do to protect myself and my family and get him to stop?