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Older man, co-dependent relationship. Need help!

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  • #80904
    Rocky
    Participant

    Hi, this is my first time posting. I really need advice and guidance. I know this is super long but please please help me. I am in a committed, long term relationship (6 years) with a man twice my age. We met when I was seventeen and honestly I feel like we should’ve waited longer because all we do is fight over petty, childish issues. He is my first serious boyfriend, first guy I said “I love you” to, etc. When we first started dating I was so happy but now I am miserable and desperate for help. My family says I am co-dependent on him and I’m starting to believe them. When we first started dating I did everything he said. I had zero privacy and zero choices. I was not allowed to talk with what few friends i had because he said he was the only friend I needed. I wasn’t even allowed to talk with my family anymore. I was told I was not allowed to go to college and when I refused to obey him he ended up pulling me off of the bed and ripping my clothes off. It scared the heck out of me so I called the police. Before this incident he had choked me and promised nothing like that would happen again. He was gone before the police arrived. Because I was desperate to be with him I dropped the charges and because I didn’t have any noticeable bruises or injuries the state didn’t force it. He promised he would never do that again but then one day I changed the background picture on my phone to a shirtless male model/celebrity and he went crazy on me calling me an ugly whore and I just started crying right there. I told him I had to leave him and I called my mom but he took my phone away and then physically pinned me down preventing me from moving. I started crying because I was scared and I just wanted to be able to control my own body. He said he would let me up if I agreed not to leave and I did just so he would get off of me but then he started apologizing and saying how sorry he was and how we should try to stay together and how much he loves me. Again I really wanted his love and friendship so I agree to stay with him. I never forgot all the mean stuff he has said and done to me but I CANNOT leave him. The thought of being without him gives me anxiety. I don’t know why I’m like this but I know it’s wrong. I tried to get a job and do something with my life but he got pissed off and told me if I get a job he doesn’t want anything to do with me. I begged him to let me go to school and he agreed but only if I take online classes. I was homeschooled my entire life and was hoping to learn in a classroom setting but when I said I wanted to take classes at the school building he said I was a slut and fat and that no one would ever look at me because I’m ugly. My heart just broke. I have had depression since I was 10 years when I first attempted suicide. Throughout my childhood I’ve attempted countless times and hospitalized a total of three times for my safety because I truly wanted to kill myself. When I was sixteen I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and severe depression. I would often self harm in order to cope with the negative and painful emotions I feel daily. I no longer self harm but I still feel the same urges to self harm as well as the depression and suicide attempts. I despise everything about myself. He knows all about my issues so it really hurt when he said that about me because he knows how much I hate myself. I have some abandonment issues with my mom and I do not have a relationship with my dad. He lived with us but never acknowledged me. My half brother said it’s because I’m not his biological daughter but I don’t know for sure. I was homeschooled so I didn’t have any real friends and was VERY lonely and sad as a child. I started having sex with men when I was seventeen. I don’t know why I did that but I just didn’t value myself. I told my partner all of this and he has used it against me in arguments calling me a slut.

    Two years later and I begged him again to let me go to college and he said I can do whatever I want, he doesn’t care. I was hurt that he wouldn’t support me but I signed up anyway and tried to achieve my goals without any help or support. He would always argue with me whenever I had to go take care of school stuff or if I wanted to go look at schools. He would tell me to go by myself which he knows I won’t do because I’m antisocial and hate being alone so I would just cry and not go. I know that is pathetic and I hate admitting it but I’m desperate for help so I don’t care. I finally worked up enough nerve to just go and sign up for school on my own. He argued with me on the way there but I just tried to block him out and focus on getting inside the building. I was really proud of myself for going but I wanted him to be proud of me and he wasn’t. When I was done he made some mean comments to me and I just decided not to go back. I waited a year and asked again if he would support me if I went to school. Of course he argued with me and I was just so tired and mentally exhausted. I started obsessing over ways to self harm or kill myself again. He said I could go to school if I wanted but he wouldn’t support me. I didn’t care because I knew if i didn’t start living for myself I was going to kill myself. I went and he dropped me off. When I was done registering for classes I texted him to let him know he could pick me up. When he texted me back to let me know he was outside I had just started asking the financial aid lady a question but it literally only took two minutes and he texted back that he was leaving me there. When I got inside the car I asked him why he was mad and we started arguing again. This time I didn’t drop my classes but the other day we got into an argument because I started throwing up and getting really nauseous and we are worried I might be pregnant so I suggested we get the morning after pill and I guess that’s what pissed him off. I tried to explain that I wouldn’t be able to care for a newborn in college but he said then I should just drop out of school not “get an abortion”. I tried to explain that it wasn’t an abortion just preventing pregnancy but he said all this stuff about me not being who he thought I was and all this stuff that always makes me feel guilty like I did something wrong but I never know what. Anyway long story short I had to drop my classes because he refused to buy the morning after pill for me (luckily my mom secretly got me the pill after I told her what happened) He has made me do humiliating sexual acts that has destroyed my self esteem and he somehow enjoys this. I feel like he hates me and it hurts because all I have for him is love. I don’t have what it takes to leave him. A few times I tried even packing and driving away but he knows I’ll come back because I don’t have anyone else. I cannot go 30 minutes without thinking of him. I call him on average ten-fifteen times per day. I hate it if he leaves the room like even to just go check the mail. I hate being without him and I have really bad anxiety when he isn’t around or if I can’t get a hold of him. I am extremely depressed and sad. I have been fighting the constant suicide attempts for years now and I am tired to my bones. I thought if I just keep holding on something good will happen but it never has.I would never self injury or attempt suicide because I’m strong enough now to overcomes those thoughts and urges but it bugs me that they are still around. I want to be happy but I don’t know how. I am weak and I don’t know how to be strong. I don’t want to die but I feel like that is my only choice. Please if you have any advice let me know. I really need it.

    • This topic was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by Rocky.
    #80909
    Lakra
    Participant

    I think you know already what to do. That this relationship is anything but healthy for you. He´s destroying you. Mentally and physically abusing you.You´re not stupid – you know that a real partner who cares for your well being wouldnt keep you from your friends, family and dreams. Imagine you would have to spend the rest of your life like this. Trapped. Always afraid of what he´s gonna do next. Always asking permission for everything you do. That´s not love or even friendship. He´s treating you worse than a dog. You´re his freaking doormat.
    Dont let him treat you like that. You´re better than this.

    This is my advice:

    You need to LEAVE HIM as soon as possible.You have a mother that´s supporting you. You´re not alone. You´re still young and you have your whole life ahead of you. Don´t tell him anything. Just call your mom to pick you up – pack your things and go. Leave him a note if you that will give you closure but then NEVER contact him again. Ever.

    You´re afraid to get away from him because he´s been your first and its scary to have the possibility to never date again – but seriously i´d prefer being alone living my life to a life where i have to watch my every step and ask for permission for everything i do. It´s not love what he´s doing it´s sick and twisted. What you´re feeling isn´t love either. You´re depending on him but love is based on two people having their own seperate fulfilling lives who add to each other lives as equal partners. A partner isnt there to fill your hole of loneliness. That´s something you need to fix on your own. It shows you´re insecure and unhappy with yourself and rely on someone else to fill that gap. That´s not what you should do – hand your happiness over to another person because a) you´re giving away too much power to someone and b) even for a normal person it´s too much responsibility and a strain to constantly take care of someone else´s happiness. Even a normal healthy relationship will fall apart like that.
    And you need to treat yourself better too. It´s your life. You deserve better.For yourself. If you can you should get professional help. But first you need to move out girl. Your life isn´t hopeless – you just haven´t started it yet.

    My first bf later husband was also older than me. (7 years). I was just the same. It never gets better. It only gets worse. I was afraid too to be on my own. The world outside was scary for me. Cause i had just left my home and shortly after went straight into that relationship. I got insulted. Hit. I felt like shit. You think it´s just an accident but it becomes the regular treatment.Over time you dont even realise anymore how badly they treat you. At some point nothing you do is good enough no matter how hard you try. I was so afraid – writing on forums, blogs…. venting looking for help….eventually i got to the point where it would have been him or me cause i just wanted it to end. I decided to choose myself. Eventually i got out. It took me years to get over the abuse. I couldnt even talk about it with most of my friends and family. It screwed up my studies, I´ve lost many friends cause he kept me too from seeing them.But now i live on my own with a flatmate. I take care of everything myself (it took me a while). I picked up my studies again.I´m not gonna say it will be easy – or that sometimes there wont be days where you just want to hide under your covers and cry – but it´s worth it believe me and its possible.

    I dont know you but reading your story resonated with me. I´ll check if you have replied to my comment. There´s not much i can give you other than you can do it. You need to want it for yourself. To feel better you need to remove this toxic person from your life. If i could manage on my own so can you. There´s something better out there but that guy you´re with he´s blocking you from it. So please take up all the courage you have left, pack your things and go. Start a new life…in little steps day by day and you´ll be fine.

    Ps. Please get in touch with : https://www.domesticshelters.org/

    #80918
    Glet
    Participant

    Hey there…
    I had tears in my eyes the whole time while reading your post…some things were similar to what I went through and I saw myself in your words..

    you want to be happy,you want to live life and be free of the suicidal thoughts,am not going to beat around the bush and I will tell you exactly what I think you need to do…

    LEAVE THAT MAN!!!

    not only does he sound like a full blown narcissist but he is abusive in every single way…
    I don’t know much about love,am only 19 but I have been through so much..enough to know that love isn’t painful..why won’t he let him do what you want,like go to college,why is he keeping you away from your family…because he wants to keep having power over you..to alienate you from everything else that might make you open your eyes…

    GEt out of there!!…

    I know that you have some strength in you..the sane strength that made you come here to seek help,the same one that made you write all of those painful things..
    use that strength and get out of there…
    if you can run to your mother..it will not be easy,but your life will be much better when you start doing what you want to do without this man holding you back…

    you don’t need to stay with someone who abuses you in every single way..emotionally,verbally and even sexually…
    you deserve nothing like that man and I really wish that one day you will realize your worth…
    and please please think about it….

    I hope that one day you will have that strength to take the first step for your happiness and when you do,it will not be easy but post here…continue to post of this thread..i wad helped by people here and you can be helped too…

    I wish you all the best

    #80930
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear rockymeditates24:

    As I see it, the reason you are with your boyfriend, as abusively controlling and otherwise abusive boyfriend is that he is an upgarde from your parents. As badly as he treats you, overall he treats you better than your mother and father did. Unlike your father who paid you no attention, he often pays you a lot of attention. Be it mostly negative attention but he pays you attention, and you need attention. And he is an improvement on the way your mother treated you. You mentioned you have anandonment issues with your mother, or had those. Well, emotionally, if not physically, she abandoned you … and your boyfriend is still with you.

    I was severely abused and later diagnosed with BPD as well. I am engaged in the process of healing. I am 54.

    I believe you don’t know what you did not experience, safety and kindness and respect. So your experience with your boyfriend you judge by what you know, and it is better. You are not that… unwise, you chose BETTER.

    Some time in the future, I hope, you will have significant enough experience with way better than this BETTER. Maybe with good psychotherapy, you can experience safety-within-a-relationship with the therapist (a good-enough therapist) and grow trust, and FEEL how it feels… to be respected. Then you will have a solid enough experience of a different kind and you will KNOW what to go after, you will know a better better.

    Would you like to share about your abandonment issues with your mother?

    I will soon be away from the computer and back in 8 hours or so, will look for a post by you and respond then.

    anita

    #80955
    Rocky
    Participant

    Lakra thank you for replying. I really appreciate it. I know you are right in everything you said. I need to physically move out before I start to heal emotionally but moving out is close to impossible for me. My mom does try to help me but I can’t stay with her. She would ask me to go to a shelter because she has twelve kids and five grand kids living with her. I went straight from my parent’s house to be with him. When I was in my parents’ home I was homeschooled and had very few social interactions. I don’t have any friends. The few friends I had were online when I was a teenager and he made me erase their numbers & emails when we started dating. My siblings are spread out all over the country living their lives and to be honest I was never close with anyone. I was the black sheep so to speak so I don’t have a relationship with any of them except the younger ones still living at home and they can’t help me. I am also scared of the world. I don’t know why but I have this constant fear and anxiety whenever I step outside. I feel ashamed of myself for being so pathetic. I try to take steps but it is difficult for me. I don’t really know where to start. I don’t have a job so without him I have no income. He has the bank cards and car keys and everything. I want to change. I really want to do something different but I don’t know what I should do first.

    Thank you so much Glet. I’m trying every hour to take baby steps. I’m not giving up but sometimes I wish I could. I want to change and be happy. I don’t feel like I am able to live without him. I know that is ridiculous to say but it is how I truly feel. I am trying though…

    Anita, thanks for replying. I’m just going to tell you everything. As a child I was very attached to my mom. I don’t even remember it but I’m told I would follow her everywhere holding onto her leg. When she started working (because my dad refused to and we were close to being homeless at the time) it was very hard for me. I didn’t want her to leave and I was scared of her being gone. I just remember being very fearful of her leaving and begging her not to go. I didn’t know what to do with myself so I would hold a piece of her clothing and cry myself to sleep. My parents have 12 kids and I’m number six so I was the middle child in a large family. I felt lost, forgotten and unwanted. I have no idea what love feels like. My siblings were hurting themselves. We were often neglected so they would group up and try to survive with each other. I never grouped up with any of my siblings. I just stayed by myself. I only have two memories of my dad from my childhood. The first one I remember standing and looking out of a doorway. I think we were moving because people were going in and out. I remember I couldn’t find my mom so i was crying and then I remember him hitting me and the memory stops. The second memory is of him trying to keep a coin away from me. He would put it in his pocket and tell me to reach in and get it. I would grab it but he would take it away and put it back in his pocket and tell me to get it again.I remember him winking at me and asking if my mom had ever told me never to put my hands in a man’s pocket. He was laughing at me and I didn’t know why. I had no idea what was going on until I saw this happen in a movie and it was explained as sexual abuse. I’ve never told anyone that before. Other than that he wouldn’t say two words to me. He acted like I was a ghost or like I didn’t even exist unless he was hitting me with his belt which he did often. One time he hit me across my face with the belt and I remember my mom making me stay indoors. He has never once hugged me or told me he loves me. I know it’s because he doesn’t. I don’t really feel anything about that situation. When it comes to him I don’t have any feelings at all. One day when I was 10 or 11 years old I just walked down to our basement and tied a piece of string around my neck and hooked the other end of the string to the banister. Of course nothing happened but I remember I wanted to kill myself because I was tired of being so sad and scared all the time. Around this time I had really bad nightmares and I was just really scared at night and that was the time she was going in to work. As a teen I would spend the entire day obsessing over the evening and how she was going to leave and what was I going to do. Around this time my dad started working too. I had very few interactions with him as usual. I was in love with the library as a teen. I would go there and try to read every book I could get my hands on. anyway one time I was going to my room with a book in my hands and on the back of the book it said something about the protagonist’s boyfriend being a “sex god”. My dad saw it and “oh sex god huh?” and winked at me. I remember feeling very uncomfortable. I tried to explain that it was just a book and that I didn’t know that was even on the back of it but he was just smiling at me and I felt disgusted with myself so I ran to my room and stopped going to the library. He called me a dyke once, I don’t know why. By that point I was cutting my wrists with razor blades every night. It was pretty much the only thing that gave me comfort. When I was sixteen I got a job at a fast food restaurant. It was horrible. My co-workers made fun of me because I was so anti-social. The manager wanted to promote me to a shift leader and the other co-workers were mad at me because of that so they just made working there a living hell. I would cry in the bathroom stall during break. The only people who paid me any attention were the guys and they wanted me to do sexual stuff with him which I did even though I didn’t want to. I was numb when it happened. I didn’t know how to say no. I didn’t even think I could say no. But then one of the guy’s girlfriend found out and she called me a whore/slut/bitch. I felt so bad and disgusted with myself. I just wanted to go. I just wanted to leave this world. I took a gun from my dad’s closet and put it in my mouth and pulled I didn’t know it was empty so nothing happened. When I told my mom what I did she took me to a therapist who told me I had to be hospitalized because she asked me if I still wanted to die and I admitted to her that yes I did, badly. She I went to the in-patient hospital. At the hospital they put me on meds and my therapist kept asking me if someone had molested me as a child. I didn’t know how to answer her question so I just wouldn’t say anything. One day during our sessions she asked again and I said yes someone had. I don’t know why I said that because I have no memory of anyone molesting me but I just said yes and to this day I wish I hadn’t said that because everything changed. My mom came to the hospital and asked me if it was my dad and I said I couldnt remember which is the truth but she left and the next thing I heard was that she had called the police and moved. I was in shock and scared. I stayed in the hospital for about 2 months before my doctor said I could be discharged. When I left and went to stay with my mom there wasn’t any room for me at her new house and I remember feeling alone and like she had just left me. I was in and out of hospitals until I met my now boyfriend. I thought things were looking up but my mom would do things that hurt me like forcing me to say my dad had molested me and buying me these sexual abuse books to read and asking me to talk with her friends about it. I did everything she asked because I wanted her to be happy. I found out that she and my boyfriend had talked about me behind my back and that my mom told him that he shouldn’t stay with me because I’m a whore that sleeps with a bunch of men and that she wouldn’t be surprised if I “initiated” the sexual abuse from my dad. I was so hurt and just crushed by her saying that because I love her so much, She meant the world to me and I was so sad that she thought of me that way. Before my boyfriend told me that my mom had said this I was happy for the first time in my life. After he told me I was just…gone. I didn’t exist anymore. I can’t explain to you the hurt I still feel over this. It is the kind of pain you would put an animal done for. It’s the kind of pain you would just let that person die out of mercy. My boyfriend told me to cut all ties with her so I did. We didn’t speak for 5 years after that. I moved across the country with my boyfriend and thats when all the co-dependency and emotional abuse happened. I just now started talking with my family again. I told my mom and everyone that I lied about being sexually abused. I didn’t tell them that I had never said it was my dad and that my mom had said all that because I just fault like I was wrong. I feel like my family is disgusted with me when I see them. I asked one of my sisters and she said she doesn’t hate me but she is mad at me for lying on our dad. The only person who doesn’t act like they hate me is my biological brother. When he saw me he told me he was sorry about what happened to me and then he told me that he doesn’t remember if our dad ever molested him, I didn’t ask him if it had happened to him he just told me he couldn’t remember but he did remember our dad telling him about the kind of sex he had with our mom. Apparently our dad would make my brother stand there while he described having sex with our mom and what she looked like to my brother who was only like twelve years old at the time. Needless to say my brother is also depressed and suicidal. It is possible my issues with my boyfriend are related to the issues I have with my parents. I am a very hurting person. I am very sad. I have been sad the majority of my life. I am tired of crying. I am tired of feeling this way. I can be strong but I don’t know where to turn or if I’ll ever get any peace in my life. I’ve been on meds, tried therapy, hospitalization, self help books, religion, etc. You name it I’ve probably tried it. I’ve been battling this for almost 15 years now. I don’t want to do it another year, or minute. I’m afraid of the humiliation of going inpatient but I’m at a point here today where I just feel hopeless.

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by Rocky.
    • This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by Rocky.
    • This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by Rocky.
    #80960
    Rocky
    Participant

    Sorry about the spelling and grammar

    #80961
    terra
    Participant

    Lakra:

    I have a situation like this one but even more complicated but with less abuse.. I need to talk to someone but I have no friends anymore… Can we please talk sometime??

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by terra.
    • This reply was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by terra.
    #80972
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear rockymeditates24:

    I am 54 and I had never, ever heard a life story so similar to my own. Never. I can hardly believe the similarities. I too was extremely attached to my mother. I too was very anxious when she went to work. I too have few memories from my father, from the time he lived with me, before he moved out- only ONE and it is the night he hit me with a belt because I cried too loud (and I cried because my mother was out in the night committing suicide, so she screamed she was going to do). I too wanted to die since I can remember. I was alone. Nobody saw me, it was like I was invisible. The pain was just too much. I developed severe tics (Tourette Syndrome), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: terrible obsessions and rituals so to prevent my mother from killing herself or otherwise dying. My mental problems devolved into later multiple diagnoses of mood disorders, eating disorders, post traumatic stress disorder and of course Borderline Personaility Disorder. I was on meds for 17 years. I too … tried religion and more and more.

    I really am too overwhelmed by the commonality in the very strong attachment to my mother/ your attachment to yours, the betrayal by my mother/ betrayal by your mother, the aloness…

    I too did things or more exactly let men do things to me that I was extremely ashamed of. Starting when I was 18 with a man older than me, 32 years older than me. I too just did not know how to say no, was paralyzed… and no matter how bad it was with those men, it was not as bad as being with my mother. It was an upgrade. It didn’t hurt as much. I didn’t know any better. And there are more similarites.

    I am overwhelmed, again, by the similarities. I will re-read your post tomorrow when i am hoping to have a fresher brain. This is a lot for me to process and I wish I could be helpful to you now. If you have specific questions for me, I could answer those. Otherwise, will come back to your post tomorrow.

    anita

    #81004
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Rocky:

    It is morning now, new day. I think best in the morning, better than the end of the day. There is a lot in common between our stories and there are plenty of differences. In the state of mind of so much similarity, I am likely to make the mistake of assuming more is similar or even the same than there is. With a more objective mind this morning, I am summarizing your life story from these posts, not all the details are repeated:

    Your father never hugged you, never attended to you positively, lovingly. Instead he attended to you negatively, hitting you with a belt (“I didn’t even exist unless he was hitting me with his belt”NS “He acted like I was a ghost or like I didn’t even exist unless he was hitting me with his belt.”) and making you put your hand in his pocket for his sexual entertainment which he expressed with his kind-of-smile and comments he made. In his physical company you were and you felt unloved, disgusting.

    Your mother did not pay you much attention, having lots of children and working outside the home. She paid you some attention (be it the act of feeding alone, when you were a baby, at the least). You were very attached to her and felt intensely fearful when she was not around. You experienced nightmaares and obsessively ruminated about her going to work and you being alone, without her. You did everything she asked so to please her, so that she doesn’t leave you alone. SHe paid you more attention when you tried to kill yourself. And when it occured to her that her husband then sexually abused you. But then she neglected you again after you were discharged from the hospital and blatantly betrayed you (according to what your bf told you), saying you lied and initiated sexual interaction with your father, etc. As a child, you felt “lost forgotten and unwanted.” You did not have any positive attention from your father, very little from your mother (and later terribly betrayed by her) and you didn’t group with any of your siblings.

    After not talking with your mother for five years, and living far away, you recently started talking to her and to other family members. You are receiving, again, negative messages from them except from one brother.

    I read your sharing about your relationship with your boyfriend. You transferred your attachment from your mother – to your boyfriend. You were afraid to be without her- now you are afraid to be without him.

    As a child you were a perfect victim- of your father and of your mother. They both hurt and abused an innocent little girl. With your boyfriend, you are not a perfect victim. While he is completely responsible for his abusive behavior toward you, I believe, you are responsible for your behavior with him. In between the times you obey him (the word you use, obey him… like you obeyed your mother)- you probably also start fights and being Borderline, currently, you are not easy to live with- the anger in you explodes and a peaceful relationship with a man- ANY man- is not possible beyond the very temporary.

    I see no hope for your relationships with your mother and your father. If I was you- I would severe any and all contact with both. Again. And keep it that way. As well as with the siblings except the only one that validates you, that one brother. Cut contact with any and all family members who do not SEE you as the valuable person that you are, who disagree with what you know happened to you.

    I understand that you are afraid to leave your boyfriend and I don’t see it to be necessary at all. First I don’t see your life being in danger as a result of violence on his part. Second, I believe you play a significant part in this dysfunctional relationship. Is there a way for you and him to go to couple therapy/ counseling? Would you be interested? Would he? In such therapy, if I was the therapist, the very FIRST thing I will teach both of you is the meaning of RESPECTFUL behavior toward each other, eliminating abuse completely. There is a lot that you and him can do FOR each other to heal your individual painful childhoods if you stop operating against yourselves.

    Like I wrote to you, he is an upgarade to both your father and your mother. At least.. he apologized for his bad behavior. With you not being assertive with him (probably either passive or aggressive, no middle ground, being assertive, that is) – he has no way of knowing (even if he was the kindest, trouble free individual)- what you like and what you don’t. There is a lot of healing that can be done in this very relationship with this man. If you are both open to it, become interested in such. He obviously is very attached to you. ANd you are attached to him. This is an opportunity. Like you wrote, you have no one else.

    This is not to say you must accept abusive behavior from him. Neither does it mean he should accept such from you. Of course you should be able to take classes and get a job and he has no right forbidding you. You need not obey him. And these things can be learned: he can, maybe, learn to feel secure in your attachment to him and loosen his need to control you (so that YOU don’t leave him).

    You see, you AND him, are hurting. Both damaged from unspeakable horrors of childhood. You have lots in common. Oh, do I wish you can start working for each other and stop working against each other.

    You have been cutting yourself because of being tired, I believe, from being numb, from the intense pain inside you perculating and there was a release in FEELING pain, ah, the release. In a similar way you trigger your boyfriend, probably, to get angry at you so taht he calls you names (again, he should not, it is abusive of him) so that you feel the hurt that is perculating in you from childhood.

    Is there a possibility for you and him to call a truce, with growing awareness, start a mutual yet individual healing process, healing each one and healing the relationship?

    anita

    #81077
    Rocky
    Participant

    Anita, thank you again for taking the time to reply. You give really good advice :)I’ve waited before replying back because I really wanted to reflect and think about what you’ve said as well as how I feel about….everything. I feel like if I were to just up and leave my boyfriend I would probably get into a another abusive co-dependent relationship. The problem isn’t really with him, its with me. I am the one who is co-dependent and really using him to fill that hole created by an abusive, traumatic childhood. My number one priority is finding a therapist and working through my issues then if the relationship has hope I will try and work at it but if it doesn’t work out I will be okay because I will be healed from the depression and co-dependency and free to move on. I don’t think he is a bad persons. I know he had a horrible childhood as well (worse than mine) but I can’t fix that for him. I wish I could but I can’t. I will recommend him finding a therapist but it is ultimately his choice. I’m ready to heal so I am going to do everything I can to be free and live a happy life. Thank you so much Anita, You have no idea how much you’ve helped me. I will leave my email (butterfly21baby@gmail.com) if you ever want to contact me 🙂

    #81115
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Rocky:

    I sent you an email, using the address you gave me. I did so last night. I wrote there a bit about what I believe a good therapist is about, a good-enough therapist, that is. I hope you do look for one and find one that is hard working, empathetic to you, and experienced with the BPD pattern of behavior and childhood trauma and the anxiety and dysfunction it breeds. I like it that you wrote it is your “number one priority.” You wrote that your bf had a childhood “worse than mind.” It is difficult to determine it, isn’t it? I mean the events of his childhood may “sound” more horrible but yours may be just as horrible. To be alone, as a child, alone and afraid day in and day out and throughout the night, month after month, year after year, what can be more horrible than that?

    I do wish you the best and will welcome, at this point, further posts by you and/ or you writing me back otherwise.
    anita

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