Mix tapes as psychological warfare
When my psychotic ex and I broke up about 2 years back, we were living together and were stuck in the same flat together for a month or so before she found a new place and the lease ended. We managed to encamp ourselves in separate rooms (she, naturally ending up with the double bed and me with the shitty sofa), but obviously shared bathroom and kitchen facilities gave many opportunities for furious conflict that she was all too happy to take up on.

To give this a little context, the only reasons that we had been together for the 18 months that we had were her repeated threats to kill herself if I left her, and general tendency to resort to sulking and muttering about death whenever anything didn't go her way, or sometimes for no reason at all just to keep me on my toes.

So when we did finally break up, the matter of her mental health was a bit sensitive (despite the fact that she had in fact ended the relationship, although in her mind the fact that I agreed to end it as well and then subsequently didn't change my mind when she did 10 minutes later means that I did it...). Knowing this, she compiled a CD designed to put me on edge as much as possible about her state of mind and to make me feel as guilty as possible about ending the relationship (even though I hadn't). If I recall the track listing it was something like:

Green Day: Wake me when September ends
Celine Dion: All by myself (this was a woman who *hated* Celine Dion, ffs)
Mariah Carey: I can't live (if living is without you) (ditto hating Mariah Carey)
Opeth: Closure
Linkin Park: By Myself
Evanescence: Hello
Alice in Chains: Down in a Hole
Radiohead: Exit Music
Muse: Thoughts of a dying Atheist
NIN: Something I could never have
HIM: Join Me in Death

She would have this on repeat, at deafening volume, all day, with her door locked, and would refuse to speak to me, presumably to keep me guessing about how she was feeling (she knew that, however much I hated her, for reasons I'm sure will come up in a future qotw - some awesome stories there - I didn't want her dead). One time, after a particularly long session of this musical warfare (and I used to quite like some of those songs too), I peered in through her window (the door being locked) only to discover that she wasn't even in - the mad bint had gone out and left the musical equivalent of a damn good waterboarding on repeat just to drive me insane...

She sent me an email a couple of months back saying that she had fallen off her moped and dislocated her shoulder.

Good. I hope they have the greatest hits of James Blunt at the hospital...



Woo, first post!
(Axeman Jim, Fri 8 Feb 2008, 15:31, Reply)