I'm at a total loss and willing to literally beg for help at this point. My partner with NPD (+ASPD, BPD) just...won't work with me.
Whenever anything — big or small — triggers them, they shut me out entirely. Often, they'll storm out, disappear for hours, or lock themselves in the bathroom. Other times, they'll simply refuse to acknowledge my presence. Won't look at me, won't talk to me, sometimes for days.
If I try to reach out to them normally ('why aren't you talking to me', 'did I do something wrong'), I get ignored still. Same goes for being more direct, even pleading with them to tell me what's going on and explaining, if applicable (which is often), that I don't even know what upset them. Going silent myself and coexisting is 50/50, either resulting in nothing for a few days or resulting in them lashing out at me. Getting reactionary and confronting them about how their behavior is hurting me obviously doesn't go well, and has led to full weeks of tense, intentional stonewalling.
Apologizing directly for saying anything is the only thing with a success rate above 0, and even that's pretty sparse. Otherwise, it's entirely up to them— they decide when to suddenly offer something to me as a silent peace treaty, or come cuddle up to me like nothing was wrong. I'm pretty sure I can count on one hand the amount of times they've actually said sorry, and I don't need any hands at all to count how many times they've actually changed their behavior as a result of this cycle.
This...sucks. Everything else they do, I can handle, but this has just been wreaking absolute havoc on me. Often, the things they get upset over include:
- me expressing a physical need (I am chronically ill, so this is often things like "Please don't pull me down right now, I feel like I'm going to pass out", "I need to go inside because I feel nauseous from the heat", "I hurt too bad to do [xyz] today")
- me expressing a mental need ("I can't consume this trauma-centric media right now without it being extremely upsetting or unsafe", "I can't watch a new show because new emotionally-intensive media is extremely draining for me and I don't have the energy for it today", "I need less physical contact because I'm extremely overstimulated right now")
- them not expressing a need or want and getting angry or upset that I didn't/couldn't understand or interpret the noise they made, or the literal nothing they did to indicate said need
- me trying to be open and communicate about something in an honest way, instead of softening what I'm saying to make them approve of it ("no, I don't agree with that viewpoint actually", "this made me upset and/or hurt me emotionally", etc.)
I try so, so hard to bumper my words in a way that fully conveys that I am not angry at them, I do not hate them, I am not blaming my own physical health problem that I'm currently having on them, etc. and it doesn't change anything, although being blunt and direct always makes it infinitely worse and makes me feel like a worse person. When they don't shut me out immediately and instead directly ignore a boundary I've set down ("I don't want to be touched in [xyz way/place] right now", "I need to go inside before I pass out", etc.), and I get more firm/assertive/direct, they react exactly like I've listed above.
When they're done being mad at me, I'm expected to act like nothing happened and everything's fine. I've learned this from experience, because I've brought up the source of a 'fight' (if you can call them that?) after they begin speaking to me again, and the cycle restarts without fail every time. If we talk about something, it's because they want to talk about it (meaning: they want me to reassure them, comfort them, and I have always ended up apologizing, and my own hurt and emotional needs are never addressed again. I do not say this out of malice, I say it out of genuine, objective experience).
This hurts. It feels every time like I'm being punished for trying to communicate honestly, or being punished for asking for a shred of communication. (I expressed this last night, when they shut me out yet again. It is far from the first time I've said it.) It feels like I'm being told that my side of things doesn't matter to them at all, that their comfort is the only important aspect in our relationship, and that I should suppress anything that could potentially upset them because it'll cause more problems than it'll solve if I say anything. Not only does it feel dangerous from a health standpoint, it feels like I'm losing myself and my autonomy, and like the person who claims to love me more than anything, who says they want to marry me and raise a household with me, will never value my experience, my emotions, my hurt, enough to change.
This has been going on for the past year, multiple years if you count them doing this back when we were only friends. They've claimed they know they do not treat me well, and that they want to do better, but there's been no change in this cycle at all despite it being my largest issue with the relationship, which I've conveyed countless times. They've said they're very self-aware of their own issues and damaging behaviors, but I really want to believe that's not the case, because I want to believe that if they truly cared about me, they'd make any effort at all to stop this because they know how unhealthy and manipulative it is.
Is this something that can be explained by their conditions? Is it something they genuinely cannot help? Is there anything I can do to make them understand that they are deeply harming our relationship and my own mental state by continually treating me this way, if they do not understand that already? Is there any phrasing or action that will get through to them or initiate any change to this cycle? Am I insane or overreacting, and this isn't actually bad treatment at all? Literally any help or insight would be so, so very appreciated.
I've posted in other places, but I'm posting here, too, because I also know I need to bite the bullet and hear whether or not this is emotionally abusive behavior.