Hi all, 

I'm new to thing posting thing but here is what happened to me. I'm pretty sure I have just left a sociopath. I thought I had met the perfect man online and he asked me to marry him so I packed up my 3 little dogs, who were like my children, and moved them to the other side of the world to be with him. He told me he was a dog lover, he actually told me a lot of things which I later found to be false. He would lock my little dogs outside in 0c temperatures for an hour at a time, telling me that's why they have coats and it is because they were so naughty and that was my fault. They didn't have to do anything for him to yell at them and put them outside. He quit his job and would come and pick me up from my full time job and I got to hear all the way home how horrible my little dogs were. Our bills were piling up and he was sitting at home, not doing any housework and wanted a medal every time he washed the dishes. He withdrew his affection and I got to go to bed every night by myself while he slept on the sofa. We had to give up our rented house, our car was going to be repossessed and we had to move in with his sister. I went to clean the car out and found cards with postmarks dated whilst we were married from another woman professing her love for him so I got into his phone and found he had been speaking to her on Viber the night before and I confronted him. He took the phone and left the house and when he returned he told me he had broken the phone and that I had imagined that it was only the night before he had been talking to her as he hadn't spoken to her for months. Without the phone I had no proof. I got into his Skype account and found that he had a 2 hour video Skype with her whilst I was at work. He tried to tell me it wasn't 2 hours as it kept dropping out and I wouldn't accept it. He apologised and told me that she was just a friend and he was only guilty of not ending the friendship sooner. He got angry when Ifound it hard to trust him. He gaslighted me at every opportunity and had me questioning my reality and memory. His family were all on his side and thought I was just crazy and homesick. I took 2 of my dogs to a no kill policy shelter so he couldn't emotionally hurt them anymore and his reaction was to say "now I am going to have to put up with you crying about them" and "that will make it easier for you to leave me if you want to". I kept 1 little dog, the one he seemed to have warmed to the most but that was short lived. I conformed to what he wanted, fed his ego and bided my time. A blessing came when it was time for me to put in a new visa application and we wouldn't be able to afford it. He organised for us to move in with his mother and he again quit his job (he was employed for maximum 10 months in 2.5 years sporadically as every boss he ever had seemed to be horrible to him). I told him we would apply for him to move over to my country. When I arrived back in my own country he got angry I got a haircut and the next night he got angry about something I had no control over and refused to say he loved me. It was like he just realised he couldn't control me anymore. I told him where to stick it. He has since sent me messages pretty much justifying his actions and with no meaningful apology. He has given a hollow apology "I'm sorry if I hurt you" but I've told him I'm not buying it anymore and our marriage is over. I am now getting counselling and hope to be stronger soon. My head is still spinning and I am starting to get my wits back and trusting my own memories of how things were rather than his gaslighted false reality. He kept saying to me that I need to wake up to myself and get over my anxiety episode but I've told him I am well, maybe too well and he is the problem. I have spent too long living in a dark, hopeless place. Hello world, I am back!!!!