#1

She dates guys who have invalidated her gender and have wildly different views than the ones that she is absolutely radical about, ones who refuse to communicate with any of us and vape just obnoxious amount. When these fall through she then expects all of us to baby her, until a week later when she gets another despite sobbing about the last one a day before.
She's a disaster and I finally cut her off when she lied to me about having an eating disorder to get my attention- I suffered from an eating disorder from the time I was 12 to when I was 16 and she knows that full well and how much it affects me.
#2

#3

He is my brother and when I try to explain things to him and tell him he needs out, he fights with me and calls me crazy and I’m the reason for all his stress. 🙄
Edit to add:
I am the aunt, not uncle, and my involvement has to be limited at this point. I'm 30 weeks pregnant and high risk after a traumatic birth with my second baby that led to mental health issues of my own (which i am treating!), so i need to keep my stress level as low as possible
To everyone saying CPS needs to be involved; he only sees his daughter 50 hours out of the month (if that). It may be hard to believe but he used to be a great, very involved parent, until he met this girl. She slowly started to isolate him and use different tactics as to why he couldn't have his visits, it started with him convincing him he didn't need his own car, then refusing to let him use "their car" to take his visitation. She’s extremely toxic with him (mostly psychologically) and although that doesn’t excuse his behaviour with his daughter, it’s hard for him to see his situation from the inside. I e tried many many times to help him understand how messed up all of this is, but as of right now, I’m 30 weeks pregnant and very high risk for many reasons, and I literally can’t handle the stress of it anymore. The last time he argued with me about all of this, I got so stressed there was no fetal movement for 8 hours, and I had to go to the hospital to make sure we were ok.
To everyone saying I should take custody, my nieces maternal grandparents have full custody of her.
About the gf affecting his visits, he lives an hour away from his daughter, and when they fight, the gf takes the vehicle, leaving him no way to get to his visits.
I will try to read through more comments as I go. Although my brother is a POS that desperately needs help, my niece is greatly loved and cared for by her guardians (her maternal grandparents) and she’s treated like gold if myself or my mother takes the visits my brother passes up.
To be very clear: getting out of a toxic relationship is not easy. It is also far easier to make judgments about other people’s dating choices from afar, when you’re not the one who is emotionally entangled.
Many of you have probably been in situations where you ignore your family and friends’ advice on your romantic life, even if they later turn out to be correct. It is tough to hear someone criticize the person you care about. Not only do you want to protect them, but you also feel like you’re defending your life choices at the same time. And yet, if you are unable or unwilling to recognize the signs of a truly toxic relationship, not only are you harming your well-being and mental health, but you’re also wasting your precious time with someone who is bad for you.
That being said, not all red flags are obvious. You should not feel guilty for not spotting something that might arouse suspicion in others.
Some of the most common toxic relationship red flags are a lack of respect and support, excessive envy or jealousy, controlling behaviors, dishonesty, resentment, constant stress, and ignoring your needs.
#4

#5

#6

They're married with twins now, and none of our friend group are in in contact with him anymore. Last I saw hiw was his engagement party.
“Healthy relationships are based on a mutual desire to see the other succeed in all areas of life,” Carla Marie Manly, PhD, told Healthline.
However, if you start to find that your needs and interests don’t matter much, and your partner doesn’t respect or support you, you may want to rethink the entire relationship. In short, it is not healthy if your significant other only ever cares about what they want and need.
Your inner alarm bells should go off if your partner constantly demands to know where you are, who you spend time with, and what you do. If they get frustrated when you don’t immediately tell them, it’s most definitely not a good sign.
On the flip side, if they’re the one who constantly hides how they’re spending their time and with whom, it is also suspicious. Basic privacy is a right, and every healthy relationship needs it. But intentionally hiding (relevant!) information from your partner is a sign of secrecy.
#7

Dude was a commercial artist. So he had a small office/studio in one of the unused bedrooms. While he was at work, her and her dad took everything out of his office/studio, moved it to the basement and then moved the washer and dryer to that room. Then, apparently, realized that there were no ducts for the dryer and they needed some 220 outlets installed so she called him at work PISSED that his house "sucked" and he needed to get an electrician over there ASAP to fix this, which he did paying the emergency rate.
Was hoping he'd see the light. Unfortunately he did, but only after two kids and her forcing him to quit his good job with benefits.
#8

After he got released from his latest stint, he cheated on her again and she finally wised up and dumped him, but she still constantly posts conflicting stuff on social media about how she loves him but also hates him. Dude was clearly bad news from the beginning. She seems to be doing fine as a single mom with family support, but pretty much everybody could see the writing on the wall except for her.
#9

here's the low lights of his relationship.
- His schedule is set by her.
- His money = her money (he has zero input, and she is awful with money). He recently drained his 401k so they could pay off CC debit and 3 months later she bought a new car.. 3 months after that they went on a 2 week international vacation.
- He runs all her errands. (including drive 40mins out of the way to bring her lunch because she "Forgot" to bring it.)
- 6 months in she made him abandon his only 2 hobbies. (hunting and fishing) because it's cruel to animals. She is a large woman and not a vegetarian.
- He must respond to texts messages within mins no matter what he is doing.
- He gets motion sickness if he isn't the driver in a car but she insist that he rides passenger because one accident he got in 6 yrs ago. (she is the scariest driver i have ever met, speeding with her phone constantly in her hand)
- He gets verbally put down in public and private settings.
- She complains about him every chance she gets, yet he never says a negative word about her.
- He stays home to watch the kids while she goes out to bars / events several nights a week.
- Is huge into MLM stuff, even attending the big conventions in other cities when they happen
- The list goes on and on and on...
Our circle of friends is pretty tight and we all see him look absolutely miserable, exhausted and crabby every time we see him. He looks like he is push 55 even though he is only 40. We all want him to get our of his toxic marriage but anytime anyone even comes close to saying anything he gets extremely angry, defends her and starts being rude to everyone.
Who are the very worst people that your friends have dated, and how bad did things get? Did you ever manage to get through to them, and if so, how?
On the flip side, have you ever had your friends warn you about someone you were dating? What happened next? Join the conversation in the comments at the bottom of this post.
#10
In freshman year of college, I made a lot of friends in my dormroom. My side of the building was two girls-only floors sandwiching a guy's-only floor. The girls loved to hang out on the guys floor and they would stop by my room or my neighbors first since we were next to the staircase. Almost every weekend, my girlfriend(18) who I(18) dated through high school would visit me. The girls who lived in the room directly below us were the first to tell me "she's too controlling." At first I was shocked and just shrugged it off. But then, more and more people told me that they didn't like how she yelled at me or what she would tell me to do.
She was still in high school and it's my first year in college. I listened to these new friends hoping one was right. I would break up with the girl for a few days. Then, either her or I, would call each other crying and begging to try again. The first two or three times I was genuinely adhering to the promises I made to her but she wouldn't and we would end up breaking up for another week or so. Our relationship had seemed perfect for two years before this point. It was getting very obvious to everyone but me that without me being labeled her boyfriend, she was not happy. After a fight that led to a break up sometime in October of my freshman year, I started publically dating a girl I had met in my classes. She drives up to the university and starts screaming that "You need to break up with her. I can't believe you could do this."
I broke up with the girl and took high school gf back. By this fourth or fifth yelling match, everyone in the dorm knew of my situation and persuaded me to try to think about myself. I didn't, I only thought of pleasing her. I thought of proving people wrong that she wouldn't change because I was so blinded by love back then.
December was great because I was back home for the school year and she loved every minute of it. No fights and everything went well.
Back to school in January and everything is OK until two weeks in. She breaks up with me because she doesn't think she loves me anymore. 18yo me at the time wept for a week straight. It was the first time she had ever said that amidst all our fights. I tried my best to keep our promise to stay friends even after breaking up and she continued to visit me every weekend. My roommate and dorm floor buddies had gotten so fed up with me running back to her. They tried an intervention with our dorm advisor and I told them that I had feelings for her but that we weren't dating anymore. They weren't stupid though, they knew that whenever she visited, we would sleep together and then talk about getting back together but with both of us sobbing afterwards. They encouraged me to move on and took me out partying among other things. It helped but it wasn't the nail in the coffin.
The last time she visited was in April. She told me she couldn't visit anymore. Our friend group from high school was very close and so I reached out to a few of them to ask what was going on and catch up since we hadn't talked since December. They told me they didn't know why I was reaching out about my ex, since she had been dating a guy since January. I told them that it couldn't be true because she's not the cheating type. And they told me that she hasn't mentioned visiting me at all since January.
June rolls around and I finally have the courage built up to go to her house and ask her about what was happening. She confessed to all of it. She first confesses to cheating on me during our relationship "but it only happened once and I was really sad and lonely that you weren't home with me." She confessed to me that she had lied about falling out of love for me. She confessed that she really wanted to be with this guy but her love for me was too powerful.
I gave up on loving anyone but myself for a while.
Edit1: tldr, should've listened to my friends about an emotional rollercoaster relationship that I had a soft spot for.
Edit2: to those who have commented, I am proud that I was able to move on, even if it did take time to learn how to have a healthy relationship again.
#11

Then he comes to work one day and is telling a mutual friend of ours he's engaged. Now, this is on April 1st. I call bs. There's now way he's engaged to her. They've been dating less than a year, probably like 6 months. No way. I'm his bf and this is the first I'm hearing about??? Tell our mutual friend that he's lying, to his face. This is an April fools joke. Has to be. Unfortunately, the joke was on him because they were engaged. And got married shortly there after. At the wedding everyone is telling him to just leave and not go through with it. All of the groomsmen are pulling him aside, individually at first then as a group, to tell him to leave. His dad is standing there and just looks away like, "I don't see anything." He goes through with it and marries her.
Few months after they get married, she talks him into adopting her oldest, since that dad is MIA. He does. The ink is still wet on the adoption papers getting finalized and she turns into a raging jerk. Just none stop on raging at him, belittling him, and just down right mean all the time. They lasted 14 months total maybe. Just a few months after the adoption was official he's filling for divorce. Ended up paying child support for over 10 years. The child ended up being raised by the grandparents and he paid the money to them put still, ouch.
tl;dr BF tricked into marrying total jerk, adopting one of her kids, ends up paying child support for a decade for 14 months of marriage.
#12

His first year in college he met a girl who came from a very wealthy family from the big city. The kind of family that has staff at every home they own and use the names of the seasons as verbs. This girl was absolute garbage as a human being. She was bored and decided to use this poor kid as her human toy.
Since this was the first girl that ever showed any interest in this guy, he fell head over heals for her. She invited him to her family's home where she showed off her trained money to her friends and family who, with her help, mercilessly made fun of him and humiliated him the entire weekend and every time he was there. She sent him to sleep in the servant's quarters while she shared a room with her ex and he was well aware.
She made this poor kid go through hell and spend every dime he had to entertain her only for her to berate him and mock him. His friends intervened many times to help this guy see the obvious, but he was too far gone.
His pride and joy was a 1964.5 Ford Mustang that his late father and him spent 3 years restoring to like new condition. It was a project car that his dad brought home in buckets as there were almost no parts on the frame they bought. After they finished it, hid dad gave it to him as a birthday present. That car meant the world to him. In a hail Mary of desperation, he sold his beloved car for something like 20K and spent all of it to buy this girl an engagement ring.
She took the ring and proceeded to call everyone she knew to tell them what happened and to insult the ring and this guy. After she spent an hour or so trashing him and his lousy 20K ring, she threw it in the toilet and flushed it.
His friends showed up to console him and ended up leaving when he told that it was his fault and not to say anything bad about this girl. If he was a real man, he would be able to afford a real ring for this girl.
#13

Anyway, she faked cancer multiple times (often when he would try to break up with her), and stuff like falling down stairs and "breaking" her ankle. My girlfriend at the time took her to the hospital and nothing was wrong they said. She claimed she went back the next day and it was broken. So my friend and this woman finally break up. She leaves for her residency.
They get back together. I cannot at this point. I just have to say I love you, but I can't watch this. He quits his job. He is moving the next day. She calls to say you cannot come here, I have had a boyfriend for three months. He's already quit his job.
Anyway to the anyway, he is now married and has a great job. Only I have some doubts about his current wife... I helped him through some stuff and they stayed together. I was asked to officiate the wedding and that was named as the reason. Then a few months later I never saw him again. He wouldn't return my calls. They got married. Still haven't ever seen him. I wonder if she wasn't a great person like his ex and got him to not talk to me anymore? It makes me very sad, but there is nothing I can do about it.
#14

Let me try to paint a picture of her. Ultra Christian. She doesn't like gay people. Is an anti-vaxxer. Grew up being california rich. Tries (and fails) to do her makeup like Kylie Jenner. Makes him pay for trips to Disneyworld at least once a year. Never pays for anything really, says it's "his job to provide for the woman". Just a goblin of a person inside and out.
They yell and fight constantly, and are just a horrible match for each other. But at this point, he just thinks it's a sunken cost fallacy. He's put in 4 years already, and is afraid of letting that go to waste. He won't listen to me because I haven't been in a real relationship since we've been friends.
#15

A few months ago they started fighting eveytime they went out together. On one paticular night he realized how unhinged this woman was. They had a full on argument and because she wasn't getting her own way she attacks him very violently. Smashing his xbox over his head, breaking every bit of furniture in his house, burnt his clothes and left them smouldering on the lawn. It was a mess. I held him as he cried. No matter what I told him He convinced himself it was a one off and thet loved each other and would work it out.
The first of many excuses. The next time they fought she beat him black and blue, robbed him and destroyed his house again.
We Friends helped him get back on his feet, change the locks, talked him through his pain and got his life back on track once she went.
It took less than a week for her to come back after sweet talking her way round.
He says "but when it's good, it's really good" I told him that if the bad moments outweigh the good then you need to be honest with yourself and get out. He didn't listen and now they're still together. It's a terrible situation and I'm all out of ideas on how to help him. He just doesnt want to help himself.
#16

My ex wife would invite a couple of her friends over once a week for dinner. Whatever else she was, she was an excellent cook. She was also sleeping with at least 3 other guys, and carrying on an online affair.
I suspect her one friend knew about it, and tried to tell me about it over dinner on more than one occasion. She explained that she had a friend who was getting married, but her fiance didn't know that she was cheating on him all the time. With a bunch of different guys.
And I would say, "well why don't you tell him?" And she would go, "It's... complicated. I know him well enough, but she's been my friend for years and I don't want to alienate that friendship."
It was a recurring topic of conversation at weekly dinner. We were divorced by the time I realized she was talking about me.
#17

We all tried telling her, and even though we're like sisters, she actually told me, "It's ok if you don't like him, you don't have to."
Her father reminded her that it's in their family constitution that any potential spouse must be thoroughly vetted by private investigators first. He gave her the courtesy of warning her that he was going to do it in exchange for her agreement that she won't tell him while the investigation is ongoing. She confidently agreed, completely believing he'd come clean.
Yeah, the jerk was cheating on her.
She was a mess for the longest time but fortunately, she's fine now and married to the most awesome guy ever.
#18

So fast forward 3 months, we went out to the local bars and he was going to come later and pick her up when she was ready. My boyfriend was there with us because he was my designated driver so he was making sure we were safe - not that we needed it. About 2 hours into the night her bf came into one of the bars and demanded she go home with him. He got quite aggressive and despite me trying to get her to come home with me she went home with him.
She's still with him and they're now house hunting. FFS
edit: omfg people... I am not going to read every comment but I will just say this...
She does not enjoy the "drama" and "attention". No, my boyfriend is not still friends with this guy - they talk to an extent, but he never initiates anything. And "it would be interesting to hear his side of the story" - um, does his side of the story actually matter? That night was like a switch was flipped. He was completely fine one minute when he was with my boyfriend, then 2 minutes later he came in and started demanding she gets up and leaves with him.
You people really should not be judging if you've never been in her situation.
#19

We all tried to talk some sense into her, but she'd get angry at everyone, telling us it's none of our business and we should stay out of her life. I think her best friend got so frustrated with her over that, that she completely cut her out because she couldn't talk sense into her or help her but she also couldn't stand to watch it go on.
We lost touch pretty quick after high-school, so I don't really know how she ended up. I want to believe everything turned out alright, but it's so easy to see a scenario where she ended up marrying that guy out of high school and spent the rest of her life miserable and trapped with him.
#20



