Abusive relationships- how do I avoid them, and am I abusive?
Hey.
I meet girls mainly on the internet. I lost my virginity this way, to a girl who stood me up several times. She pulled all kinds of weird stuff on me- asking me if I loved her mid-sex, and later on presumably faking a suicide. Perhaps a little graphic of a detail, but I couldn't come because of how so much stuff was going through my head, trying to figure out why she would occasionally pull away from me only to come back and basically mount me. I experienced some derealization during that ordeal.
The next girl is also reluctant to meet me, despite being the one to confess to me. Admittedly, it's a little more understandable when you live in a neighboring country, but I was willing to go meet her first. She was very big on that we have to be exclusive, and after some thinking back and forth I agreed. More and more I felt like I wasn't allowed to hit on her, or say what I thought, because it might offend her. Realizing I'd be stuck in a relationship that draining if I didn't try to change things, I resolved to do something. She asked me what I thought of something she had done, and instead of just saying "that's great" I gave some constructive criticism. She went cold, and later said she was considering not talking to me for a week to punish me. We got agitated, and she again suggested not talking for a week. I agree. She, two days later, sends me a short message, something stupid like "bazinga". For any number of reasons, I didn't reply. She took this as an excuse to go see another guy because she thought I hated her. My best girl friend suggested she probably had someone else lined up, and that she didn't, as she explained it, "just branch out".
I'm fairly insecure but I recognize it. I can get urges to act like these girls but I feel like... asking someone I'm with "do you still like me? I'm sorry, I'm just feeling weird" isn't that terrible. These girls though... it felt like it was different. I don't like playing games like that, I'd really rather have an "open" relationship (communications-wise! Not that we meet other people) where the I'm basically friends with the one I'm with.
But I still recognize insecure behaviors in myself and that these girls are doing these things because they in turn are insecure.
So.
How do I avoid these relationships? How do I let them not affect me?
Am I possibly abusive? What can I do to, well, not be?