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Moving on- anger management and sense of security

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  • This topic has 63 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by Anonymous.
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  • #108079
    Chau
    Participant

    Hi All,

    Firstly thanks for all the advice from this forum, it’s been helping me a lot!
    In short, I have been struggling for a month or so in moving on from my ex.

    You can find my previous posts in here

    Obsessed with ex and her current

    I realize I am crying less, and I am trying to tell myself that everything is over.
    I am yet there when I am still engaging in some self-sabotaging behavior, such as checking her fb, checking her online status.
    I tried to stop, and realized the root of the problem was that despite my head tells me this is over, my heart is not over with it yet.
    and I feel insecure to cut all forms of connection, although these connections are mainly just virtual and self-initiated.
    These days, anger came back as I keep thinking they get together, which possibly is confirmation bias yet everytime i check their whatsapp they online and offline at the exact same time(my ex cheated on me with my good friend because she thought I mistreated her, or may be i did mistreat)
    I realized my ex wanted to have a long term relationship, and because she knew i was serious, she stayed and tried to amend. But when she saw the possibility of not being able to stay long term, she dumped me and went straight back to my fd, whom I have known to usually take relationship seriously.and in such a way , i am concluding that she only needs a long term partner, not necessarily me, especially not me because the relationship is so broken and ruined to amend. When she realized my fd was serious with her, she would go on with her.

    anyways My problem now is
    1) I Still have this anger towards both of them, while apparently they won’t be able to help me out with it, I want some advice on how to sort this out
    2) I have this insecure feeling when I cut everything off, and that’s why i keep checking and looking back, as if this kind of connectedness will help me feel more secure, any insight on how to solve this?

    Thanks for all the advice and comments!

    #108084
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Chau:

    I would like to reply to your new thread and will do so in about ten hours. I hope others reply as well. Till then, take care of you!

    anita

    #108086
    Chau
    Participant

    Hi Anita,

    No problem at all!
    I think i am strong enough to handle 10 hours on my own now =)

    Appreciate your response, take good care too

    Chau

    #108104
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Chau:

    The insight in your sentence above: “my head tells me this is over, my heart is not over with it yet.” is where your answers are. When we know things “in our heads”- that is rationally, but we don’t feel what we know, than that rational knowing is of little value.

    When you learn about the life of bees, you learn rationally and that is good enough. But when you learn something about relationships, that rational learning is of little value unless it is joined by emotional learning, that is, until you believe what you learned rationally to FEEL true.

    So you rationally learned at one point that she mistreated you but you still feel that you mistreated her, so the first learning is of no value so far.

    And then you emotionally learned in the past that being attached to her means that you are safe. You didn’t unlearn it yet, and this is why you are still seeking contact with her, be it virtual, so to feel secure.

    Your thoughts?

    anita

    #108176
    Chau
    Participant

    hi anita

    thanks, i think it is interesting to note how the mind and the heart are in conflict.
    i think i am trying to use my mind to convince my heart, but apparently they operate in differnt systems , and my heart is always the one who takes the lead, this rational thinking doesnt help as much i guess.
    but i think you are correcr in a sense that i sort of feel safe when i am with her, but all now that is left is hurt when i am with her, at least if she continues to blame or hate me.

    today i can feel i am letting go more, for some reason, i think i see how bad they have been treating me. and i finally realize, there is nothing in this chaotic relationship that worths my effort anymore.

    chau

    #108179
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Chau:

    I like your latest post, there is an emotional understanding in it. Here it is: “”hurt when I am with her”- you remember you felt hurt when you were with her. You remember a feeling of safety and you remember a feeling of hurt, both. And this is key in emotional learning, remember both, not just one. Put the two together in your brain and keep them together. This way whenever you feel a longing to that feeling of safety, you immediately have accessible to you the memory of hurt when you were with her.

    The feeling of safety associated with her is not based on reality anymore, not for a long time. She may have been safe in potential, for you at one time, but in practicality, she is not safe. You just feel that way and that feeling leads you to believe she is safe. Until you access the memory of hurt, the hurt still in you.

    When you feel safe thinking of her and that is likely to happen again, when you are tired, distressed, lonely (when in need of comfort, of safety), what it means is.. just that: you need the comfort of feeling safe. That is all it means. Not that she is where safety is, only that you need safety.

    anita

    #108254
    Brie
    Participant

    @Chau Are you disappointed in yourself? Is this about her and what she did to you or what you failed to do for her?

    #108314
    Chau
    Participant

    Thanks Anita and Brievuong

    Yes I think emotional and even cognitively I have a more well rounded understanding of the situation.
    Now what i am missing is someone who cares for me when I am distressed, and someone who shares my life when I want to share.
    She definitely is not able to connect to me in such a way now.
    i went to an outing that supposedly the two of us would join together. We arranged it months ago.
    I did tell her that I planned to go on the previous day, I think it’s just impolite to go without telling. and she did say ‘see you soon’, but late at night she txted me and said she wasn’t ready to see me, and she would quit if I wanted to go. Apparently she thought for some time before sending me the txt

    We did talk a bit via txt, but apparently she was not wishing to share anything emotion-wise. she did reply, but they are mainly just very plain messages. She is no longer that person that I found caring and putting me in the first place, or important. She just wanted no connection with me.

    It’s interesting that I brought some souvenir from the outing, and in the end i didn’t give her. During the outing I kept thinking it would be nice if she was around, I kept imagining she would respond well if i talk to her or give her nice gifts, but on second thought, I know she would just act cold or even reject me. I don’t want to look like a fool.

    I still enjoyed the event, and i didn’t mean to kick her out because of me joining,I did however, thought of what would happen if I really see her, I did have expectation to see her. So it’s a bit disappointing that we can’t see each other and have talk.

    Last night I also had a dream, that she was crying and coming back to me, saying that she was just lost and she was trying to do everything the cycle. I think I wanted her to say she regret? May be just want to win her over? probably that’s not even love.


    @Brievuong
    , I think I am disappointed at the fact that I wasn’t able to treat her well when I was dating her, I had always been very reluctant to connect with her emotionally and that definitely has hurt her. I wasn’t able to do so until a later stage, but when I was more ready she cheated on me, because she said she was very vulnerable and desperately needed someone to care for.
    I am also disappointed that she cheated on me and left me in the end, while she promised to make amends and made things better.
    Now I can see a bit more clearer, that she really was quite selfish in that sense.

    Thanks all, appreciate your responds and help = )

    #108316
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Chau:

    You are doing so well, at this point. I am glad. I say so because you wrote: “I kept imagining she would respond well if i talk to her or give her nice gifts, but on second thought, I know she would just act cold or even reject me”- you are combining memories of her being warm and then cold to you. Then, you wrote: “I can see a bit more clearer, that she really was quite selfish”- yes, your understanding of her, cognitive and emotional understanding of her is becoming whole, balanced, real. You see the whole picture.

    No one is perfect and neither are you. You will never be perfect in any relationship you have in the future. But neither will your future partner be perfect. SO when there will be problems and challenges in your next relationship, please don’t make the assumption that it is your fault, that you are responsible.

    You see the illogic here: true you are imperfect, not always patient, gentle but who is? Don’t expect it from yourself or from anyone else. On the other hand, when a partner cheats on you, that takes steps and plenty of time to stop on the way. It is not a moment of impatience.

    Back to congratulating you for doing well- on your recovery.

    anita

    #108318
    Chau
    Participant

    Hi Anita

    Thanks for the encouraging words. I do feel much stronger after a month of no contact, and thus i took my courage to decide that I will no longer escape the event because of her, and I did mentally prepare myself for her coming as well as not coming.
    I think deep down I still had hopes that she would turn soft and gentle to me,and thus i was very friendly and was playful when i txted her, hoping she would at least be friendly or gentle. but that just doesn’t make sense. i mean, that doesn’t make sense until she really acts like so. As long as she is just sending me plain messages and still acts cool, all the things that i thought were just fantasies.

    I have always known that challenges arise in a relationship, and I think true love doesn’t only mean you have strong care or feelings for that person, but it means those who stay with you at times of challenges, like if that person comes back after a million arguments and still want to reconcile with you, that is your true love. It’s always is the one who stays at times of stress, instead of the one who celebrates with you at times of happiness.
    Love is a choice for me, that you choose to be with a person no matter what, but not act out of pure emotions. I chose to stay and tried to work with the relationship even after the cheating, i did. I am not perfect and I was very emotional after that, i accused her and said bad things that have hurt her, but she chose to leave in the end, because her emotional well being is also jeopardized because of how I reacted.
    From her cheating, and her leaving me behind, I can say she is quite selfish, she didn’t consider how hurtful these two events could be to me. and yes Anita you are quite right, because If I were the one who made a stupid mistake by kissing my gf’s best friend, I would absolutely stop it from further going on,and would sort out one relationship at a time. I know how horrendous it can be to my partner, however dismissive and carefree that person is, at least we were committed.
    And when i thought about that, I can see it very clearly.

    Well i guess if it’s her telling, she would say I am too emotional and dismissive as a person to stay long term with. But I seem to care much less about, it’s her own perspective and her own projection.

    Chau

    #108319
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Chau:

    She was in the wrong for cheating on you. People in the wrong conveniently come up with a kind of thinking called “convenient thinking”- not true, just convenient. It is very, very common. So she will think (and share with others) what makes her look good.

    You, on the other hand, in your first thread here about this relationship took the blame. This is the difference between the two of you. If she started a thread here, it would be about what you did wrong.

    There are two main types of people, I realized latterly. One points to others saying: “their fault and let me tell you what they did wrong.” And the second type points to themselves saying: “My fault and these are the things I did wrong.

    She is probably pointing to her current girlfriend right now: her fault. Like I ended my previous post to you, I suggest you no longer automatically take the blame, be not the second type. Evaluate as you go along what it is you are responsible for and what the other person is responsible for. Figuring this out is priceless, will save you a whole lot of trouble in future relationships.

    Please take good care of yourself. I like your thinking; the changes in your thinking. Post anytime.

    anita

    #108703
    Chau
    Participant

    hi anita
    since the day of the outing we supposedly should go together, emotions are stirred up and this sadness of the two of them together finally hit me. i checked their online status,i probed my fd abt them, basically, i was imagining things again.
    it was my fd bday earlier and i realized they both went missing from online for the whole night, which was unusal.
    i stopped imagining she still loves me . i think the major sadness came from them being together,i was dealing and grieving with the lost of her and someone i love, no i am sad about them being two person that close to me betrayed me.
    it seems that i have never really accepted it, probably because i dont have any concrete evidence of it. but i think, everything points to them being very close amd this time i try yo let my heart feel it, its was like what u said, my head knew it, but my mind didnt, and so i let me mind feels it, and its incredibly, incredibly painful.

    i have this pain in my chest that is unlike last time, it feels so painful and real.

    i am taking a short trip on my own and i decided to take whatsapp out of sight, it seems too painful to see.

    i dunno how to deal with this pain other than let time passes.

    #108715
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Chau:

    You wrote that you have no concrete evidence of betrayal by your ex girlfriend and ex friend- well you are alone now with your pain, without a girlfriend or that friend to comfort you- they were there for you, individually, to some extent in the past and now they are gone.

    So they left you, if not betrayed you- they are no longer there for you. The evidence for this fact is clear. And so your deep sadness is understandable. It is difficult to bear, to endure, but you will endure it and you will feel better again.

    This may be an opportunity to examine childhood loss, betrayal that is probably adding pain to your current loss: a childhood wound that is bleeding into the current wound.

    anita

    #108721
    Chau
    Participant

    hi anita,

    i have been very timid as a child. and i alwaya have a fear of interacting with people in general, like my heart pumped so fast when i needed to talk to any adult that i am not familiar with. sometime my uncle whom i didnt really liked hugged me hard,i guessed as a child u didnt or couldnt really resist or refuse. but i remember how much i hated ppl crossing my boundary, and how much i resented that my parents did nothing to save me from this .
    my parents have problems setting boundaries as well, my mother is overly caring and didnt really guide me to see what is right or wrong, she did respond to my sadness and emotions, but i didnt recall her telling me whats right and whats wrong. my dad on the other hand was very strict and i would even called him obsessed over tiny details. for example he would say the table that we had dinner on was very oily while it was perfectly fine in my eyes, he hated it when i as a child dropped a spoon of soup on the floor, i remembered he as a very harsh person, he did hit my brother when he was young, and i remebered if i refused to go out to breakfast with him on weekends, he made a fuss and would bang the door.
    i think the betrayal came as well from one time when i was showering, my mom still thought i was child and wouldnt mind, and went into the bathroom while i was taking a shower, i recalled i saw my uncle out there who saw me. i felt offended , i was indeed a child but was about to go into a teen. and i knew something was wrong, yet i didnt know how to voice out, how to ask for an apology, how to stand up for something, and was so timid to confront.
    i recalled growing up in these conflicting parenting styles,and i remebered how my privacy was violated by the parents whom should protect them instead.
    i dunno how they are related and i dunno how it can help me with my current situation, but one thing hit me when i recalled this, the obsession and the anger that channeled out on my ex, was so uncontrollable that reminded me of how my father reacted at that time.

    thanks anita , the message this time is long

    chau

    #108726
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear chau:

    I am okay with the length of any of your messages. What you described, your father’s behavior with you, that was not a “parenting style”- it was abusive behavior. He scared you repeatedly. What you needed as a child was to feel safe, not scared. And your mother “overly caring”- maybe about some things she was caring, but she was not caring about the distress you experienced: she didn’t see your distress and if she did see it, she … didn’t care to attend to it.

    When you were a child you needed a safe home so to take it inside you as you proceeded into adulthood. Instead you got scared by your father and your uncle and your mother didn’t protect you from them. There is a betrayal in her making it possible for your uncle to see you naked as you are becoming a teen. You needed her protection from his hugs, that was her neglect. Instead she made it possible for him to see you… I am so sorry, chau. I can relate to a parent entering the bathroom without permission. It happened to me repeatedly and the shame I experienced as a result was excruciating.

    So, yes, I understand. The hurt of neglect and betrayal- the people who are supposed to protect you, don’t- that is betrayal.

    And so that hurt, and the anger that naturally follows hurt, as well as fear of future hurt- these add to your current circumstances. When you hurt over your ex girlfriend and friend betraying you, you are also hurting over the earlier betrayals.

    Maybe you can process those earlier hurt and anger as well as the fear these left you with in therapy. Maybe you can write about it and release some of it through writing, maybe some other way. Please do post again with any ideas you have, thoughts and emotions.

    anita

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