Man Angry At His Husband For Planning Birthday Celebration For Him Despite Knowing About His Anxiety, Redditors React

"He knew this about me and chose to do it anyway"

Maryjane

• Published in Interesting
• April 2, 2024

Birthdays are an ideal occasion to host your friends for dinner and share photos with captions like "More life" or "Here's to another trip 'round the sun." However, if you're anything like the OP, strange emotions and downright melancholy may frequently overshadow what ought to be a joyful day, that's if you're feeling very extravagant. 

There are two kinds of individuals in the world: those who are not interested in celebrating their birthday, and those who love their birthdays so much that they celebrate them for a whole month. The OP happens to be among the former.

Many people experience anxiety or depression on their birthdays as a result of unfavorable events in the past, conflicts in the family, a dread of aging, or a failure to reach desired objectives. For the OP, he gets anxiety around his birthday and really doesn’t enjoy celebrating or being the center of attention.

The OP's completely fine with occasions like Christmas, anniversaries, and others’ birthdays. His family all know this, and every year he gets a few quick texts, and it’s done.

OP's husband also knows this, but he went ahead and started planning a birthday. He would drop hints that he was saving up for the OP's birthday, but the OP wasn't interested.

It got to a point where OP's husband wanted an advance on his check, and that was the final straw. Read the full story for yourself as you scroll down below.

The headline

OP's husband knows this very well

The OP woke up to him holding a birthday card and a gift bag

The OP was pissed that he ignored his wishes and went overboard in the process

And the comments roll in...

OP's husband ignored him

There is always an expectation

The OP left this in the comments

When I said "get a rise," I meant like if someone knows, for instance, that you are afraid of heights so they joke about taking you to visit the grand canyon. It was said with a wink or a smirk. At least, that's how I took it in the moment.

I do have bad anxiety around my bday and will take your advice to look into it more. It would be much easier to be like everyone else and just go with it. However, I also feel my partner has known this about me, but went ahead and did it anyway. If the situation was reversed, I would want him to have a good bday but I wouldn't push him toward something that clearly made him uncomfortable, and then get angry when he didn't want to do it.

Doing what makes one happy

For this Redditor, everyone is at fault

He's trying to be a good partner

OP's husband should have maintained boundaries

Needing some serious therapy

On people's birthdays, they take stock of their life goals and the successes and disappointments that they associate with a certain age. But the OP didn't want any celebrations yet his husband was bent on doing things his way.

Some Redditors apologized that this has been such an awful experience for the OP and has caused him so much concern. Share your advice for the OP in the comments section below and share this post as well.

Maryjane