What should I do? (Roommate Question)

JohnCU

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Dec 9, 2000
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My roommate is bringing a girl over here tonight, and while he hasn't specifically told me to leave, he's asked me and hinted around. Now, they won't be having sex, because he's against pre-martial sex, but...

Why should I be considerate of him when he is never considerate of me? We live in the dorm, in a small room, and he wakes me up every morning and keeps me up every night. He'll talk on the phone when I'm sleeping and wake me up or leave the door open and yell at people who walk by. He even set his alarm this morning, a freaking Saturday morning.

I just absolutely despise this guy.
 

ndee

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Jul 18, 2000
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Originally posted by: Dismal
My roommate is bringing a girl over here tonight, and while he hasn't specifically told me to leave, he's asked me and hinted around. Now, they won't be having sex, because he's against pre-martial sex, but...

Why should I be considerate of him when he is never considerate of me? We live in the dorm, in a small room, and he wakes me up every morning and keeps me up every night. He'll talk on the phone when I'm sleeping and wake me up or leave the door open and yell at people who walk by. He even set his alarm this morning, a freaking Saturday morning.

I just absolutely despise this guy.

Sucks to be you. Only because he is an a-hole doesn't mean you have to be one too, right?
 

ChefJoe

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Jan 5, 2002
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Heh... sextiled or not from your dorm room... it'd be considerate to let them have their cuddle time and expect him to do the same for you.
 

Torghn

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Mar 21, 2001
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Originally posted by: ChefJoe
Heh... sextiled or not from your dorm room... it'd be considerate to let them have their cuddle time and expect him to do the same for you.

True, however if you think he wouldn't do the same for your then I wouldn't go out of my way to do him any favores.
 

Jhill

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Oct 28, 2001
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You should leave only after you set up one of those little hidden cameras.
 

Moonbeam

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Nov 24, 1999
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I would imagine that you are angry because your feel you are being taken advantage of but that you yourself aren't doing anything to deserve it, and further that you feel powerless to do anything about it. Not a good situation to be in. From where I stand, actually I'm sitting, I can't determine the truth. You may be as big a prick as he is, or it could be the reverse, that he's taking way more sh!t from you. People tend not to see these kinds of things, and they are also subjective. The things he does that bother you might not, if the situation was turned around, bother him at all.

So lets just assume that you have the facts right. My personal take on this is that you may be communicating the feeling of being put upon via body language and attitude, that you don't like him and he may get that message on an unconscious level. That's not going to make him really enthusiastic about being a buddy. He may interpret your hostility to completely other factors than the ones you mentioned. Seems to me you have an opportunity to negotiate, which is an opportunity to communicate. I would first ask myself why I'm not being direct here. As kids we learned the art of powerlessness. Do as your told, suffer in silence, no negotiation, sort of. We usually figure out how to break the bank by whining nagging, being impossible, etc.

But my point is that in general, we were taught to self efface and we're pissed about it. You need to see how you inhibit yourself from even knowing what you feel, from what your real needs are. They are generally a lot less than we think they are when we are inwardly free to express them than when we aren't.

So I suggest two things, figure out what you feel and learn to express it. In this case I think you have an opportunity to sit down with your roomie and discuss some things with him. I might say something like this. I have become aware that you relationship isn't going too good. I feel partly responsible for that. I'm new to this roommate thing and I thought that just not doing stuff to you that would piss me off was what it takes to get along. I'm beginning to see that we really need to actually clarify this a bit between us. I want to do that because I have a feeling you'd like to have the room to yourself tonight and I notice I don't want to do it. I'm feeling resentful. I don't like having that feeling. I would prefer to feel good about helping you out. The reason I don't is that I feel you aren't considering me and I also see that you may not know that or why. So what I want to do is lay out some of my needs. I want to open up a dialogue. I would like to negotiate some ground rules, and start with your major bones of contention.

Anyway, we are very unhappy people when we feel that we are getting the short end of the stick, and it usually leads to an explosion. Bottling up resentment isn't good for us and it isn't good for relationships. It always has its source in our past when we were made to feel that our wants was a burden, that we were being selfish and thoughtless of the needs of others. It makes us, in turn exactly like that, so absorbed in our needs that we are thoughtless, in turn, of the needs of others. The road out and up is learning what you feel, learning that a lot of what you feel is just old repressed unfulfilled need that goes away when we allow ourselves to feel it, and that once expressed no longer needle us making us both more fun to be around and more able not get what we really want.

Another way to express this is to say you need to stand up for your rights and demand then. But people always think in terms of force. They never get it that the rights they demand are generally at the two year old level. Inner freedom, knowing what is real and what is baggage from childhood, being able to express your childish feelings, somewhere else than directly in relationship, so you can drop them and grow is a different sort of thing. You have a right to respect and to dignity. The more you respect yourself and realize your inner dignity, the more you will command it naturally from others.
 

JohnCU

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Dec 9, 2000
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Whoa... that's very insightful, thanks.

You're right, I could be the problem, but I've asked him if I do anything that bothers him, and he says no.
 

Moonbeam

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Nov 24, 1999
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Well I hope you didn't take that as an accusation that you're the problem, I meant that when we have problems there's our end of it and the other person's end of it, not necessarily just one or the other. The main thing is finding a way to feel the sort of friendly self confidence that allows you to avoid the extremes of silent self martyrdom and bullying demands. That happens best, I think, when you're ok with your feelings. Anyway, good luck.
 

Moonbeam

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Nov 24, 1999
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PS, Here's a possible, I stress possible, not certain example of being indirect about what we feel because we don't give ourselves permission to feel certain things freely:

When you asked him if there's anything that you do that bothers him, it is possible that your feeling was, I want to tell you that there are things you do that bother me. I also feel kind of guilty about that. Jeez, I don't want to be, look, selfish or hurt his feelings so I'll broach the subject and after he tells me what's wrong with me, I can tell him. He, on the other hand, may have felt, oh boy, he wants to criticize me, I'd better pretend there's nothing wrong so he'll have no excuse to complain. All this goes on under the surface and it all comes from trying to avoid things. The more OK you feel about not always being wakened by somebody indiscriminately talking on phone, etc. and that doesn't seem unreasonable to me, the easier it becomes to know that is what is pissing you off, and the less it will piss you off because you will be more confident in tackling it head on.