Home→Forums→Relationships→Accidental Catfishing
- This topic has 19 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 10 months ago by Anonymous.
-
AuthorPosts
-
February 17, 2018 at 10:32 am #192921LouiseParticipant
Hi
I did something very stupid the other day.
Basically I was considering going back online to try to date, many of the online dating sites you don’t know the cost until you have joined, so I googled some pictures as did not want to use my own until I committed to a site and made a fake profile purely to see what the sites were like and what the extra cost would be.
I have remained very close friends with my ex and we see each other regularly and I think /thought were very close.
On one of the websites I got a message from my ex , obviously he did not know it was me as the pictures were not mine. He had no clue it was me of this I’m sure.
At this point I should not have replied to him but I guess intrigue took over, we spent a bit of time chatting and somehow the conversation got around to exes, what he said about me has devastated me, he used some pretty disgusting language about me, and said a lot of things about our relationship that have really hurt.
It would have hurt me anyway but the fact that we are still really close friends is what has caused me to feel so devastated and betrayed.
How can i continue a friendship with him now, but at the same time I can’t admit to him why.
I’m so confused and feel like I’ve lost my best friend.
I know I shouldn’t have responded when he messaged me I’ve opened Pandora’s Box.
I also really don’t know how I’m ever going to feel I can date again, this guy got me over my previous relationship insecurities, after my ex fiance before this guy did something very similar on Facebook saying horrible things about me and it just so happened someone I know brought my attention to it.
I feel like it must be a fault with me for two people who apparently love me to talk about me in such horrible ways.
I feel so low and my confidence is shot completely.
February 18, 2018 at 3:13 am #193059LouiseParticipant.
February 18, 2018 at 4:32 am #193069AnonymousGuestDear Louise:
Since you “opened Pandora’s Box”, why not open it a bit more and see what is in it: what did your ex say about you on your fake dating profile and what did your ex finance say about you on Facebook before?
anita
February 18, 2018 at 5:19 am #193079LouiseParticipant- My ex fiance and I were still together and a friend approached me and said my fiance was talking to a mutual friend and saying we had split up already and he was single and said things about our sex life being rubbish and on holiday he did everything he could to be by himself.
- He had previously told people he was single and kept his life quite compartmentalised so could get away with it, yet never get a conversation with me that he wasn’t happy.
- We had only been engaged for 2 months but had been together for 3 years.
The current ex who is on the dating profile and spoke about me said derogatory comments about my body size and how he never was attracted to me at all and he was embarrassed of me (I have to use a wheelchair at times) also it was boring bring with someone who’s unwell also said that we have stayed friends and he could have sex with me anytime he wanted ( he used different words to what I have) but he wouldn’t
Also said he told me he loved me but that it wasn’t true. He also said sexually he wasn’t happy because if my health problems I couldn’t do things he wanted and because it wasn’t very regular because I’m unwell
He said I am lonely so he stays friends with me so I’m not alone and feels sorry for me as I’m ill and my family live 4 hours away and I have no friends.
These are both men in mid 30s, both have young children and good jobs etc, I might have understood this behaviour from teenage boys but not grown men.
And both men knew I was ill before they started a relationship
My confidence is gone. And I feel no more want with my health conditions as it’s pretty obvious both guys had a problem with it both to be with me and sexually.
February 18, 2018 at 5:28 am #193089AnonymousGuestDear Louise:
Then these two men are very rude and indecent people, what a shame! What a shame that the second man was not your best friend, not even a friend. Now you know.
There are decent men out there, not these two.
anita
February 18, 2018 at 5:53 am #193101LouiseParticipantI think I’ve just been pretty unlucky and probably with my confidence being quite low around my illness I feel like no one decent will want me and I’m not enough or not worthy almost.
And I wonder if that is why I have drawn these men to me but I don’t know how to change that.
This is just knocked my confidence even more, because I’m not well I don’t have many friends to support me I can’t work and don’t socialise a huge amount.
I know I need to do some work on myself to have more confidence in myself around my illness and being not wanted but I don’t know where to begin.
February 18, 2018 at 5:57 am #193103ElianaParticipantHi Louise,
I’m facing a similar situation as you. I too have had chronic health problems, one that I have upcoming surgery for on Tuesday. This has put me on Social Security Disability. I lost my Dad when I filed for it, we were very close, he was my only family, who did not turn on me. But he passed in 2008. He helped me out financially. I always tried to pay him back, but he was a Harvard Graduate, very wealthy and successful. Sadly, I did not receive the trust fund he said he set up for me. I was told by his two sons (who never talked to me).. That it was not funded. I find this hard to believe. My father has never lied to me. I had no money, as I was at the time filing for SSDI, I could not even go hold his hand at the hospital in Florida. I did not get a chance to tell him I loved him. I was not invited to his funeral, my family knew I had no money and they abandoned me. I was not invited to the reading of his Will.
The friends I thought were my true friends, stopped calling me after I lost my car and had to move in to housing. I was doing volunteer work for awhile rescuing animals, but the health problems got so bad, I could no longer do that. The friends I made there no longer call me or visit me. I have lost a lot of weight, and people here at housing avoid me or say derogatory things to my face about my weight. The only thing I am able to do now is have weekly phone sessions with my therapist. I know what it is like to feel talked about, betrayed, abandoned, alone, no friends or family. But what I tell myself is “this too shall pass! Satan! Go away! Jesus loves me! I will not let you steal my joy! And somehow, it works. Everything happens for a reason, and that man and the other friend, their comments have nothing to do with you, but coming from sounds from inside them. They are not happy. Hurt people, hurt people. Don’t let these people steal your joy. They are hurting. Next time, if you ever see them, say “instead of feeling sorry for me, feel sorry for yourself instead” and just move right along.
I believe in Karma. One day these very same people will lose their family, maybe their jobs and friends and health, and they too will have no One. God will take care of them to make sure Karma happens. One day, no One will be there for them and they will realise and regret what they said about you. Because if they are saying this about you, chances are, they are spreading gossip about other people as well. Feel sympathy for them, that they have no heart and be so shallow. Look for support groups you can join, with people with similar interests. There are good people out there. Don’t let a few bad eggs spoil the bunch. x
February 18, 2018 at 5:59 am #193107ElianaParticipantTypo above: should read “coming from wounds inside them”
February 18, 2018 at 6:57 am #193129LouiseParticipantElaina
Thank you so much for your words they really help
I’m really sorry you are going through tough times as well.
February 18, 2018 at 7:06 am #193135ElianaParticipantYou’re welcome Louise, please post anytime. x
February 18, 2018 at 7:43 am #193151AnonymousGuestDear Louise:
You wrote that you wonder if you have drawn these men to you. I don’t know if you did, but keeping a disrespectful man in your life is a bad, bad idea. The fact that you suffer from a chronic illness does not mean that you deserve disrespect. You deserve as much respect as any human on the face of this earth.
Whatever happens in your life, whatever your difficulties, once you notice it, do not accept disrespect and mistreatment into your life.
anita
February 18, 2018 at 3:29 pm #193213ĀnandaParticipantFrom the title I thought you meant that a fish had leaped into your boat and you were now facing the quandary of having contributed to the accidental death of a living entity. Thankfully, this does not appear to be the case.
Consider how you’d feel if you were to go to dinner with a person for the first time, someone with whom you had no prior relationship. If this person new to you were, in the course of your conversation, to disparage some person not previously known to you, you might well think that this person is still too attached (although in a negative sense) to that previous partner and is not yet ready to begin a loving relationship with another. Sometimes I have heard such an attachment characterized as “having too much baggage.”
From your letter, Louise, it seems that this is exactly the sort of person your former partner has revealed himself to be. That he has turned out to be of lower character than you formerly esteemed him is certainly a sad thing for you to learn. But it is better to know his true character than to maintain a delusion of enduring friendship. Had he been worthy of you, he would have spoken well about you in the course of that unfortunate conversation and you would have had reason to hope for eventually cultivating a rekindled romance.
You write that you are “still really close friends,” but this is an unrealistic assessment of your situation, because friendship must be reciprocal. Now you have an opportunity to develop your compassion for him, just as you might have compassion for any other suffering being in this world of samsara. The extent of that compassion will, of course, be limited by your knowledge that you cannot fully trust him.
The fact that you have now had a couple of bad experiences with previous partners is sobering. It must be hurtful to hear yourself maligned, whether in a public forum by a bitter person or in the relative anonymity of a private discussion. The fact that two people have levelled criticisms at you does not imply that any of these criticisms are justified. Only you and your real friends can know the truth that. More likely, you have just had the misfortune to encounter two people who did not deserve you.
If after introspection you genuinely uncover a flaw in yourself, do not despair. One saying I like is: “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” Benjamin Franklin identified 13 specific flaws in his own character and resolved to concentrate each day on overcoming just one of these. On the other hand, if introspection reveals the external criticisms to be wholly unjustified and baseless, then you need not dwell on them any longer, since they reveal more about your critics than they do about you.
Everyone seeks happiness, but we do not necessarily know where true happiness is to be found. If you have had two bad relationships within a short time, you might resolve to spend a few years not in dating but in study and self-improvement. The mind always demands engagement. For example, you could learn the international language Esperanto through free lessons at lernu.net or duolingo.com, or seek peace and inspiration in a classic spiritual text. Here’s an example of the latter:
विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिनः। रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते ॥२.५९॥
यततो ह्यपि कौन्तेय पुरुषस्य विपश्िचतः। इन्द्रियाणि प्रमाथीनि हरन्ति प्रसभं मनः ॥२.६०॥viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ
rasa-varjaṁ raso’pyasya paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate
yatato hyapi kaunteya puruṣasya vipaścitaḥ
indriyāṇi pramāthīni haranti prasabhaṁ manaḥ“Though one may restrict the embodied soul from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. Having experienced a taste of the spiritual, one is fixed in consciousness and gives up the taste for the mundane. For the senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a thoughtful person who endeavours to control them.” (Bhagavad-gītā, 2.59-60)
Good luck to you, Louise. You deserve a future better than your past has been, and I am confident that you can succeed in whatever you put your mind to with enthusiasm and conviction.
February 21, 2018 at 6:56 am #193697LouiseParticipantThank you Anita and Amanda as well
I know the friendship cannot continue, I feel responsible for him and making sure that he is ok as he had depression and had times when he suffers dark thoughts and has been suicidal.
I know I am not responsible for him and I know he maybe doesn’t deserve my friendship but I worry as he has few people in this life.
How do I disconnected from this eithowi feeling guilty.
February 21, 2018 at 7:21 am #193701AnonymousGuestDear Louise:
One of the things this ex boyfriend said about you was “that we have stayed friends and he could have sex with (you) anytime he wanted”- he wrote that he stayed friends with you so that he could have sex with you anytime he wanted.
My question to you is: are you willing to be friends with him again, to resume a friendship with him and have sex with him, so to… help him with his depression and make it up to him that he doesn’t have many people in his life?
anita
February 21, 2018 at 10:15 am #193739LouiseParticipantIt obviously upsets me that he thinks that whenever he wanted to I would have sex with him but I know that isn’t reason for him remaining my friend.
And in any case that is not true i would not do that.
I guess we are both in s situation where we have little other in the way of friends, myself due to not working anymore and loosing friends as I can’t socialise much because of my health. So I think we have become attached to each other as that person to talk to or hang out with.
I now know from the things he said that he does not respect me one bit and I would never enter s relationship with him again.
I guess I cling to the friendship for a companion and also I stupidly feel responsible for him. I feels pretty ridiculous after everything he said even caring about him and his wellbeing, and I’m pretty sure when he starts dating again I will be yesterday’s news to him although he has told me that it won’t be.
In a “normal” situation I would do all those things like meet new people, start a class etc but as I’m largely housebound I keep thinking without him I would have no one to talk to.
It’s obvious my confidence is gone as I know the me of 5 years ago would have not allowed this behaviour.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Louise.
-
AuthorPosts