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Thursday, January 18, 2024

My husband (M44) gets overwhelmed by boundaries and rules that I have (F42)

I don't even think there's a word for this behaviour. I'll try to describe his behaviour and give examples. We've been married almost eight years.

Whenever I have a negative opinion or state a boundary, he will apply that to other related things in a general way even if I don't want him to. It's hard to describe but I think of it as a "blanket ban". He doesn't seem to be able to stop himself. It can happen for anything, no matter how small, and has resulted in me trying not to express opinions or, to avoid the situation, overly explain everything I say.

Example one: he likes to play pool with his friends. It's a great hobby, he has a lot of fun and meets people, and it gets him out of the house. Early in our relationship I said that it's great, but I'd rather he didn't do it more than twice a week because I'd like to spend time with him. A couple of years ago he started going out three or four times a week and I reminded him that I'd rather it be twice a week. He then stopped playing pool except for once a week or once every other week. Sometimes it's once a month. And he thinks I don't want him to play, even when I specifically say that I'd like him to and that he should. I think he resents me for it when he's doing something I didn't even want him to do.

Example two: I don't like to have sex right after eating (it's uncomfortable to me) or right before bed (it wakes me up too much). When I shared that with him the frequency went down to zero. This was approximately five or so years ago. We've had so many conversations after that where I've asked what was wrong and he pointed to my boundaries and said that he doesn't know what to do and is afraid to initiate. I've told him this is unacceptable. We tried relationship counselling for this one but it didn't work because it didn't address the central issue - his "blanket bans".

Example three: I believe in something not many people do. I understand it's silly, but ultimately harmless. Think crystal healing. I find it a fun things to talk about, so I have been wittering on to my husband about this for almost a year. A week ago he told me he didn't believe in it at all, and I was embarrassed and said I'd stop talking about it then. Since then, he has barely talked to me about anything other than food, etc., and told me this morning his feelings were hurt about it. I think he's taken my saying I'm not going to talk about crystal healing to meaning I'm not going to talk to him about anything at all.

These are the bigger things, but it seems to happen for almost everything. He reacts to everything I say as if it's some sort of criticism, and he overreacts. I tried to reach out and pat his shoulder today because he's been so remote and seems stressed, and he immediately said that he's sorry about his hair and he'll do better about it. I told him that I was just trying to express affection and I can't believe that he'd take it as a criticism. I feel like he's acting like I'm evil and mean and will yell at him about everything, even if it's small. I don't know where he got that impression. I am very reasonable and nice and have only been upset with him a handful of times in our eleven year relationship.

Counselling: yes, we tried couples counselling, didn't get anywhere because they didn't address the central issue. He tried individual counselling but I think he only talked to them about stress at work. I haven't seen any improvements at all.

My individual counsellor says there's nothing wrong with me, but I am becoming depressed. Which isn't surprising. I don't want to divorce my husband. I love him.

TL;DR! - Husband catastrophises everything, is very sensitive, and the slightest thing can have longstanding consequences. Is there anything I can do in this situation other than counselling because we tried that and it didn't work?

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* This article was originally published here

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