Lack of boundaries, avoiding communication, seeking novelty and taboo stimulation -- I don't know if my husband's behavior stems from his ADHD or if it's some other issue, but I'm in a private little hell right now.
When dating, my husband hid behind a conservative religious upbringing to put the brakes on any sexual activity. A few make-out sessions were it. He instructed me not to masturbate, and since I was also from a conservative background (and, I realized later, I instinctively obey men when they tell me what to do), I obeyed him. He says he started watching porn, in the family room, with the sound off, when he was barely pubescent. He was wracked with guilt. He said he didn't know what masturbation was until he was in high school and he was horrified to find out. He said that, after he hit puberty, he forced his little sister to kiss him several times, shortly before she was hospitalized for a mental health breakdown.
Once, I fell asleep while fooling around with him, and when I woke up, he was having vaginal sex with me. I rolled away from him, cried, and he told me that I'd been awake and I'd wanted it. "What made you think I was awake?" I asked. "You were talking," he said. "What was I saying?" I asked. "You were saying, 'What's going on?'" The next day I kept breaking down in tears and he kept yelling at me. So I jammed it into the back of my head, along with the knowledge of what he'd done to his sister.
When we married, he refused to have sex with me. I'd wanted to buy a corset or some other lingerie for the honeymoon; when I pulled up the Frederick's of Hollywood website, he covered his eyes and said it was pornographic and it would be wrong if he looked at it. We didn't have sex on our wedding night, and when, on the honeymoon, I brought out some hilariously trashy cheap juniors' lingerie I'd bought as a gag -- he got angry and made me throw it away.
For months, he'd tease and flirt in the daytime, then roll over and ignore me as soon as we got into bed. I cried myself to sleep next to him. Finally, he told me it was because we were using a barrier method of birth control, and that if he had sex with me while using birth control, he'd go to Hell. I insisted we see a counselor, but he wouldn't discuss sex with her, either.
Things got a little better for a little while. We still averaged sex between twice a month and once every two months. I felt like I was going insane. Then we had a child -- which he'd insisted on, because Catholic -- and suddenly he was fine with birth control. But the frequency of sex didn't increase. On the rare occasions that he didn't whine and roll over when I tried to instigate sex, he tried to anally penetrate me, immediately denying it and saying he was just "missing." Eventually I caved and had anal sex with him several times, but he hates lubricant and is rough in bed, which left me bleeding the next day, so I told him I wasn't willing to do it any more. After six years with maybe two orgasms, I told him I wanted to buy a vibrator to use together. He wouldn't discuss it. I pulled up a bunch of product listings and asked him to pick one, since we'd be using it together, and I left him alone so he'd feel more comfortable. When I came back he said he know I was going to do whatever I wanted to do anyway so it didn't matter what he thought. I went to clear the Amazon history and found he'd spent the time on a gaming forum.
A few weeks ago, I woke up and my husband was digitally penetrating my anus. I was horrified, and I foolishly tried to go along with it -- because if I wanted it, it wasn't sexual assault, right? But in the morning, I told him never to make sexual contact with me while I was sleeping, ever, and never to penetrate my anus unless I gave him permission. He apologized but insisted I had been awake and enjoying it.
A few weeks later, he did it again. This time he insisted that HE had been asleep. He went online and diagnosed himself with a sleep disorder. He said he'd see a counselor. (He never made an appointment.) I moved into my kid's room. I just sobbed through my friends' wedding; I've been crying through weddings for years now, thinking, "How could I be so foolish?" and "What are they getting into?"
I was molested by my father on two occasions when I was eight years old. He crawled into my bed and forced me to touch him. After my husband molested me, I thought I was more annoyed than traumatized, but I've been getting more and more upset as the days go by. Yesterday, I realized that I'd mentally called my husband by my father's name when I was sorting everybody's laundry out. I can't stand to be near him. Financially, I'm not in a place to tell him to leave, but I'm working my way there. Our child is exhibiting oppositional behavior and I feel physically attacked by the people I'm living with. I'm exhausted, since I run a business from home, have to keep it clean for my clients, and my husband and child trash the place.
He's out gaming again tonight. Left clothing and dishes everywhere. I'm just so tired. I'm in my mid-thirties, and I feel old and without hope; I look at other couples and I wonder if they actually like living with each other and whether my husband is right when he says I'm a miserable person and will never be pleased with anything.
Have any of you suffered sexual abuse in your ADHD marriages? I know risky or too-frequent sex is common in ADHD, but are other disordered sexual behaviors also linked to ADHD?
Pestle
Submitted by Brindle on
Big hugs to you. How very distressing!! You did a good thing by drawing the boundary. Does the boundary crossing come with a consequence? Perhaps next time (I hope there is NOT a “next time”), you could move to a different bedroom? Or maybe you’d like to do that now and not wait for a possible next time?
I’ve not read that ADHD directly involves sexual assault, but I’ve read that ODD can involve sexual assault. ADHD and ODD are sometimes comorbid, so it is a possibility. But whether that’s the explanation or not, this is not ok, so don’t let that sway you.
Also, don’t let him convince you that YOU are the problem. You are not. That’s his way of avoiding what he’s done. It’s a very immature way to respond, and it’s lies he is telling to you and telling to himself. Stand against that and don’t buy into it. It feels crazy-making because he is trying to twist it, and it IS crazy, but it isn’t you who is bringing the crazy.
I got a little emotional reading this....
Submitted by c ur self on
I'm giving you my opinion based on your post....
Your husband is mentally sick...He has a wife who desires him in a normal way even after being abused as a child...That is huge on your part, to be able to separate sinful acts from the beauty and rightness of marital sex....
You should never let him tough you, and never sleep in the bed w/ him...Until he goes to a counselor and testifies to you that he has disrepected you and that his view of sex has been distorted....Porn does that as you know....
Never allow yourself to not hold marital sex in high regard, in natural ways....Your husbands behavior is linked to Sinful Carnal will...Not adhd.....
c
Rape
Submitted by 1Melody1 on
In my marriage I have the opposite issue. My husband is addicted to porn and can not get excited by being with me. We have had no sexual contact in 8 years. I consider this a form of abuse since he is meeting his needs via his outlet of choice while I am expected to accept no intimacy. Masturbating is fine, but it's not the only thing I want to do.
But Pestle... you are being raped. I know you are trying to call it anything but. But it is marital rape, plain and simple. Maybe a one time "whoops... you weren't awake!?" would be believable... MAYBE... in a healthy relationship. But it is sick of him to continue to do things and then blame you when he knows you are not consenting. IMO there is a lot more than ADHD going on with him.
You mentioned you are working your way towards leaving. I really think you should for your safety and mental health. Your child's safety, too (look what he did to his sister and to you... where would he draw the line?) In the meantime, I would document every incident with dates and details. Only if it is safe, perhaps try to record some of his actions or words so you have proof of his abuse and depravity if you need it later (for a settlement, custody, etc.).
A miserable person who won't be pleased with anything? Classic abuser blaming the victim. You don't deserve this. Mid thirties is young. Many find love and/or fulfillment much later in life.
My greatest empathy is with you and I hope you can get out of your situation quickly.
1melody1...I feel for you...I don't know how you stay...
Submitted by c ur self on
(In my marriage I have the opposite issue. My husband is addicted to porn and can not get excited by being with me. We have had no sexual contact in 8 years. I consider this a form of abuse since he is meeting his needs via his outlet of choice while I am expected to accept no intimacy. Masturbating is fine, but it's not the only thing I want to do.)
I agree with you, you are being abused also...Porn destroys natural sexual relationships...But IMO, regardless of why a husband or wife doesn't submit themselves (their bodies) to their spouse in natural ways, its abuse by way of abandonment...I don't mean physical illness (things that are not a choice, porn is a choice)...
But the only alternatives for the one being abandoned sexually is turn to something just as bad (more sin)...Or leave...I think I would leave....
c
Thanks, c ur self, for the supportive words
Submitted by 1Melody1 on
The alternatives are dreary and I completely agree with you. Without children in the picture, leaving would be my choice, too.
We have to free ourselves....
Submitted by c ur self on
Relationships become dead ends, and emotional traps when one or both parties loose respect for the other (or never had it)....These posts about forced anal penetration is a very good example of pure selfishness and disrespect...Of course there are ton's of other things many of us experience or dole out, that is screaming I'm all about me!....It's just that a husband who's mind is so sick and warped that he would violate his wife like that, is just hard to fathom...He doesn't deserve a wife to disrespect and degrade like that...(Truth be told, most husbands and some wives, like to experiment...but it's a huge difference when it's mutual, and love and respect is present above selfish acts...
I hate divorce, but I finally allowed my heart to be free about 8 or 10 months ago...(I realized no one was benefiting in what was going on, it had to change one way or the other) There is nothing that can keep me in a bad marriage anymore....One where both of us don't want (as identified by our actions and attitudes) to have a great relationship and do the work for that to happen....Once I became free, several things happened....I calmed way down emotionally because I didn't feel trapped by commitment any longer (Didn't feel the need to stressfully point out her lack of love and commitment, not my job)...It's become very easy to set boundaries to stop the chaos between us....It was very easy to go on w/ my life and focus on good things....She was a little in shock because she thought because of my Love for Jesus, that I would endure anything....But the words of truth concerning marriage or written to those who hunger and thirst for his righteousness...Freeing myself from a disrespectful person who isn't committed to her marriage vows, isn't violating the Father's truths..(IMO)....And besides I'm never alone, and would never use her sin for an excuse for my own....If I do that, then that identifies me....I just want the best for us both, (loving and peaceful life) and if she (or I) aren't willing to fully invest in all area's of this union, then we have nothing, and no hope of having anything that mirror's God's plan for our marriage....You can't take control, manipulation and disrespect stir it up in a pot, dump it out and have a marriage of love and unity....
I don't have children at home....Although I do have 3 grand babies who have only known one Mimi...And they think the sun rises and sets in her...But, if she loves them the way she seems, she will still see them and love them...
I hope we live together happily for the rest of our lives on this earth....But, I am willing to live alone if it's going be to much, for either of us to fully invest, and be happily in love doing it...Why would someone waste the beautiful days that we are given as a gift, being miserable because they don't love their role as a husband or wife??
Not everyone has this peace...Not everyone has peace w/ going or staying....I didn't for over nine years...I was determined to have a wonderful marriage....(my own denial and thinking to highly of myself)...But the switch will come on one day, (maybe) and the true picture of the dysfunctional reality you are trapped in...Will free your heart to find a peaceful life....
c
Boundaries
Submitted by AdeleS6845 on
My ex husband forced himself into me anally, without my permission. Since there is no lubrication in that area, I was in shock and in pain. I cried out and almost woke our children.
That was the last time he and I were intimate and not long after I filed for divorce. I put up with different types of abuse from him for over a decade, and violating me was more than I could bear.