“I left when I realized he expected me to run his life for him.”

"It got me thinking about when we’d argue, he always knew how to position himself to 'win,' AKA make me feel like I'm the bad guy, until I give up and he gets his way. It could be about small things or big things. He was automatically strategic rather than open to expressing disagreement or reaching a compromise. He wasn’t a bad person or a psychopath, but that behavior was very manipulative, and I feel like he learned it in early childhood and applied it to virtually everything."

"He also claimed to be a natural handyman. This was false advertising. I’d end up googling how to get something done, and then he’d get mad that I fixed it and said it was emasculating. It’s like, it’s a shower head replacement, not a six-month project. 

Lastly, the lying — he would lie about who he was with when he went out. He would lie to our friends, saying I couldn’t attend events when, in reality, I was dying to get out of the house. He would lie about sticking to his diet when he needed to for medical reasons. It just became all too much, death by a thousand cuts."

"Every little thing that made me happy was questioned by him, disposable, and easily dismissed. One time, for example, he asked if we could get rid of some of my small trinkets that sat on a shelf, 'because we don't need them.' Meanwhile, he literally had an entire room in the house dedicated to recording music, that – you guessed it – he never recorded in. This was definitely my 'death by a thousand cuts.' I thought it was just a bad habit or a temporary bad mood, but it was apparently not temporary."

"I hated my never-clean house, I hated his presence, and I had zero libido to the point where I thought something was wrong with my hormone levels. I didn't want to be someone's second mommy, so I left. He could literally see the pile of dishes, the dirty floor, and the full laundry basket – I shouldn't have needed to spell it out for him. But I still did all of that, and he chose to ignore it, which is even worse. 

Definitely leave if this sounds relatable."

"Not to mention, he SNORED. My sleep was being affected. I begged him to get a sleep study done, and he dragged his fucking feet. When he finally got it done and found out he had mild sleep apnea, he wore a mouth guard ONCE, then said it was too uncomfortable. Hello?? I CAN'T SLEEP. Wasted 10 years on that fucker."

"This seems small, but he was also constantly walking too fast for me, leaving me in the dust. I told him time and time again that his doing that made me feel sad and abandoned, and he'd apologize and slow down, but never for long. He'd always justify it by saying, 'you know me, I just like to walk fast.' And it was like, 'Yeah, I do know you, you care more about your own comfort than mine. Stop begging me to go on walks and go on your own damn walks if you don't give a shit about me.' Remembering it now pisses me off! He was always ready with some defensive fucking comment."

"Plus, let’s say you offered him a piece of candy. He would take three. Then he would assume that he could take a piece of candy any time he wanted. It all just felt a little entitled and ungrateful. "

"Each thing sounds dumb on its own, but after enough time, it starts to feel like you’re living with someone who just doesn’t really consider you. At that point, you’re not leaving because of socks, you’re leaving because you’re tired."

"I actually let him stay with me five years later. Within eleven days, I rage-kicked him out for spilling cereal all over my carpet and leaving it there after I asked him to clean it. It was so strange because he was extremely smart, compassionate, and attentive. But I simply could not handle the disrespect he showed to our home."

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.