fancyham Sat 02-Nov-19 20:52:52

I've NC'd because this could be outing. I'll try to make this concise as my head's in a muddle and need a bit of a MN reality check.



Am generally not too great this week, tapering off gabapentin (grim) after a nerve root block for a years worth of crippling sciatica. I smoke the occasional joint. I know exactly where it comes from, and nobody is being exploited. I feel fairly fucking fragile, physically and mentally.



I've used the same odd job man for a few years, and asked him ages ago if he could do a job for me and I got a call out of the blue to ask if the job still needed doing. He's a religious fanatic, and I usually humour him (fucking social conditioning ). But during a tea break he brought up the subject of evolution, and said he believed it. I found this interesting and asked him about it, and if he wondered why humans evolved so differently to other animals. He replied he didn't believe humans evolved and that we were made by god .



At this point I began to grin a bit because I genuinely thought he was joking, to have made such a contradictory statement. He went on to mutter something like, well it's what I believe and it's too late to change now (I managed to stifle the urge to tell him about sunken cost fallacy ).



Then (I didn't realise at the time) he steered the conversation around to cannabis, how when he smoked it he became arrogant, full of himself, full of "false confidence" and would go out and start fights with people. I said how odd, doesn't affect me like that. <kicks self now> Straight away he jumped in with "Oh but that's ILLEGAL!" I thought he was joking (I know, I really am shit at reading people ) and I jokingly said, "you wouldn't dob me in, would you?"



Instead of laughing and saying no, he went quiet, eventually saying that he hadn't even thought about it, but now I'd put the idea into his head.... I must have looked [confusion] because he said "are you OK"? in a sickly faux concern and got up and came towards me with his arms outstretched. He looked very pleased with himself. I stood up, arms folded and said shouldn't you get back to work. When he left he said he would pray for me and that he loved me



He completely fucked the job up (hadn't listened to what I asked him to do, and neither did he have the right skills). I contacted him about this and he got really angry, and kept shouting me down and that he would charge me again to rectify it. I remained calm. He got more and more angry, eventually shouting not to pay it. He invoiced me about 3 X more than he usually would.



I have just received a text from him;

"hi, am concerned about you, would like to bring elder from church. There's nothing in this for me other than making sure you're ok."



My reply; "No thanks, and completely inappropriate. A tradesman has assessed the damage. He said it won't be possible to rectify until spring and that you should have known this type of job should only be done in warmer/drier weather. Can I ask what you're concerns are?"



He replied; "You are paranoid, comes with the drugs, which own you. sorry about the job, the offer of help still stands."



Withdrawing from gabapentin is quite the emotional roller coaster as it is, (laughing one minute, tears the next) and this isn't helping. I spent the last year in chronic pain, and I have no idea how I pulled myself through it. Now this twat trying to blackmail me into joining his cult. Please wonderful, sane, critical thinking wise MNers reassure me that I'm not the loopy one.