KatTails
New member
I put some links on my blog for you KT. They're on the "links" page, right at the top.![]()
Good luck!
Thanks LR - I'll take a look! And thanks for your PM - I have a lot of reading to do!
Kat
I put some links on my blog for you KT. They're on the "links" page, right at the top.![]()
Good luck!
Excellent!You seem to be finally understanding that you have to heal yourself before your can be of sustained use to anyone else. I'm sure there is a wonderful woman underneath all your angst and dis-ease but in order for her to come out you have to give her your best attention.
I need him to help me, to support me, the validate me, to accept me - but he can't. So now - I am left by myself. It's taken me this long to realize it and to stand up on my own 2 feet and to give myself the love and attention that I deserve. No one else can or will do it for me. I just wish that it didn't take the destruction of our marriage for me to figure it out. I deserve to be happy and healthy and to be loved.
It's taken me this long to realize it and to stand up on my own 2 feet and to give myself the love and attention that I deserve. No one else can or will do it for me. I just wish that it didn't take the destruction of our marriage for me to figure it out. I deserve to be happy and healthy and to be loved.
Sourgirl - at times I wish so too. When you say "see things for what they really are" - I'm not exactly sure what you mean. My hamster wheel is spinning and I'm thinking of a few ways I could take that. Please feel free to PM me if you want to clarify. Your post has really made me think.....
After 19 years of marriage, it was easy for both parties to get complacent and demanding. There are also nearly as many years for resentments to build, one right on top of each other. We had been saying the same thing to each other for years and yet it never occured to either of us that we weren't using the same dictionary and therefore had no clue why the other was really upset. When it just the two of you these things usually get ignored and sept under the rug.
Wait for someone to make you admirable, stay pathetic and miserable. Become something people can legitimately admire, they'll flock to you.
You say need, but it's not true. It FEELS true, it sounds true. But it's not true. You WANT him to help you, support you, validate you, accept you. AND wanting that is perfectly reasonable and normal. BUT-you don't need him to do it. You DO need YOU to do those things for you.
IF you do those things for you-even if others do also, it's all positive. IF you don't do those things for you-even if others do also, you won't feel it when they do.
You are not alone in this particular situation. Things in my marriage came to a head last August, I filled out all the divorce papers filled out and was about to file when I called a marriage councelor last minute. I told my husband that he either goes with me or I will file. We did go and some things started to improve, but less than two months later I was contemplating suicide and nearly filed at that time.
It was this last time that I realized that I had so isolated myself and was only associating with my husband friends and aquaintances that I had no one to turn to for support. This was my own doing and it made me take a real hard look at what I had been doing for the last 19 years. I don't even know why or how it happened. I had to make a concience decission to make a change in who I was and how I was treating myself. I have made a few steps to re-involve myself in hobbies I enjoy, I am looking at joining a group or two that are just for me.
After 19 years of marriage, it was easy for both parties to get complacent and demanding. There are also nearly as many years for resentments to build, one right on top of each other. We had been saying the same thing to each other for years and yet it never occured to either of us that we weren't using the same dictionary and therefore had no clue why the other was really upset. When it just the two of you these things usually get ignored and sept under the rug.
It is amazing to me how much this paragraph sums up my experience, too. I was so angry and resentful that my husband didn't seem to value me as much as I felt he should--I felt, what does it matter if I love myself, if no one else seems to love me? But the piece I was missing was that, if I love myself and treat myself with kindness then I am not dependent on others to meet my needs, I'm meeting them--and then, I can see clearly whether or not this relationship actually fits for me. When I'm not worried about them being the one I need then I can actually see if they're the one that I want. I got angry--if he wasn't going to love me, then I was by golly going to take care of myself. I deserved time to myself. I deserved to have him watch the kids from time to time so I could do things for myself. I deserved to have friends who saw me as an adult, and not as Easy's wife or Moose's mom--people who saw an individual who was valuable in her own right. I think it was good for my marriage--I don't have to stew in resentment if I don't get pampering from someone else, I just take myself out for something nice--and I think it's good for my children to see that taking care of yourself is important.
Kat, this is totally relevant to you. You hurt so much because you are not valuing yourself. You think you *need* 2rings because you are not treating yourself right. I'm not advocating for divorce--I'm advocating for self-love. Learn to love yourself *first*. When you are the one responsible for the kind things, the self-pampering, it will help you to come at your marriage from a more stable, loving place. I honestly think that the best thing you can do for your marriage at this point is to put the priority on you for a while.
I've been following this blog for awhile and I haven't posted at all but I really agree with Lemondrop. I have a really hard time with loving myself and treating myself right. In fact, I'm leaving for therapy in a few minutes where we'll talk about just that. Everyone has been telling me a lot, lately, that I am the only one who can always care for me and always be there for me. I have been trying so hard to find it in some one else but I'm always disappointed. I'm glad to see you posting on here again even though we don't know each other. I hope that you can find the things you need.
One thing my therapist had me do was list 3 things I am looking for in close relationships and then turn the questions around on myself. So I'm looking for 1) long term relationships 2) w/ people who love me for me 3) and w/ people who treat me well. When I asked if I was that way for myself, the answers were pretty bleak. It made me think a lot.
Loving yourself first is extraordinarily transformative.
Have you ever heard people say that what makes a person attractive is their attitude, if they think they are attractive, they are more attractive...It's the same sort of concept. When you love yourself, care for yourself, take care of yourself-people are attracted to you for your loving, caring personality.
When you stop doing those things for yourself (many of us women after we leave highschool and have kids-because we start doing it for our kids and spouses instead) we lose the attractiveness...
If we turn it around-which seems ass backwards at first, we regain those attractive qualities, because we're giving them to ourselves.
Even "white knights" like a woman who can stand up on her own eventually. Just like the ladies who go for "bad boys" eventually want a man who is a nice guy.
MG can do something hurtful and manipulative to me and when I try to talk to him about it - he gets angry at me and defensive of her. He blames me for things she does.
*The hard part about loving myself is that I don't feel I deserve it - I never have. *I feel that I deserve to be the woman whose husband is in love with someone else. That it's my fault. That I'm such a horrible wife and person that he had no other choice but to find someone else who had the qualities that I don't. And he found her. She is everything I'm not and everything he has always wanted. He is finally happy. And I'm more miserable than ever. I should have known that I wasn't good enough to have a man like him.*
So right now - I'm in a deep, dark, depressive funk and the only one who can pull me out of it is me - and I don't know how and I don't have the strength to try. *Plus - *I'm comfortable here. I belong here. *I know what to expect, yet I have no expectations.*
Kat, you know you can be as "whiny" as you want with me and I won't mind. Email me if you need to do that.
I hope you are seeing a therapist and possibly a medical professional because this is sounding more like long term clinical depression and should be addressed immediately!!!
It wasn't until my son started getting into depressive funks that I realized how emotionally draining these moods can be on everyone else. I can't even immagine the havoc this plays on the family if it's long term.
Make a list of things you do to contribute to your family and everything your good at. Ask your kids and 2Rings to do the same (I'll bet their list is longer than yours). Make copies of these lists and post them in the kitchen, the bathroom and near your computer. Look at them every day until you start believing it and accepting it.
Absolutely! That is what happened to us - we became complacent with each other. One of our biggest issues right now is our communication. We used to be able to talk about anything and everything. But now - I can't go to him when I'm hurt or upset. He doesn't want to hear it. MG can do something hurtful and manipulative to me and when I try to talk to him about it - he gets angry at me and defensive of her. He blames me for things she does. There is so much resentment between us that we can't talk without it erupting into a fight. If we could talk, if I felt he was listening to and caring about what I had to say and if we could both make compromises then I have no doubt that this would be something we could work through.
Today my goal is to find a marriage counselor.
However - if my husband refuses to work on his issues and make some changes, then it will be a waste of time. I can't do it alone.
There have been times when I was driving and seriously considered driving right off the side of the road. BUT - we have 2 children and I would NEVER EVER put them through that.
Thanks Neon - I know! I'll try to email you later today.
So much can be HOW we approach a subject. I've discovered that I'm not real good at "Non-violent Communication". My approach to certain issues and things that hurt me made my husband feel like I was attacking him, so no matter what it was, he felt backed into a corner and the need to come out swinging (verbally). The hurt/issue was valid, but my approach killed any possibility of support or correction from my husband.
STOP assuming the worst before giving it a chance. This is destructive thinking and will not make the situation better. This will not be fixed right away, it will take time and work. Some meetings will be better than others. I hate the meetings where we would spend the entire time re-hashing an arguement, but it was necessary and we were able to move beyond it afterward.
This was the only thing that has kept me alive at times also. One night, I drove by three hospitals, I pull into the parking lot of each one and sat for 20 minutes or more contemplating checking myself in.
The truth is, you do not come across as "whiny" to me. You just come across as someone who is at the end of her rope.
I hope that you can find that person/those people who just get you at the deepest level, whether it's rebuilding that with 2rings or another person entirely. I think some one called them "anchors." They're certainly not easy to find. I have one really good friend who is that for me and she is beyond valuable. I feel so lucky to have her. I'm so sorry that you feel that disconnect with 2rings. It shattered my heart when I lost that with O. I think it is an incredibly painful experience to lose that.
I, too, vote not whiny. You've got a lot on your plate. The depression alone is huge. It makes all life's problems appear insurmountable and gargantuan. I am constantly trying to remind myself that there are solutions and I can do this. And I often feel whiny or like a broken record but sometimes the venting does help. It is so hard to see the proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel.' I hope that those glimmers start to shine for you.