Dating is hard. Sometimes, just when one thinks they found that special someone, the person turns out to be a complete nutcase. These Redditors share their stories of dates with people who turned out to be total psychos. From double lives to undeniable dramatics, there is no doubt that Norman Bates has got some stiff competition.
1. Careful What You Wish For
There was a guy I’d been dating for a little while, and it seemed like things were going pretty well. One night, he took me to see *Aladdin*. When we got back to my place, everything felt relaxed like usual. We were talking when I suddenly noticed a strange look in his eyes.
He said, “I can’t keep seeing you. I’m afraid I might hurt you.” My mind immediately went to emotional harm, like cheating. Trying to keep things light, I laughed a little and told him that I was an adult and could handle whatever happened. We could always work through things. But he only got more upset, and his face looked terrified.
He said, “You don’t understand. I’ve been having nightmares where I actually hurt you.” Then he jumped off the couch and ran out the front door. I never saw him again, and I chose not to contact him. It really shook me. Up until then, he had seemed completely normal.
2. He Was A Hippie Freak
For about a month, I was seeing this guy who had a few eccentric habits—a mellow, free-spirited person with a kind heart who loved long bike rides and spur-of-the-moment adventures. But then one day, while he was in the shower, he casually told me something shocking.
He admitted that he actually had two children, and that the real age gap between us was 14 years, not five like he’d said. On top of that, the mother of his children had taken out a court order against him.
After that, things went from odd to truly disturbing. He started splashing patchouli oil on my door, leaving so-called voodoo eggs on my porch, and messing with my bike. The damage was so bad that when I rode downhill one day, the brakes failed and the bike fell apart.
3. Her Fate Was Sealed With A Fish
I took my date and her four-year-old son to a carnival. The little boy was thrilled because he won two goldfish. They were in the usual clear bag you get from a pet stall. He was so excited. Then, as we were walking back to the car, she did something I still can’t make sense of—without saying a word.
She threw the bag with the fish onto the pavement, and it burst. Then she stepped on the fish while they flopped around. Her son was instantly devastated. When I asked her why she would do that, she said, “They probably wouldn’t have survived anyway.” A few weeks later, she contacted me and asked why I hadn’t called.
4. Banging Her Head Against A Wall
One night after an argument, I was lying in bed when my girlfriend somehow fell out. Maybe she rolled, but it looked more like she dropped to the floor. Then she got up and started throwing herself into the walls. I just stared in disbelief as she injured herself and made a huge commotion, even though I kept trying to stop her.
The noise got so bad that our downstairs neighbor called the police.
When the officers came in, they found a frightening scene—she was sitting on the couch covered in blood. Of course they were suspicious of me. I tried to explain what had happened, but I couldn’t really blame them for not believing it.
Then, by some incredible chance, my girlfriend showed them exactly what I meant. She suddenly stood up, ran across the room, and slammed into a wall hard enough to nearly knock herself out. At that point, the officers took us both to the hospital.
At the hospital, they brought her into a separate room first—probably to ask whether I had hurt her—before finally letting me in.
While we were waiting, she climbed out of bed, took some gauze from a cabinet, and started wiping the floor. When I asked what she was doing, her answer stunned me. She said she was cleaning the floor so the fish could see better.
5. Irrational Man
After two violent episodes—one where he destroyed half the house, and another where he attacked my car with a hammer—he sent me a text. He basically said this was just who he was, and that therapy probably wouldn’t help.
He gave me a choice: stay with him and accept his flaws and occasional angry outbursts, or leave. I realized he was excusing behavior he refused to control, and that eventually he might justify hurting me too. That was a boundary I wouldn’t cross, so I ended it.
6. Just Go For It
When I was in my twenties, I dated a woman for a short time. She told me right away that she liked guys who were confident and “just went for it.” I was young and inexperienced, so I figured she was joking. Because of that, I didn’t make a move on our next date either. Later, when I dropped her off, she teased me for not taking her advice. We ended up kissing, and she told me to be a little bolder “next time.”
Then “next time” came. It was a really nice night, just the two of us sitting in my car and looking up at the stars through the open sunroof. I decided to follow her advice and leaned in to kiss her. It went badly. She pulled away and said, “What do you think you’re doing? Do you think I’m some kind of pushover?”
I never knew if she was testing me or not. Maybe she liked the idea of someone “just going for it,” but if that was the case, she needed to be much clearer about it, because once someone says no, that’s the end of it for me.
No means no. It really is that simple. The whole thing left me confused, and that ended up being our last date.
7. I Was Running With A Devil
My ex and I both worked as correctional officers. Because of the nature of the job and the background checks involved, I assumed he was someone I could trust. I was wrong.
A few months into the relationship, I moved in with him. About a year later, when I became pregnant, his personality started to change.
One day my oldest son from my first marriage said something that really stayed with me: “Mom, I see evil in his eyes.” We could all tell something was changing. He started saying things that made us deeply uncomfortable and concerned about his mental state. One of the first warning signs was how easily he could completely change his behavior depending on the situation.
While I was organizing things for the baby, I found a box of books about “verbal judo.” I didn’t know what that meant at first, but it suddenly made a lot of things click. As I began putting the pieces together, he started threatening me and telling me what he would do if I ever left him.
He would talk about a bullet with his name on it and purposely leave it out where we could see it. He even hung a noose on the back patio, where it swayed in the wind for weeks. Fearing for our safety, I packed up my boys and left. That was when the real nightmare started. His friends from the local sheriff’s office began following me whenever I went out.
I had always followed the law and had never even gotten a speeding ticket, but that was the beginning of a terrible period in my life. At one point, he even got a security guard he knew at Walmart to falsely accuse me of shoplifting. The charge was eventually dropped, but the damage was done, and I still had to fight for custody of my son.
8. Believe It, We’re Done
I once dated a guy who always wanted me to tell him my work schedule. He would call my office and even wait in the parking lot until I got off work. But that still wasn’t the worst part—he also had the nerve to ask how much I made.
One day, after I told him my schedule, he read it wrong and completely panicked.
Because of his mistake, he called my whole family and came close to contacting the police, all because he misunderstood what I had sent him. Eventually I had to break up with him, and I ended up doing it in public because he wouldn’t accept it when I tried to end things privately. It got so bad that random people nearby were telling him, “She just broke up with you, man.”
9. Keyed Up Over Our Breakup
It wasn’t until after we broke up that I fully understood how unhealthy her behavior really was. She scratched up my car because she thought I had already moved on. Then she went through my Facebook connections and sent a humiliating, provocative photo of me to everyone she could find—family members, friends, even the CEO of the company where I worked.
Along with the photo, she sent a long message claiming I was untrustworthy because I had supposedly abused her and stolen from her. I had to take legal action. I got a restraining order and took her to court because she was trying to destroy both my personal life and my career. It was an incredibly upsetting experience, and I truly hoped she got help. I’m thankful she has stayed silent for nearly four years, and I’ve since moved to another part of the country to start over.
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10. He Was A Total Number Two
I was dealing with a stomach issue and spending a lot of time in the bathroom. Since I didn’t want to waste time, I brought my laptop in with me so I could work while I was in there. Out of nowhere, the bathroom door flew open and my boyfriend stormed in, accusing me of cheating, then grabbed my laptop out of my hands.
At first I didn’t react much because his accusation made no sense. But when I finished and went to find him, I walked into a disaster. For some reason, he had taken my laptop apart and hidden the pieces around the room. I told him to get them back, but he refused.
This went on for about 15 minutes, and I stayed firm. I told him that if he didn’t give me my laptop back, I would call the police. He handed me his phone like he thought I was bluffing. But the moment I unlocked it, he realized I was serious and suddenly panicked.
He quickly gathered the laptop pieces and put it back together. But then, before I could stop him, he threw my laptop out of his third-story window and onto the street below. In response, I smashed his phone against the wall and walked out.
The next day he showed up at my door demanding $30 for the phone. I laughed, shut the door, and promised myself I was done for good. And that was the end of him and all his drama.
11. Payback Time
I was with my somewhat eccentric girlfriend for about eight months. She liked role-playing, especially situations where one person was tied up. One night we decided to switch roles, and I was fine with that. But after she cuffed me and tied my ankles to the bedposts, she gagged me with a bandana, got dressed, and walked out, leaving me there. I had no idea that was only the beginning.
About an hour later, she came back with two men. She then got intimate with both of them several times right in front of me. When she finally untied me and I could speak, I asked, “What was that about?” She said she thought I was having an affair with a female coworker—which I wasn’t—and that this was her way of getting back at me. The next day, I packed my things and left.
12. Trapped
I was once married to a man who may not have been a psychopath, but definitely showed sociopathic behavior. To get from the bedroom to the kitchen, I had to walk through the living room, which meant crossing in front of the TV. Even though I always tried to move quickly, he would yell at me every time. Sometimes I had to wait 20 or 30 minutes until he gave me the “all clear” to pass.
One day while he was out, I decided to rearrange the living room. It was basically the same setup, just turned 90 degrees—the room was square, so it worked. Now I could walk from the bedroom to the kitchen without blocking the TV at all.
When he got home, he noticed right away, but his reaction was strange—he said absolutely nothing. We had dinner, watched TV, and went to bed like normal. The next day, though, he completely stopped speaking to me. He stayed in bed, skipped class, didn’t watch TV, and refused to talk. No matter how much I tried to get him to respond, he stayed silent.
This went on for three very tense days. The only time he moved was to get food or use the bathroom. I was beside myself, convinced I had done something terribly wrong. On the third day, he finally spoke and said he had been punishing me for moving the furniture without asking permission.
Oddly enough, he then said he wanted to keep the room exactly the way I had arranged it, because it was better. But even though he liked the change, he still felt he had to punish me, which told me a lot about how deeply something was wrong. It was just more proof, especially after he cheated on me for the seventh time without any shame.
His controlling behavior went even further. He wouldn’t let me leave the house because he was afraid I would try to “get even.” One day we ran out of clean clothes, so I slipped away to the laundromat. While I was there, he called and threatened to leave our infant home alone if I didn’t come back right away, so I rushed home.
When the same thing happened the next day, I took the baby with me to the laundromat. That time he escalated and threatened to kill himself. I told him to do what he was going to do, hung up, and immediately called emergency services. He ended up being arrested because he had outstanding warrants for unpaid traffic fines.
While he was in jail, I changed the locks and never let him back in. Before long, he had found another woman to control and use.
13. One Night Led To Disaster
A friend of mine had a wild experience. He met a woman at a bar, and they both ended up back at his place that night. Afterward, she suggested it might turn into something serious and asked him out for the following weekend. He figured he’d give it a chance. Then he found out their first date was going to be meeting her parents, which already sounded like a disaster.
To his horror, she told her parents all about their “future” together—where they’d buy a house, what they’d name their kids, the whole thing. He lasted about a month. After they broke up, she didn’t stalk him directly—she started stalking his friends instead. She somehow always knew where we were and would show up threatening lawsuits, accusing us of “ruining her life.”
14. This Guy Was A Dumpster Fire
I once had a boyfriend who said he was a firefighter from New York. A few months into the relationship, I found out he had lied.
He definitely wasn’t a firefighter. Instead, he showed some very disturbing behavior. His need to control me became obvious when he made up a story about having mafia connections. He claimed that if I broke up with him, his mafia friends would come after me and my family. He even said he knew all sorts of details about my father and his business.
His manipulation became even clearer one day when he showed up bleeding in my car and said he had been attacked and needed to go to the hospital immediately. After examining him, the doctor quietly told me he suspected the injuries were self-inflicted. That’s when I started to believe the whole thing had been staged to get sympathy and force me to take care of him.
After that, I felt trapped in the relationship for months. He would often wave around a weapon and stop me from going to work, saying “Tony,” his supposed mafia friend, wanted to meet me. But Tony never appeared. I even got voicemails threatening to kill me.
I went to the police, but they said there wasn’t much they could do without stronger evidence. I tried to get a restraining order and found out he already had nine others against him, many filed by his own parents. Eventually, I got out by moving to another state.
15. I Needed To Steer Away From This Guy
My first college boyfriend was a nightmare. Just one week after we officially started dating, the strange behavior began. First, I noticed food disappearing from my place. We didn’t even live together, but he had decided to throw away anything he thought I shouldn’t be eating. Then a guy from one of my classes called to ask me out, not knowing I already had a boyfriend.
My boyfriend answered the phone and called him a home wrecker, which was ridiculous. The last straw came when we were out walking and he shoved me out of the way of a car, seemingly saving me from being hit. Later I found out the truth.
The driver was his friend, and they had planned the whole thing because he wanted me to feel like I owed him my life.
16. Out Of My League And Out Of Her Mind
There wasn’t just one incident—there were several, all packed into a short amount of time. At first, everything between us felt great. I was feeling pretty confident. She seemed way out of my league, but somehow I was handling it well. We spent an entire day together, and eventually I made my move and kissed her. It was amazing. We spent the rest of the night talking, and everything felt easy and normal.
The next day, though, things changed. She told me her ex had forced himself on her and stalked her constantly. I was still a teenager, so I didn’t really know how to respond or even whether I fully believed what she was saying. Still, I tried to be supportive. Then she started saying she could see him hiding in bushes when we were out together, even when there was clearly no one there.
There was also a socially awkward friend of hers who had feelings for her. He seemed like a decent guy, and since I knew how he felt, I tried to be respectful and not make things harder for him. But one time, while all three of us were hanging out, she suddenly started kissing me right in front of him.
I stopped her because I knew he liked her and I didn’t want to hurt him even more. The look on his face was painful to see, so I pulled away and we kept walking. After a bit, she had fallen behind, and it was just me and him.
Eventually we realized she wasn’t with us anymore, so we went back to look for her. When we found her, she said her ex had attacked her. That was the moment I knew something was seriously off. I was already uncomfortable with how chaotic everything had become, so I ended things.
A few hours after I broke up with her, I got a disturbing voicemail. Some of her friends—both women and men—were screaming insults at me, including calling me gay and other things I couldn’t even make out.
A few years later, her newborn baby died tragically, and she was investigated in connection with the child’s death. I still think I was lucky to have ended things when I did. The idea of possibly going through something like that as a parent at 20 is absolutely heartbreaking.
17. He Was Off His Noodle
He liked his noodles cooked a very specific way—firm, but with just a little softness. He was picky about them and often asked me to make them because apparently I got the texture right better than he did. One day, after a brutal 12-hour shift and an hour-long trip home, I walked in and he greeted me with his usual: “I’m hungry. Make some noodles.” He had a habit of throwing fits, and I was far too tired to deal with that, so I just made them.
Because I was exhausted, I left them on the stove a little too long, and they came out softer than he liked. I served them, added the seasoning, and left him to eat while I went to the bedroom to shower and try to sleep. I had no idea what was coming.
While I was halfway undressed, a full plate of noodles hit the wall next to me. Then he struck me in the back of the head. The next thing I remember is seeing red smeared across the bathroom tiles and everything fading to gray. He had his hands around my throat and said, “If you make soggy noodles again, that’s the end of you.”
When I came to, he was sitting in the living room like nothing had happened, watching TV. When I tried to leave for the hospital, he stood in my way with a strange smile and said, “You’re not going anywhere until I get my noodles.”
Later that night, I managed to get out and get medical help. I had a concussion and a cracked rib. I reported him, got a restraining order, and had coworkers help me get my things from the apartment we shared—at least what was left, since he had thrown out or destroyed most of it. That was the day I fully understood that he was unstable and could have killed me.
18. Social Media Psycho
I dated this guy for a couple of months. He kept pushing me, trying to get me to say I loved him. When the subject of kids came up, I was honest that I didn’t want them, and that really upset him. It wasn’t something I was willing to compromise on.
Eventually I found a good moment to break up with him because I just didn’t feel as invested as he did. His intense side didn’t really show itself until after the breakup. He kept saying he was going to “fight for me,” which could mean anything. He also said he couldn’t give up because in just three months he felt like he had become a father to my cat.
His messages swung back and forth between begging me to come back and threatening me. So I started blocking him—first on text, then Skype, and eventually on Facebook, Instagram, and everywhere else. But he kept finding new ways to contact me, and each time he seemed angrier.
Then he started insulting me and accusing me of seeing someone else. I even changed all my home security codes in case he had seen me enter them. After that, he began contacting our mutual friends.
He messaged my best friend saying he was planning to file a restraining order against me and that I should expect it. He talked about suing another friend for defamation and went after several other people in our circle until they blocked him too.
What was strange was that his behavior didn’t seem unusual to some people, because other women had dealt with the same kind of treatment from him. After a few months, he went quiet. Then recently he tried to follow me on Instagram. I blocked him right away, but then he found my old Flickr account.
He messaged me there, apologized for what he’d done, and suggested that I didn’t need to delete my Instagram account. I didn’t answer. I just removed him.
19. Plenty O’ Fish In The Sea
One day before he got home from work, I stopped by his place. I used his computer all the time and knew the password. When I got on, I saw he was logged into dating sites—Plenty of Fish and Cougar Life. At first I was just confused. But after looking through the messages, I realized he had been trying to meet local women for a while. When I called him and confronted him, he panicked.
He claimed he had only made the account for a friend, but I knew that wasn’t true. I stayed to talk things through when he got home, hoping for some kind of closure, but that turned out to be a huge mistake. We broke up, and he became aggressive—taking my phone and keys, stopping me from leaving, and physically holding me there.
It was terrifying. He was much bigger than me, and I felt completely trapped. He was shouting, gripping my arms so hard I bruised, and the veins in his neck were standing out. I ended up curled into a ball on the couch, trying to process what was happening. That was the moment I realized how dangerous he really was.
Eventually I was able to calm him down enough that he let me leave. I didn’t call the police at the time because I was in shock. For days afterward, I was shaky and covered in bruises on my arms. Later I found out he had done something similar before and had trapped another woman too. Looking back, I wish I had reported him. I’m sure that if I had, he would have gone to jail after doing it again.
The worst part is that I actually got back together with him and stayed for a few more months until things became unbearable again. We finally ended it for good, but he kept trying to contact me for years. Even now, that experience still affects me. Hearing a man yell at a woman can trigger a panic attack, and I still get nervous when an unfamiliar number calls.
Every so often, I look up his name in court records, hoping to find out he’s either dead or in prison.
20. News Flash—I’m Gone!
On 9/11, my ex and I were driving to a café where I was planning to work on my thesis. On the radio we heard reports about the planes hitting the towers. After the second one, I said, “This can’t be an accident.” He immediately talked down to me and went on about how “stupid” I was for even suggesting it was intentional.
When we got to the café, someone had rolled a TV into the middle of the room so everyone could watch the news. As we sat there in shock, we saw one of the towers collapse. I started crying, overwhelmed by the horror of what was happening and the lives being lost.
At the same time, my mind was racing. Wasn’t my brother flying somewhere that day? Wasn’t my friend working in New York’s financial district? I was panicked and heartbroken, which I think was a completely human reaction.
My ex put his arm around me like he was going to comfort me, then leaned in and whispered that I was “making a scene” and needed to “stop crying or go sit in the car.” That was the moment I knew the relationship was over.
We were living together, so I had to be careful about how I left. A few weeks later, another fight broke out because he didn’t want me going out with friends. He was jealous, cornered me against a wall, and threatened to hit me before acting like it was a joke.
The next day, while he was at work, I packed my things and left. He was emotionally empty. There was just no empathy in him.
21. Festival Of Lies
My friend’s girlfriend had been traveling often to a certain city because her mother had lupus and needed a lot of care. Before leaving for another trip, she ended things with him, saying she felt like she wasn’t being a good girlfriend because her time and attention were divided.
My friend took it well and even hoped they might get back together once her mother was doing better. Over the weekend, she kept texting him about how hard it was to care for her mom and how she’d been spending long nights at the hospital.
The whole time, my friend was being incredibly supportive, sending her articles about lupus and other useful information. A few days later, though, while browsing Facebook, he came across a 360-degree photo posted by someone who had once been involved with his ex. The photo had been taken at a crowded music festival near the city where her mother lived.
To his surprise, she was right there in the picture, clearly having a great time. Instead of caring for her sick mother, she had gone to the festival and met up with this former fling. He found more photos of her there, suggesting she’d been at the festival the same weekend she claimed she was at the hospital.
Naturally, he started wondering whether her mother really had lupus at all, or if she’d been seeing this guy for months. He confronted her right away, and her response was to cut off all contact. She could have just ended the relationship honestly instead of building an entire story so she could keep her options open.
22. He Was A Different Brand Of Crazy
One night, my boyfriend decided it was time for me to meet his friends. He organized a little get-together around his backyard fire pit. I found common interests with a few of his buddies, particularly in the movie department. There was absolutely no suggestion of any flirtation. As the gathering was wrapping up, with the last person heading home, my boyfriend and I found ourselves alone by the garden gate.
Suddenly, he tugged me towards him by my belt loop. I assumed he wanted a hug, but that was far from the truth. He was upset that I'd gotten along so well with his friends. His irrational fear was that they might "tempt me away from him," and he blamed me for that. His anger left me bewildered.
A large stick, glowing red from the fire pit, was in his hand. His intention wasn't to pull me into a warm embrace. Instead, it was a chilling action of trying to "mark" me with the hot stick where it wouldn't be seen by others. I still bear the scar from that night, but he's no longer a part of my life.
23. Nothing Was Real
For a grueling nine months, I was in a relationship with a manipulative person. He fabricated everything about himself—from his professional life, history, down to the fact that he was not the biological child of his so-called parents. He'd make a huge fuss over the most minor things.
Let's say I was running three minutes late; he would respond with yelling. Or if we were having a pleasant meal with his family and I spent a bit more time conversing with his sister than he deemed acceptable, he'd create a public spectacle. His confrontations were so loud that nearby dwellers would raise concerns.
After he moved in, I realized that money and various pieces of my jewelry were gone. In a shocking turn of events, I found pawnshop receipts tucked behind some furniture and realised it was him. He even claimed to be sick with cancer just to keep me from taking a business trip that was due to last two weeks.
Meanwhile, I was the one earning for our lives, not doing anything suspicious, and we were in dire need of that income. His claim of seeking treatment for his alleged illnesses also turned out to be false. After doing some digging, I found out that the healthcare facility he frequented did not offer any service that would treat his supposed conditions. On top of everything, I also found some off-color makeup he used to appear sick after he moved out.
I tolerated his antics way longer than I should have, finally breaking under the pressure after seven months. I needed several therapy sessions to cope with the aftermath and it caused serious trust issues that affected my relationship with future partners and dates.
24. Scrambling To Survive
My boyfriend unfairly reported me to the police, blaming me for things he'd actually done. It was quite a tricky and uncomfortable situation for the detective and me to unravel. Ironically, he had hot-wired my car, which ended up catching fire as I was driving on the highway.
Despite me being a frail 90 pounds and very ill, he knocked me out cold and then had the nerve to accuse me of hurting him, a burly 300-pounder who aspired to be a linebacker. His harassment knew no bounds—he followed me around at school, had his buddies incessantly dial my number, and overall turned my world upside down until I had no choice but to switch schools. And yet, he audaciously claimed that I was the one behind all this.
25. Two-Faced Terror
My first serious boyfriend had some particular habits. When he started doing something, he'd practically forget about me, despite asking me to stick around. And if I made other plans, he'd somehow guilt-trip me into aborting those and spending time with him instead. He kept trying to create an environment where it was just him and me, constantly. Plus, he'd keep a keen eye on what I was doing and didn't hesitate to check my phone.
An incident I vividly remember is when my friend casually pecked me on my cheek, right in front of him. He just laughed it off then, but later, he yelled at me over it. He portrayed different personas to different people. His behavior transitioned from being a caring partner to my sole overseer, slowly yet steadily. Fortunately for me, it seemed like he lost interest out of the blue one day.
At that time, his sudden decision to leave me seemed painful, but looking back, I feel grateful. As it turned out, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia later on.
26. Baby, You Crazy
He asked me to pick up a baby shower gift he had supposedly ordered for his friend. So I went to the store, but when I got there, they couldn’t find any record of it. I called him and handed my phone to the cashier so they could sort it out. When she gave it back, though, she was clearly upset and said, “I’m not going to be spoken to like that.” I was stunned and had no idea what had just happened.
She was so offended by the way he spoke to her that she refused to help me any further, so I had to leave the store with nothing. Even after that, he insisted he hadn’t been rude at all and got angry with me for believing her over him. Later, he told me I had ruined everything, that we wouldn’t be going to the baby shower, and that his friend was really hurt. I felt so stressed and guilty that I called his friend myself to apologize.
But she had no idea what I was talking about. That’s when I realized he had made the whole thing up just to make me feel bad. It was a painful moment of clarity—it made me see that he had been manipulating me for our entire three-year relationship and making me question my own sanity.
27. Rewind The Tape, He Did What?
For nearly 24 years, I was married to a man who seemed wonderful on the surface. Day after day, he came across as cheerful and normal, until one shocking arrest turned everything upside down. He was caught behaving inappropriately in the parking lot of an AMC theater during a daytime children’s movie. It was unbelievable. Even stranger, he had used his company’s mailing address in the official paperwork.
As I looked into things further, I uncovered some disturbing facts. My ex-husband had been arrested multiple times both before and during our marriage, and he had never told me any of it. In two of those incidents, immigration officers had questioned him about our supposed child—a son who did not exist. Once I found out all of this, I filed for divorce first thing the next morning. After that, he vanished completely from my life.
28. Gut Instinct
For a while, I dated a girl I thought I really connected with. It seemed like we had a lot in common, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. So I ended things, while still hoping we could stay friendly. Eventually, I found out she had been pretending the whole time—acting like she liked all the same things I did as part of some bigger attempt to change me.
Later, I heard that after I broke things off, she got so upset that she threw a glass at her door and shattered it. When her roommate tried to clean it up, she said something absurd: “No, leave it. Those pieces represent my broken heart.” After hearing that, I knew I had made the right choice, and I’ve trusted my instincts ever since.
29. Prove Your Love
I’m not sure whether he was more of a sociopath or a psychopath, but near the end of our two-year relationship, my boyfriend threatened to kill himself. We were in an apartment on the 11th floor when he moved toward the window as if he was going to jump. The railing only came up to his waist, and once he slid open the glass door, he was right there on the edge. I had to physically grab him and stop him, and it felt like the struggle went on forever.
We were both completely hysterical, shouting and crying. Eventually, I managed to pull him back inside, and we both fell backward in the process. I slammed into the TV stand, and he landed on top of me.
After all of that, he calmly got up, brushed himself off, and said he had never actually planned to kill himself. He had only staged the whole thing to see if I really loved him. That was the moment I realized how deeply unstable he was, and I knew I had to leave.
30. Slow, Subtle Sicko
It started with small things, like comparing me to his exes, always in ways that seemed flattering at first. He also became oddly determined to join in on hobbies and activities I used to enjoy on my own. He insisted on being included, then would either pout or make subtle digs the whole time. At first I brushed off his jokes about the things I loved, but over time they got sharper and more frequent.
Then he began putting me down and giving compliments that didn’t feel sincere. Whenever I told him I was upset, he would smile and say he was only joking, though the smile never felt genuine. One night, we were relaxing on the couch, drinking, watching a game, and everything felt fine. Then out of nowhere, he said he didn’t want to live anymore. I took it seriously and tried to talk to him about it.
But he looked confused and claimed he had never said that at all. Things only got worse after that. The final breaking point came when he attacked me during an angry outburst. Later, he apologized, kept calling me, and even sent flowers. Thankfully, my sister stepped in. I hadn’t told my family exactly what was going on because he had spent so much time isolating me, and because I had started to feel like I was losing my grip on reality.
I kept thinking maybe I was overreacting to the comments and the things he said. But once he became violent, I went straight to my sister for help. I left him, left all my belongings behind at his place, and moved on. It took years—and relationships with healthier, more stable people—before I was finally able to put that experience behind me.
31. Sweet Jesus, She Was Crazy
My ex-girlfriend used to be pretty unusual. One time, we missed a bus by just five minutes, which meant waiting another ten minutes for the next one, and she lectured me about it for two hours. When I was dealing with demanding college classes, especially around exams, I couldn’t be on my phone much. Whenever I didn’t reply to her messages fast enough, she got upset.
She expected us to see each other five times a week and wanted two-hour phone calls every single night. Once, she was at my parents’ house and wanted something sweet. But we didn’t have any, and the nearest store was 15 minutes away, so that turned into another argument. She also accused me of cheating four times, about the same number of days I wasn’t able to call her.
When we broke up, things got worse. She threatened to hurt herself and had my friends contact me, telling me to call her back. She even made fake accounts to message me, but I blocked every one. She went as far as getting new phone numbers to keep calling and texting, so I blocked those too. Random messages would show up in the middle of the night, and I blocked all of them. And then, to top it off...
In what seemed like an effort to get back at me, she got involved with one of my friends. She also tried to go after another friend, but thankfully, he kept turning her down.
32. Stuck Between A Rock And A Hard Place
Back in college, I dated a girl for two years. It took me a while to realize she wasn’t exactly stable. While we were together, there were smaller warning signs, like how controlling she could be. But the really strange behavior started after I finally came to my senses and ended the relationship.
During the summers, my friends and I worked for the college, and part of the job included free housing on campus. She had a similar arrangement, just in a different department. We had already broken up by then. What really caught me off guard was that every time I walked past a big rock near my building, she would be there, crying.
If I passed by with friends, she would stare at me intensely. And if I happened to be with a female friend, I’d instantly get a text asking if I was seeing her. The summer building we lived in was shaped like a “C,” with a courtyard in the middle.
My room was on one side, and directly across the courtyard was my friend’s room. One night, while I was relaxing in my room, my friend called me from across the courtyard. He had seen my ex dressed all in black, hiding in the bushes under my window like she was spying on me.
I called her right away and asked what she was doing—and her answer was almost laughable. She tried to tell me she was at Walmart. Even six months after we had broken up, I saw her at the college’s big spring concert. I was there with my new girlfriend, who later became my wife, watching one of my favorite bands.
Sure enough, my ex was there too. She walked right up to us, looked over my now-wife, stared at me, and muttered, “This is fine. I don’t care. This is totally fine.” Then she casually walked away. I still can’t believe I was with her for two years.
33. Bad Romance
One time, I was driving my ex-boyfriend somewhere when Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” came on the radio. I turned it up a little and started singing along. Somehow, he completely lost it. He started crying in the car because he thought I was secretly trying to send him a message about our relationship. I did my best to calm him down and told him it was just a song I liked.
Strangely, he wouldn’t believe me. In his mind, me singing along meant our relationship had entered a “bad romance” stage and that a breakup was coming. Even after we got to his house 15 minutes later, he was still crying. It took his parents stepping in and talking him through it before he finally settled down.
34. Time To Get Out
One Sunday evening, my ex-husband, who had been unemployed for several years, knew I needed to approve a large batch of employee time cards for payroll. It was something I did every Sunday night for three years, and it usually took about an hour and a half. He also had a serious drinking problem and a bad temper.
That night, he was furious that I was finishing the time card approvals after spending an hour making dinner for him and our son. We didn’t have a couch, so I was sitting on the living room floor, trying to eat and work at the same time, while he kept demanding my attention.
Before I could tell him I was almost finished, he walked over holding a full plate of food, took a big bite of tilapia, chewed it up, and then spit it across my face and keyboard. I was completely stunned.
I couldn’t believe that the man I had married would do something so awful—spitting food all over me and my workspace. I just sat there in shock and realized it was time for him to be out of my life.
35. She Ain’t Got No Alibi
One day, the police contacted me and asked whether I had been going out with the woman I was dating. They were able to list every meal and movie we’d shared because she had kept all the receipts. She was apparently trying to use our relationship as part of a cover story.
Then they asked me to look at the front page of the newspaper. To my shock, she was the main suspect in a terrible crime, accused of throwing a four-year-old child from an apartment building. She claimed our relationship proved she had no reason to target the child because she had moved on from the child’s father. That was the moment I realized she was deeply disturbed.
36. Time To Hit The Road
One time, my girlfriend at the time and her mother were seriously talking about how to “train” and punish a boyfriend for bad behavior. I was in the room and could hear the whole strange conversation. They even brought up something I had done recently that had irritated my girlfriend. Her mother said she wanted to show her exactly how to punish me, and she was insisting that it should involve physically hurting me.
For context, I’m a pretty big guy, 6'3", and not someone people usually try to intimidate. I immediately said no and decided to leave and go home instead of staying around for something ridiculous. We were living together then, and I was usually the one who drove her home. Since our place was about an hour and twenty minutes away, I was already halfway there when I got a call from her asking me to come back and pick her up. That’s when everything got even stranger.
When I returned, they asked me to come back inside, and her mother used the chance to lecture me both about whatever I had done earlier and about leaving so suddenly. I didn’t argue. I just went back to my car and drove home again. My girlfriend eventually made it home a few hours later with someone else’s help, and after that, we never talked about the incident again.
In my head, the relationship was over the moment they casually discussed “disciplining” men right in front of me. A month or two later, once I had figured out a new place to live, I officially ended it.
37. Gaslighting Goober
This man I was dating had a habit of getting his firearms, making sure the safety latch was on, and then mockingly aim at me saying, "Bang"! Every time I would flinch in response, he'd chuckle, commenting, "It'd be amusing if the safety wasn't engaged, right? Right?"
Following that, the very next day he'd try to manipulate me, insisting he never did anything like that the night previous. He was a master at this manipulation trick popularly called gaslighting. It reached a stage where I was genuinely questioning my own mental stability, as he would constantly reject any claims I made.
38. Going Nowhere Fast
This girl was incredibly attractive. She confessed to me, in a playful manner, that she had been following me on Instagram for about a month prior to contacting me, evaluating me. I brushed it off at first, but then a realization dawned on me. We had actually connected on Match.com two months before and although she never confirmed this for some reason, it struck me as odd. Eventually, we met up and ended up spending the night together after our first date.
The following day, she wanted to see me again. I thought to myself, 'fantastic'! Maybe I had made quite an impression. But things had changed. She completely held back any affection and intimacy. Seeing this change, I guessed this might turn into something more meaningful and decided to not make an issue of it, thinking, “Alright, I’m mature enough, I can handle it.”
She continued her visits, day after day. Before I knew it, two weeks had elapsed and she was leaving a good amount of her belongings at my place. She was taking tons of my time, and yet, we were not sharing any emotional bond. She warned me that I needed to avoid breaking her heart because her previous boyfriend had mistreated her for two years, implying that she was deeply fragile and stated she would harm herself.
That's when I suggested we either should emotionally open up or we should slow our pace considerably. I proposed we only see each other on weekends until she felt more comfortable, but moving in together was off the table for now. After this conversation, she ceased all communication with me. Not a word. I ended up sending all of her things, packed in a box, back to her mother's house where she stayed. I never received a despatch acknowledgment or any response from her.
39. She Cashed In And I Cashed Out
I'd been chatting with a girl online. After some time, we decided to meet up for a date. I arrived at her place to pick her up, and noticed she was on her mobile as she approached my car. She slipped into the passenger seat and motioned for me to be quiet as she immersed herself in her emotional conversation with her father, who she hadn't been in contact with for years.
Despite our destination being 15 minutes away, her phone call continued for the entire journey. She was negotiating for some financial help out of a tricky situation. She was rebuilding a relationship with her estranged father solely to coax him into transferring money to her. Briefly, she muted her phone and asked me to stop at the local Dollar General so she could purchase a Green Dot card.
Having never officially met her in person before this, I complied. We pulled up at the Dollar General and she dashed inside, grabbed the card, and still engaged in her conversation swiftly returned. She was visibly upset, managing to shed a few tears for added effect while giving her father the card details. Once the card was topped up, she professed her love and gratitude for having him back in her life.
She ended the call, telling her father she loved him. Yet, the moment she hung up, she began mocking him and revealed to me, "I can't stand him". With an air of nonchalance, she kept away her phone, laughed off the bizarre episode, and proceeded to act like nothing had occurred.
40. Quaking In Fear
There was an incident where I had a seizure. When I regained consciousness, I found him standing over me, shouting and swearing furiously, expressing his embarrassment. And that's not even the end of it—next, he roughly pulled me up, pushed me hard against the wall, and commanded me never to let it happen again. That was the first time he showed signs of such behavior, and I quickly decided that was not okay and left immediately.
41. False Positive
When I tried to break up with my girlfriend, she told me she was pregnant. There had already been plenty of red flags, but that was the moment I knew I had to get out. She would show me photos of positive pregnancy tests, but she never took one while I was there. I even scheduled a doctor’s appointment to confirm it, and she canceled it behind my back.
At the same time, she was also threatening to hurt herself. I should have recognized how serious and manipulative it all was, but I was young and inexperienced. Later, I learned she used the same tactics with the next guy she dated. When he tried to leave, he had her placed under the Baker Act for her own protection.
42. I Wheeled Her Out Of My Life
My ex-girlfriend’s behavior swung wildly between hating me, believing things that weren’t true, and loving me with complete intensity. The breaking point came one day over something small, but completely ridiculous.
She called me very early one morning, upset about a situation where she had partly parked in a disabled spot. Someone had apparently noticed and knocked on her window to point it out.
All I said was, “You know that could get you a $200 ticket, right?” Her reaction was completely disproportionate. She accused me of taking the stranger’s side and even claimed I was leading some made-up campaign against her. Somehow, that comment turned into a dramatic decision that we were no longer allowed to talk about anything related to work.
The whole argument came from me mentioning a possible consequence of how she parked. Not surprisingly, the relationship fell apart almost immediately after that, since it was only the latest in a long line of irrational episodes.
43. Power Hungry
We once had a serious conversation about whether we wanted children someday. He said he did, but I was completely against it. His reason was what really disturbed me: he loved the idea of children admiring their parents and treating them like heroes. He wanted that kind of total influence.
He also said that young kids are very trusting and easy to fool. He seemed genuinely excited by the idea of telling them made-up stories and lies, knowing they would believe him. The appeal, for him, was clearly the power and control.
I found that deeply unsettling. Realizing that his main reason for wanting children was to shape and manipulate how they think really bothered me. The relationship didn’t last, and he’s now married with two kids.
44. Post To Post
When I was still very naive, my boyfriend started exposing my personal information online. He posted my full name, where I lived, and plenty of other details for anyone to find. That was already bad enough. Then things got worse—he started sending disturbing photos and videos of himself hurting himself and swallowing handfuls of pills.
That was the moment I realized I needed to get away from him.
45. Long Distance Looney
I was once in a long-distance relationship where my girlfriend had extremely strict rules about what I was allowed to watch, especially anything suggestive. To monitor me, she made me install remote access software on my computer and would check in at random to see what I was doing and make sure I was following her rules.
She also regularly went through my social media accounts. She would read my Facebook messages without asking to make sure I wasn’t cheating. Looking back, I’m incredibly relieved that I got out of that relationship.
Timothy Hales Bennett, Unsplash
46. I Made A Quick Departure
During one of my trips, as soon as I landed in Boston, my phone lit up with a string of increasingly tense texts. It started with a casual “Hey” and quickly turned into “WHERE ARE YOU? DON’T IGNORE ME!”
I replied right away: “I was on a plane. Do you remember dropping me off at O’Hare just THREE HOURS AGO?” We had only been dating for a couple of weeks, and while there had already been some warning signs, that was the proof I needed to call it quits.
47. Scene And Heard
I needed to catch a bus. The walk from my university entrance to the stop was about a mile. I chose to break up with my girlfriend in public because I thought it would keep her from making a scene. Instead, it went completely the other way. In front of around 30 people, she cried and begged me to change my mind, but I stayed firm. Even then, she kept following me, drawing attention with all the pleading, tears, and yelling.
When I reached the bus stop, she actually tried to push me toward an approaching bus. I shouted, “Are you trying to kill me?” She answered, “Only if you’re not with me.” After that, she somehow got into my house and covered it with photos of us.
Afterward, my phone was nonstop with calls from her, with her screaming about hurting herself. On top of that, she started flirting with my friends and even managed to kiss my former best friend.
48. Eat And Run
One night, I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with some friends and told my girlfriend where I was. A little later, I noticed a few of her friends come in and sit at a nearby table, but they never ordered anything. They just drank water and kept glancing over at us now and then.
As we finished eating and headed outside, I noticed my girlfriend’s car in the parking lot. The driver’s seat was leaned all the way back. I could just barely tell she was sitting there, like she was trying not to be seen. My friends and I were confused, so we figured it was best to just leave. Then things got even stranger.
As soon as we started driving away, her car suddenly started up and she began following us through the lot. I texted her immediately to ask what was going on, but she insisted she was out with her mom. I ended the relationship not long after that bizarre incident.
Alexander Migl, Wikimedia Commons
49. I Relieved Him Of His Duty
I was once married to a man with serious mental health problems. He implied that he was going into the woods to take his own life. Because of that, I contacted the police and told them I believed he was having a PTSD episode connected to military service. The authorities stepped in, took away his gun, and then told me something shocking—he had NEVER BEEN IN THE MILITARY.
I learned this four years into our marriage. I kept records of the physical damage, including holes in the walls, which helped me get a restraining order and complete the divorce. The court did not look kindly on someone lying about military service to excuse abuse and emotional manipulation. Sadly, his next wife went through much the same thing before eventually divorcing him too.
50. Hung Up On Her Ex
We were on the train heading home after a really nice date. Then I happened to glance over and saw what she was doing.
She was busy typing, trying to log into her ex’s Facebook account. I casually asked what she was up to, and she openly admitted she was signing into her ex-boyfriend’s Facebook. She said she just checked in from time to time to make sure he was okay because he had never changed his password.
That “quick check” turned into a full review of what he was doing and even his private messages. Confused, I asked why she didn’t just look at his profile normally, and she said he had blocked her. When I suggested texting him if she was really that concerned, she admitted he had blocked her number too.
At that point, I had a lot more questions, but she was already getting annoyed and defensive, so I let it go—especially since we still had a long train ride ahead of us.
