A man plans his exit strategy after waking up to find his girlfriend pouring water into his ears.

Sometimes relationships just fall apart. Other times, there’s a special, groundbreaking “aha” moment when you know, hands down, it’s time to end it.

A man on Reddit is currently struggling with one of those “aha” moments. But the catalyst isn’t cheating, unkind words, or trust-shattering lies. It’s something so strange that even to him, “it doesn’t feel real.” And people are giving him one piece of advice: run.

His wife secretly pours water into his ears while he is deeply asleep.

A man makes his “exit plan” after he wakes up to find his girlfriend pouring water into his ears.

“I recently woke up to my girlfriend deliberately pouring water into my ears,” a man began on Reddit. “What is this behavior called?” Uh… weirdness, sir. I think the clinical term for it is “weirdness.”

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“I finally got most of the water out and my hearing is almost normal,” he continued. “I was amazed at how much water was there. I was amazed at how much my hearing was muffled.”

As you might imagine, the young man is distressed by this strange discovery — especially since it apparently went on for a lot longer than he initially thought.

For many weeks the man had the feeling that he had water in his ear, and for this reason he went to the doctor.

There’s probably nothing more irritating than having water in your ears that you just can’t get rid of. For this guy, it just kept going on and on—so much so that he went to the doctor.

“I met with a doctor and an ENT about my ear infection-related feelings,” he said. “They both reported nothing wrong.”

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Because of a history of ear infections in his youth, he was worried about what was going on. While doctors found nothing, it all became clear when he woke up one night.

“When she left the room, I lay on my back and some of the water came out,” he wrote. “My girl made that disappointing sound you make before you say, ‘Oh man.’”

What scared him the most was that “she didn’t even try to be quiet when she went back to bed.” She was texting on her phone, making a smacking sound, and walking in and out of the room—almost like she was trying to get caught.

He believes he has no choice but to come up with an “exit plan,” and virtually everyone on Reddit agrees with him.

The lack of explanation is probably what’s most disturbing. He’s noticed that his girlfriend struggles with mental illness and wonders if that’s related. Regardless, he’s not only uncomfortable, he’s scared.

Oddly enough, pouring water into someone’s ear—specifically the left one—in a process known as caloric vestibular stimulation was discovered in the 1990s as a temporary cure for everything from phantom limb pain to manic episodes. It’s also now used to check for abnormalities that can cause dizziness, hearing problems, and other conditions that can result from damage to the nerves in the ears.

But a strong interest in neuroscience or audiology is… well, probably not what’s going on here, and people have urged him to consider his safety and walk away from her. But he’s revealed he’s afraid to do anything too sudden, especially given the details of the story, like her sending text messages during the act.

“Who was she (expletive) writing to?” he wrote. “Was she blocking my hearing to let someone into my apartment so I wouldn’t hear?” That led to many people coming forward with stories of sadistic abuse and even serial killers who had similar traits to what he was going through.

“This girl needs help that you can’t give her,” one person wrote. “Get out of here before you become the victim of something horrible.” Others urged him to change the locks on the house and get away from her immediately, especially after he revealed that she had “talked about wanting to become a celebrity killer” after watching true-crime documentaries.

Whatever is going on in this relationship is very, very wrong. And if there was ever a perfect lesson in listening to your intuition and trusting your instincts in a relationship, this is it. As one commenter put it, “Last night should have been her last night in your apartment and your life.” That seems like sound advice.

John Sundholm is a news and entertainment journalist who covers popular culture, social justice and human interest topics.