recently I had a relationship that took a turn for the worst. I started working part time at a coffee shop in my town and found a girl that took a liking to me. Me also being intreseted, we started hanging out outside of work a lot. The more we hung out the more and started developinig feelings for eachother. Eventually both of us got together after a steamy night out despite my better judgement.

She had expressed being in a lot of abusive relationships, struggling with addiction to many substances in the past, and had terrilble parents and family. I empathized and thought I could be a better person in her life. at this point, I planned a camping trip for the two of us to get away from all the crazy for a bit.

fast forward, she moves out of her parents place and becomes very distant. me being concerned, I keep asking whats going on but she keeps pushing away. eventually after 3 weeks of her not responding, I ask if she ever really even wanted to be in a relationship with me and she said no. Devistated, I cancel and trip and avoid her during work. She then get’s frustrated that I’m not acting the same way around her anymore and that I had cancled the trip. I express to her how I felt about the situation and why I canceled the trip and I felt like she understood.

a few weeks later, after I get back from the camping trip I had planned where I had decided to go by myself, she texts me she’s feeling suicidal and needs some support right now. I drop everything and go to her place consul her as I’ve been there. she then expresses to me she’s been struggling with bpd for a while. I tell her if she ever needs help or needs anything from me to just let me know.

A week later, she starts to flirt with me again at work and I take it as she’s intrested in me again. despite my better judgement, I take the flirting too far by touching her butt briefly as she was showing me her holes in the back pockets of her pants, wiggling her fingers through. Without giving it a second thought, I do the same with my left hand thinking nothing of it as we had been intimate. After doing so, she looks disgusted and I say I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.

I then go to her place the next day with some snacks to appologize. She wasn’t home so I just left them at her door with a snapchat explain myself. She then takes a screenshot of my snapchat out of context, sends it to the police, and claims that I’ve raped her, sexually assulted her, and have been stalking her. claims we never had any kind of relationship and gets me thrown in jail for a couple of days.


TLDR: girl I’ve been dating for a few months makes false claims I’ve raped her and have been stalking her. Without question or evidence, I get thrown in jail and have been dealing with legal fallout, mental, emotional, and financial struggles since.

It’s been a few month since, lots of therapy sessions, tons of meds, and I’ve gone through most of the legal stuff. I’m now left feeling I’m no longer safe as a man. I’m so traumatized I finding it hard to leave the house anymore and increasling hard to talk to and trust others.

I guess what I really want to know is how can I protect myself as a man in the future from these kinds of things? I’ve asked my therapist, many of my friends, and family members to no avail. Most of them come from a religous background or havn’t dealt with anything remotly similar. Let me know your thoughts bellow.

  • @thantik
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    61 year ago

    I really don’t know any solid advice that I could give you that would be 100% foolproof, to be honest. Some women like to be chased, others don’t. Others are manipulative, and some are just normal honest people.

    The biggest piece of advice I ever got from a friend was “Would YOU date you?”. At the time, I wouldn’t. I learned to love myself for whoever I was and not to try to measure my life by having or not having a relationship. And don’t forget to work on yourself - working on yourself to the point where you can answer “Would YOU date you?” as a “YES”, will get you there eventually. Believe in yourself. If you can’t believe in yourself, how can others believe in you?

    • @[email protected]OP
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      21 year ago

      your totally right! at the time I thought I was comfortable with myself but looking back its been a rough journey to realize I never really did. part of me thinks thats the religious aspect of my past haunting me on top of being treated horribly by my extended family in the past. thank you for the great advice