Emotional Manipulation and Overlappers

Emotional manipulation can be sometimes very hard to spot. I once dated a guy who said a bunch of crazy things and listening to my friend's advice just ignore it, he's got a little mess in his head but nothing crazy you can't deal with, I simply ignored many of the crazy things that should have been nipped in the bud. Here's a list of things I identified and complied to be wary of:

- Our first couple of weeks dating and spending nights at my place. I noticed he was using my toothbrush to brush his teeth. Eek! The next day I bought him a toothbrush and we he went to brush his teeth he said: "Oh, you got me a toothbrush? Is that because you think I'm dirty?"

- He had a rash around his thighs. He was taking yoga classes and sweating profusely and that happens, especially if you wear tight clothes. I explained to him many possible reasons for that. He said: "How often do you wash your sheets?" Not acceptable. "How often do you wash yours?", given the fact that we never hung out at his place.

- My apartment was a little bit messy one night. He entered the door: "Oh, looks like you've been expecting me!" (sarcastically). In the morning, he tried to do push-ups: "hmmm. I guess no exercise today. Your floors are kind of dirty."

- After a long day on the beach. We come back to my place, I jump into the shower and ask him to make us a couple of cocktails. I get out of the shower and notice he's totally relaxed on my couch, playing on his phone and no cocktails in sight. I ask: "Where are the cocktails?", he replies: "I'm a guest in your house. Don't talk to me like that." I make the cocktails.

- At one time I noticed the unbalanced relationship we were having in terms of him being always over at my place and my never staying over at his apartment. I voiced out my concerns in a long telephone conversation, he couldn't really come up with any solution and just wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible. The next morning I get a set of texts ranging from "I don't deserve you, you're probably right." to "All I need right now is a good friend. I am not in a very good place right now in my life." I should have ended it right there. Yet, I kept going and begging for more.

- On our last night I told him his texts were emotionally manipulative. He defended himself and turned the tables around. The next morning he dumped me unbeknownst to me. He was dating someone else and I wasn't. That was my biggest mistake.