TL;DR: I am beginning to form Stockholm syndrome towards a possibly abusive friend and I’m not sure what step to take first.
My best friend (25M) and I (21M) have been friends/roommates for over 1.5 years now. However, I have begun to notice concerning behavior that has escalated quickly. He suffers from bipolar disorder, and will go through 6 months of depression followed by 6 months of manic behavior. He is currently manic.
For the first few months of our friendship, everything was great! However, a few months ago, I noticed he would begin to say belittling jokes towards me. This usually didn’t bother me, until I noticed he would make these jokes too often. After bringing this to his attention, he claimed to know more about me than I know about myself, and that I was displacing my insecurities onto him. I believed him, and apologized for what I had said.
The other night, he told me he “owned me” and put me in a chokehold. He is very muscular and I am very thin, so trust me when I say it hurt. We will sometimes rough house but never to this extent. His dominant behavior is becoming commonplace, and I’m beginning to feel mentally unhealthy. Last night while watching tv, he pinched my arm and told me ‘not to struggle’. When I attempted to move my arm, he pinched harder.
I immediately called him out, only to have him tell me to ‘stop being a b*tch’ and that I needed to fix my attitude fast. I’m still in shock. Im starting to think I’m in a horribly toxic situation, but I can’t seem to escape it. The next day after arguments like this, he always becomes extremely nice and apologetic, which makes me feel like he actually didn’t mean harm. But it happens again. It’s a vicious cycle and I’m honestly beginning to uncontrollably feel intense Stockholm syndrome towards him. I feel trapped and I’m not sure what first step to make.
Submitted February 13, 2021 at 01:10AM by ErasableHeart44 https://ift.tt/3jMOvub
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