A few years ago I was in a ridiculous relationship.
I honestly can’t believe that it lasted so long, but it is a testament to how far I’ve come in hindsight.
Looking back, now it’s clear that I was always with an emotional abuser who did everything he could to control me. Whenever he was upset with me, my ex-boyfriend had a million tactics to try to get back at me. Sometimes he would call my family and tell them blatant lies to make me look like an insane person. Other times, he would try to control me through physical torture and mental anguish. His favorite way to impart this unique punishment was utilizing the heating and cooling system to drive me to the brink of insanity. You see, when we moved in together he promptly installed a smart thermostat in the house. At first, I thought this was going to be a great way for us to reduce our energy bills and properly maintained the central heating and cooling system. In reality, it was just a way for him to monitor and control me through the thermostat. My ex immediately put child locks on the smart thermostat and began to use the air quality control device to make me miserable when he wasn’t in the house. If we had a fight, you can guarantee that he would turn down the central cooling system to about 50 degrees before leaving for the weekend. I couldn’t change the thermostat settings and I had nowhere to go, so I would get stuck in the ice cold house with all of the windows open. Then, he would tell me it was my fault for our high energy bills that month and all the additional repair services we needed from the HVAC repair dealer. No matter what I did to escape his heating and cooling torture, there was always a reason why everything was my fault. Never again.
