Dating your high school sweetheart sounds like an absolute fairytale until you realize you might just be dating a guy who peaked at seventeen. When you have been with someone for that long you expect them to be your ultimate safe space. You expect them to fiercely protect your peace. But one woman on Reddit recently discovered that her long term boyfriend was actually treating her mental health like a cheap punchline and her story is making everyone on the internet deeply furious.
The Original Poster is a twenty five year old woman who has been dating her twenty five year old boyfriend since their high school days. She was officially diagnosed with OCD when she was just seven years old. And to be perfectly clear we are not talking about the cute stereotype where someone just likes their desk to be super tidy. Her OCD manifests in doing things in sets of two fighting off terrifying recurring thoughts and dealing with intense anxiety. It is a daily battle that her boyfriend has known about since day one.
In the beginning of their relationship he actually seemed pretty supportive. He would playfully poke fun at her rituals and ask things like if she did it twice. She did not mind the lighthearted banter at first. But recently his behavior took a very dark and cruel turn. He stopped being a supportive partner and started actively doing things he knew would upset her and make her spiral just for his own twisted entertainment.
The cruelty really started to escalate at one point when they were hanging out with his friends. The guys caught the girlfriend doing one of her little habits where she has to crack her knuckles in a very specific way. The friends kind of laughed and casually asked what she was doing. Instead of defending the woman he loves the boyfriend looked right at his buddies and called her an OCD freak.
Being called a freak by the person who is supposed to love you the most is absolutely devastating. She knew he was supposedly joking but there is nothing funny about humiliating your partner in front of an audience. On a totally separate occasion he even looked at her and bluntly asked why she had to be so embarrassing. The sheer disrespect was already piling up rapidly before the final straw finally broke the camel’s back.
The breaking point happened the other day while the couple was taking a walk downtown. One of the girlfriend’s specific compulsions is picking up pennies for good luck. She admits she does not even genuinely believe in luck but her OCD makes her feel a deep physical need to complete the action. So she saw a penny on the sidewalk and naturally picked it up.
Her boyfriend noticed her holding the coin. When they walked past the river he snatched the penny right out of her hand and chucked it into the water. He intentionally triggered her condition just for kicks. Her mind instantly spiraled into a panic attack filled with scary intrusive thoughts about getting bad luck. She literally started to tear up right there on the sidewalk while he stood there completely unbothered.
When she asked him why he would do something so unbelievably mean he casually brushed it off and said it was not a big deal. She bravely reminded him that her OCD is a huge part of who she is and that little things like this completely set her off. His brilliant response was to tell her not to be so sensitive. Telling someone with a diagnosed anxiety disorder that they are being too sensitive is peak toxic behavior.
Refusing to be treated like a joke any longer she laid all her cards on the table. She brought up every single cruel thing he had done over the past few weeks. She looked him in the eye and stated that if he could not accept this part of her she did not want to be with him anymore. Then she pulled the ultimate power move. She called her mom to come pick her up and left him standing right there by the river.
It has been two days since she dumped him and he is currently blowing up her phone with desperate apologies. She ran to the internet feeling guilty and wondering if breaking up over a penny sounds stupid. The entire comment section immediately validated her choice. You do not break up over a piece of copper. You break up because your partner bullies you for fun. She needs to block his number permanently and find a man who would dive into that river to get her penny back.