Today, before taking an Uber home, she sent me a text wanting me to be downstairs on the street to greet her as the Uber arrives. I read it and told her that yes, I’ll be there. I didn’t notice any further text because I was in the middle of something.
Later, I hear the door opening and went to our door to greet her, she was furious and refused to talk to me. I realized I forgot to turn my phone back from silent mode after work today. I told her that it is my bad, she still refused to talk to me. At this point, things are still normal for our relationship, she would usually become willing to talk after a while.
I usually go to sleep at 22:30 and she knows, so I thought we’d sort things out tomorrow and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night (later I found out it was 1a.m.) to her standing next to my bed (we sleep in separate bedrooms), and she began asking a series of pointed questions: “What would you do if you found out that I was gone?”, “What would you do if the CCTV on our street is broken by chance?”, “What would you tell my mother if I went missing?”, “If I was actually kidnapped, would you kill the guy for me?”
You know, the usual. I thought she’s just angry at me still and wanted to vent, so I went along with her for the time being: “I’d be very worried and look for you everywhere”, “I’d sue the city”, “I’d tell your mother exactly what happened and say I’m sorry”, and “I’d kill the guy who kidnapped you”.
She grumbled and asked a few follow-up questions, like “if you’re planning to kill the guy, what would you do with our cat?” But at this point, I think she’s finding it difficult to stay angry at me. I tell her again that I’m sorry I missed her text, and that next time this happens, she should just call me to make sure I see her text, but she left soon after without acknowledging my apology.
I know I’m in the wrong for missing her text. Not trying to argue otherwise. My question is, am I really responsible if someone kidnaps her between getting off the Uber and getting into our apartment complex? Is she trying to guilt trip me into thinking her anger is justified or am I really a horrible, kidnap-facilitating bad person for missing a few texts?
Edit for context: we live in a pretty safe city that ranks top 10 in the world on low crime rate. Also, thank you all for educating me on what gaslighting actually means. It was 2 in the morning when I posted this, I did not have the energy to find the answer myself.
So you’re saying it is pretty irrational for her to be so extremely worried about being kidnapped? Is she a very anxious and nervous person? It sounds like she was dropped off very close to home. Is she one to turn nothing into something like this? From an outside perspective, her reaction seems way out of line.
She’s not normally like this, and yes Ubers usually drop people off right at the entrance of our apartment. Aside from Uber, she would also take the bus or train into the city, both of which requre a five minute walk through our neighborhood which she has no problem doing.
Since she’s not normally like this, you really need to talk to her to figure out what exactly happened that set off this series of events.
It’s probably she was upset that he didn’t follow through with what he promised. In her anger she came up with a bunch of hypotheticals to grill him about. The real issue is she thinks he doesn’t care enough to meet her where he said he would.
Possibly. Ultimately there needs to be better communication between both of them.
Hopefully
Either she’s like the rest of us and sometimes does irrational and dramatic things when angry, or she has an undiagnosed mental health disorder involving paranoia.
Apparently those are the options.
When healthy people are angry they use healthy coping skills to deescalate and then approach the conversation in a calm and rational way. Regardless of whether this is a full-blown mental illness or not, assuming this was really her reaction, something is not okay.
If there’s no situational cause for this change in behavior, there’s a chance she’s experiencing paranoia from an undiagnosed mental health condition. Look up the signs of mania (bipolar disorder), borderline personality disorder, and schizophrenia. If it looks like it might be one of those then you need consult professionals and family because it’s not something you’re going to be able to help her with on your own with advice from Internet strangers.
Take care of yourself, of she continues to behave abusively you need to get away whether this behavior comes from untreated illness or not.