Breaking up with someone usually means that it's the end of the relationship, but that's no always the case. While some relationships are better off dead, there are times where one of the partners wants to do anything but accept that.
The people in the following stories know that all too well, as they recently explained on Reddit. Take a look at some of the most interesting and engaging stories involving people who came to know their significant other as the "crazy ex." All posts have been editing for clarity.
His Ex’s Second Request Is Just As Bad As The First
“She woke me up because I had the night sweats and she was convinced I had Aids. For some reason, I decided to appease her and got a full screen including an expensive Aids test.
A few weeks later, I drove to her house to give her my signed note (I had to specifically request) stating my clean bill of health. She accused me of forging the entire thing and in the following argument, pulled plates out of the cupboard and threw them at me like they were a frisbee or something, and I immediately left.
About six months later (I had just started dating my now fiancée), she contacted me to tell me she believed me and wanted to know if she and her two dogs could move in with me.
I never responded.”
Why You Don’t Date Art School Students
“When I was in art school, I became involved with a girl who was one of the most gifted painter/printmakers I’d ever seen. Everyone knew she was going places. Teachers unabashedly praised her in critiques. She was several years older than me, but I was so smitten it didn’t matter. On our first date, we smoked and drank until we blacked out.
Unfortunately, it hardly stopped there. I quickly realized she had a drinking problem. Every day, she began drinking in the early afternoon. By nightfall, she was belligerent and often violent. Every night was a new horror…dragging her out of bars, breaking up a fight she’d started with a homeless person, finding her passed out on my porch in the early morning hours. Once, she even jumped out of my (moving) car after an argument.
I couldn’t handle it. I cared about her, but I couldn’t spend my life as a babysitter. Not now, but especially not at 21. I broke up with her sweetly one weekend. She was upset about it, but said she understood and hoped we’d still be friends. I agreed we could.
Monday rolled around, and I walked into my first class.
‘You didn’t see the artwork on the wall, did you?’ The first person to greet me asked.
No, I said.
‘You need to go look,’ said the friend.
I sauntered back to the doorway, and looked around. Hung on the wall opposite my classroom was a life-sized woodcut print of me, drowning. I was gasping for breath, fingers clutching nothing but water. More dead than alive. I have a deep fear of the ocean. I haven’t been in a large body of water since I was 10.
For a month, I was faced with the aspect of my own gruesome death.
Everyone agreed it was beautifully done.
And that’s why you don’t date people in art school, kids.”
She Wanted To Do What With His Kids?
“My husband’s crazy ex (just girlfriend from high school) was crazy because she set up a appointment for portrait session to have pictures done of our three children for her house.
No, we did not let that fruitcake take our children. They broke up their senior year of high school, and this is when we were in our 30s. Shocked at contact from her, never mind the appointment, we found out she also had her phone number listed (phone books then) using my last name all those years, which was never her name.
She was stuck in her high school fantasy, which was frightening.”
He Knew It Was Bad When She Started Harming Herself
“In one of our many fights, she tried to leave in my vehicle and stormed outside. I had my keys on me, so when she walked out, I locked the door to get her to have her mom come get her. She turned her wedding ring around and while staring at me through the back sliding glass door, this nut used a diamond to scratch her face neck and arm, while saying, ‘You’re gonna go to jail! Look at these scratches, you did this to me! Let me in or I’ll call the police!’
If a woman is in a certain state of mind that she will use the hardest natural substance known to scratch her own body up, I’m not letting her in.
So she called the cops and I had to explain to them that I did not, in fact, attack her, and if they would care to notice that out of all her scratches, she had none on her left arm. Then they had an ‘ah ha’ moment so big I thought I was in the ‘Take On Me’ video.
They finally saw the insanity at play and hauled her off. That was our second time being married.”
You Don’t Come Back From This
“She talked me into telling my entire family that we were pregnant. She even made me call my dad whom I hadn’t talked to in a good five years prior and tell him about it.
She had shared custody of her son, and I’d usually bring her to her house on Friday night so she could take care of things there, and her son’s father would come and pick him up. That particular Friday was a few days after she made me tell my entire family.
I got home after dropping her off, and she still signed into Facebook on my computer, and it just so happened that her messages to her son’s father were still up. I didn’t really think anything of it, I just assumed maybe she was telling him what time to meet her or whatnot… Well, was I wrong.
She was actually asking him to set up an appointment for an abortion with Planned Parenthood, and asked him if he’d take her. That night, he got his face destroyed. There was a lot of built up tension between the two of us that mainly started on his end. He used to beat her, threatened to do so while we were together, and threatened me as well.
And well, a week or so later, she went through with the abortion. A week after that, she contacted me telling me how sorry she was and she wished she never did it and wanted me back.
No thank you, crazy.”
And Then She Punched Through The Stained Glass Window
“She forcefully moved in with me, then a few weeks later managed to go through all of my spirits while I was at work, then proceeded to throw the case of bottles I brought home after work onto the floor, before throwing my glass pipe off the front porch and storming off into the darkness.
My co-workers who came over to enjoy said drinks were a little taken aback, but I managed to salvage a few of them from the mess on the floor and we sat on the couch to figure out what to do with the beast when she returned.
It didn’t take too long before the night took a turn for the worse. You see, my door wasn’t the best door. She thought we had locked her out and proceeded to punch her fist through a $1,000 stained glass window before peering through the bloodied glass and screaming, ‘You think you can lock me out, huh?! HUH?! YOU CAN’T. I’LL BREAK MORE WINDOWS. I’LL DO IT, I SWEAR I WILL. LET ME IN!’
I calmly walked over to the door and cautiously opened it and immediately got punched in the face. I called her dad and told him to come pick up his daughter before I called the cops. He told me to call the cops.
She had like a five-year run on ‘The Dirty’ afterward, and now she thinks she’s an Instagram model posting only three types of photos; her duck face, her 3-year-old son, and her partying in Vegas. I only know this from the updates my friends provide; she was cray so there’s no way I’d be lurking on that.”
It All Started With A Cat
“My cat disappeared one day, which was strange because it was a friendly cat. What made it weirder was my upstairs neighbor ran down the stairs screaming that my ex had somehow convinced both of her dogs to jump out the window to their deaths.
My ex hated those dogs, they were big and noisy, and ran around the upstairs apartment playing all the time. As such, she started a bit of a war the with upstairs neighbor who was herself, pretty nuts. I stayed out of it. My ex had said several times that she was ‘going to kill those dogs,’ but I passed it off as just being annoyed with the constant noise. I didn’t like it either.
The incident, whatever it was, happened while I was at work. I came home to the crazy neighbor screaming at my crazy ex about how my ex somehow had coaxed the dogs to jump from the window. Now, my ex was very petite, and these were big dogs, so there was no way she could have broken into the neighbor’s apartment and physically thrown the dogs from the window. I’ve owned a few dogs in my life, and no matter how stupid they are, they were never so dumb as to just fling themselves out a window.
Now, I have no idea what actually happened, and to this day (all this happened like 20 years ago), I can’t explain it. At all. BUT, at this point I did start looking at my ex from the corner of my eye, wondering.
I couldn’t pin the cat on her. There wasn’t really anything that unusual, he was an indoor outdoor cat, so any number of things may have happened to him – a neighbor may have thought he was a stray and taken him in, he may have been hit by a car while he was out on a prowl, I have no idea. It’s more of a ‘in retrospect, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that crazy ex killed him’ thing.
In addition to this strange behavior, my ex also attacked me with scissors and a knife on separate occasions. She also blew some guy in his car outside our apartment. The kicker, though, was when she turned on her hairdryer and threw it in the shower with me.
The scissors attack, and later the knife attack, proved beyond a doubt that she was dangerous. But both happened in the heat of a moment, during arguments. She was quite petite, and I was much faster than her, so I had little trouble disarming her without really being in harm’s way myself. I mean, it wasn’t like she was going to just try to kill me in my sleep in cold blood, right? Yeah…
And then there was another attack, where she tried to mace me in our apartment.
Inside. Windows closed. I just backed up, and raised one eyebrow, like, ‘What are you even doing?’
The mace just settled in a big cloud in the middle of the room, missing me entirely. This REALLY made her mad, so she charged in for another go with her can of mace and straight into the cloud she’d just created. She dropped like a rock. I rolled my eyes as I helped her clean herself off.
But at this point, the relationship was pretty much over, it was just a matter of actually, officially ending it. Which neither of us really seemed to want to do.
All of these things, of course, happened over a few years, and of course in the time between these instances, it was all normal boyfriend/girlfriend stuff, shopping, vacations, laughter, dinners and talking about the future, and of course arguments and fights, some her fault, some mine, most we were both to blame. It wasn’t like it was two or three years of nothing but crazy 100% of the time. Relationships aren’t that simple.
Near the end, we had both sort of stopped caring, that’s when I caught her blowing a guy in a car outside the apartment. That was the ‘Welp, this is 100% done’ moment. It was failing before but I had hopes we could still work though it or something. But nope. It was over.
So I set my mind and attention to finding a new place. I didn’t even want to bother with fighting over the apartment, it wasn’t THAT nice. I just wanted out. Oddly, we were getting along fine now. We had both accepted it, or so I thought. One day, I came home before her and hopped in the shower. The past several days had actually been great. Laughs, lovemaking, cooking. Like a normal couple. She came home while I was still in the shower, walked in the bathroom, turned on her hairdryer, and without a word, without emotion, just threw it in the shower with me. Just a dead eyed stare.
I pulled a Matrix slow motion action jump, arms out, water droplets slowly flying out in some sort of hyper reality, as if, well, someone had just thrown a hairdryer in your shower. Then I got dressed and walked out, for good this time.
The last time I was in that apartment was to get my things later with an army of friends.”
Talk About A Double-Standard
“She became my ex, but not before we booked and paid for a non-refundable trip to Thailand for two weeks.
Fast forward seven months; we haven’t really spoken, but it’s time to go to Thailand together, and we decide we’re going to be adults about this and enjoy the trip to the other side of the planet together. Okay, no problem. That’s an admirable decision for both parties.
Once we’re in Thailand together, sharing a room (and a bed), she informs me she has a new boyfriend (wow, that was fast after our many years together, but kudos). One day, while I’m in the shower, she goes through my phone and reviews all of my text messages. Then she flips her lid because I’ve been talking/texting other girls.
That’s right, the girl with the new boyfriend is foaming-at-the-mouth rage screaming at me for moving on with my life.
That’s when she became my crazy ex.”
What Kind Of Message Was She Trying To Send?
“In college, I had a girl I used to hook up with for like a year.
She came over and invited her friends one night. I walked out to our patio area and literally talked to one of her friends for maybe 15 seconds. Two hours later, we were leaving my apartment and we were the last two to leave. She stopped me and poured her entire drink on my head in punishment for trying to hook up with her friend. So I told her to get out and that our situation was over.
My roommates and I went out to a bar for a couple of hours and come back to find our apartment a mess, but only the common area and my room. She poured drinks all over my bed, and my room was also covered in dog food. I guess she was trying to send a message. I called this chick and politely told her she was out of her mind and if I saw her again near my apartment again, I would be calling the cops.
Having said that, she was hands down the best chick I’ve ever hooked up with. But as Mr. George Bluth said, you never marry crazy.”
This Is Another Thing “Natural” Supplements Can’t Fix
“Against the advice of her doctors, family and friends, my ex went off her meds and started self-treating her depression and mood swings with ‘natural’ supplements, herbs, and nutricuticals – along with a fair amount of heavy drinks.
It took less than three months for her life to spiral out of control. She lost her job, her apartment, had a two-foot stack of unpaid bills on the kitchen table and a week’s worth of dishes in the sink. Any offer of help or assistance was rebuffed as ‘interference.’
One day, she just packed whatever stuff would fit into her hatchback and blew out of town without telling anyone. She went totally off the radar for most of the people in her life – the one sister she spoke to knew that she was alive, but that was about it. She moved in with some married biker dude who ‘gets her,’ as she put it – I later heard that she ‘got’ a nice STD from him as well… so there’s that.”
The “Two-Week Anniversary” Was A Sign Of Things To Come
“I dated a girl my freshman year at university for three weeks. That’s right, not a full month. I noticed that I needed to bail when she asked to celebrate our two-week anniversary. Like really celebrate.
After an awkward week, I managed to break up with her, only to truly unlock the depth of her pool of crazy.
She called my phone 500 times, and left hundreds of crazy screaming/crying voicemails, all in one day. When I didn’t respond that day, she took to the internet. She found my mother’s contact information via LinkedIn and called her countless times and even sent her emails.
When all of this failed, she sent her meathead brother and his posse of upside-down triangle-shaped men to my house in broad daylight to stir it up a bit. Which neither my parents nor the neighbor, a fairly young former Marine and his new wife, appreciated. After much police involvement, and a few drawn weapons, the crazy witch gave up… or so we thought.
I still get a call about every two months and letters in the mail asking to meet up and ‘work things out.'”
Their Snake Was Nicer Than Their Ex
“I woke up one morning with my 9mm in my face with the slide already pulled back. I got the weapon away from her eventually and to make a seven-year story short, I filed a restraining order which the judge did not grant (her crying did not help when the judge asked her why she had acted so desperate when he read what I had written about her past of violent behavior).
She then left the courtroom and I followed a good 25 feet behind her. The bailiff stopped me and told me to give her some space. I told him, ‘I’m the one getting the restraining order!’
I also now understand why when I moved her away from her parents, brother and sister, seven years earlier, they waved us off in a very ‘Beverly Hillbilly’ way. I found out why.
She also chased off all my friends and family and was always threatening to kill my pet boa constrictor, Scorsby, who had a much sweeter disposition.”
Depression And Steroids Made A Bad Situation Worse
“I didn’t start dating my first girlfriend until I was in my late 20s. Finally, it seemed, after years of dates, no replies, and rejection, it seemed like the trend was finally broken!
She was a work colleague of mine and, despite my friends and family members warning to NOT DATE SOMEONE AT WORK, I did not abide since I was so taken and surprised someone would be interested in me, I thought she was one of the most beautiful women I have met in body and mind. She was dorky, energetic, and seemed to be very mature especially considering my absolutely awful performances in the bedroom – which did get better with time and experience.
We dated for a year and I finally felt such strong feelings for her. I remember waking up next to her and just smiling so much feeling like I found someone who could inspire me and I could look up to and rely on. However, after a year, a new guy started working in our company. He was a bicyclist, cross-fit, and pretty attractive guy (even by my notice). A bit after he joined, I noticed she became more and more distant. We then got into a fight over her not wanting to go spend a weekend at my aunt’s island and then she hit me with the ‘can we talk’ text soon after. Her delivery was quick and efficient. She said all the nice things: ‘I am not ready for a long-term relationship,’ ‘You are amazing,’ ‘I need to focus on me and my career now.’
I was so sad I was actually surprised. I thought we made up over the trip issue, but then BAM this happened. I didn’t know what to do, I sat at my computer dumbfounded looking at ‘Cheezeburger Cat’ pics trying to make sense of it. My mind was numb. At first, I thought she was genuine and we could just be friends – NOPE!
Within a week of dumping me, she was at lunch with the other guy, he was going over to her desk, and after a month they were leaving the office together.
I cannot describe how much that hurts. I tried to get transferred, I tried to find another job, I tried to work from another location to no avail. And for eight months straight, I watched them together. In the halls, in the cafeteria, in the company gym. The all time worst part was that she would look at me like I was some kind of monster. She saw me with such un-ending fear and disgust in her eyes, it drove me a bit crazy.
And crazy I did become. I started experimenting with steroids, weight gainer powder, heavy workouts and power lifting, boxing, and self harm (punching, belt whipping, and low level cutting). Eventually, the roids, supplements, and lifting bore fruit and I went from a tall skinny guy to a tall meathead. However, as many know, roids and supplements spike testosterone which can spike anger easily. And when you have someone who is in a crippling depression getting their heart broken every day for days, weeks, and months – they lose it. I lost it.
I freaked out one night – Valentine’s Day of all days – and drank a liter of Grey Goose and began yelling/screaming at everything. My best friend and roommate was terrified. Eventually, I couldn’t take it. I took some Tylenol to thin the blood and walked into the bathroom with a knife and cut open my left arm. I bled out for a bit and – unbeknownst to me – my roommate did call the cops when he realized I was in the bathroom a bit too long and was silent – even the crying stopped. The EMTs arrived and stabilized me. After that it was a hard few months of rehab at a psych ward and a lot of anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and sleep aids.
Once I got out and returned to work, she was still there – dumped the guy a bit after word got out I was in the hospital. And she began to see how big and utterly monstrous I became. I did not look at her with smiles and happiness anymore, there was only utter hatred and anger in my eyes. I honestly have never really recovered.
She tried on multiple occasions to get me fired and poison the office against me. However, finally, I got another job and left the company I had been with for six years.”
We’re Better Off Apart
“As soon as I ended up with my current girlfriend, I quickly realized how I had been manipulated by my previous girlfriend. My ex girlfriend (we dated for about three years in the end of high school) had horrible anger issues, self-diagnosed bipolar disorder, attachment problems, validation issues, motivation issues, and other delusions.
The worst part about it was that I wasn’t the one who had pulled the trigger on the breakup in the first place.
And that’s not to say I was perfect either. I lied, and had become mentally disconnected from that relationship months prior to our relationship. She changed my personality so much that I still see flashes of her anger and malcontent in myself and it scares me quite a bit.
We found ourselves so engrossed in the idea of having a serious relationship that we beat each other to death to keep it alive in any way we possibly could. She had attachment problems and had to have a boyfriend or she was unhappy. I thought throughout the entire relationship that she was far out of my league and I would never get anyone better so I stayed. We both hung onto our horrible high school drama for so long that I feel there is a permanent mark on both of us because of it.
What haunts me the most is the sweet bliss that came with the good times. When we weren’t fighting, when we were getting along; things felt just perfect. When things were good, the stresses of life seemed to melt away.
But when it was bad, it was nasty. We both were catty, we both were insulting, we both said horrible, intentionally hurtful things to each other.
I hope that she’s happier now. I know that I am.”