My father and brother have done something horrible to my (ex?) gf.

Keep this in mind: Two separate traumas occurred here.

  1. The event
  2. Your response (likely received as betrayal)

In her mind, if she ever thought highly of you, she's likely not receiving this as you just being really dense and unaware. It probably felt like you just didn't care or you set her up on purpose.

Have you apologized for not listening to her and leaving her with your family and essentially setting her up (unintentionally) to be assaulted? Have you apologized for not listening to her when she told you she wanted to leave? I don't encourage anyone to ever apologize if they aren't sorry. But if you are sorry, you might consider apologizing.

Again, I'm not saying this to be harsh. I don't know you or her, so take this as something to consider as a possibility. Are you capable of seeing other human beings beyond inanimate background decorations in your life? Are you capable of caring about a person outside of their relativity to you? Maybe you aren't the partner for her. I assume if you are this self-absorbed and inconsiderate in this situation, you are likely that way in other areas of your life and in the relationship. Is it likely that she has been carrying the burden of your inconsideration throughout the relationship? Is she doing double the consideration because she knows that's not an area you excel in? That alone is emotionally taxing. Any other time, it might not be a big deal. Maybe you balance each other out and it's a non issue. But it might be too much for her to deal with on top of trying to recover from the trauma of this horrific experience. But again, I don't know you. I don't know her. I don't know the relationship.

Also something to note, Qanon has also taken a hold in Europe. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a crazy host of radicalizing, white-supremacist, violence-encouraging conspiracy theories. So if your family been exposed to it, that might explain the radicalization that you say is more recent.

Edit: It took me a while to write this and I saw that there were more responses by the time I finished, so if any of this has been addressed already, I'm sorry for repeating. I didn't read them, but something caught my eye and it makes me think that you might care about this person the best that you can, but you are just really self-absorbed. I don't mean that in a hurtful way. Most people seem to go through life in their own little bubble of oblivion, so I'm not saying you're an arrogant jerk or anything like that. I'm just pointing out that your situational awareness outside of yourself just doesn't really seem to exist. I'm not saying it's an intentional or malicious act. I'm not saying you're a bad person because of it. But it might be something to consider moving forward.

Also, I can't imagine someone with a PhD in physics being with an idiot. Most people would have seen this or something similar happening from 10 miles away. I can't imagine leaving a spouse, friend, or even a co-worker alone with a group of people that I know held hostility towards them. Between you and me, if this is even real, I think you probably set her up. You might not have been in on it with your family. But I think you knew they were up to no good. I wrote all of this in case you really are just oblivious and dense. But I don't actually think you are.

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