Dear anonymous03:

Being exposed to Covid did not cause me any symptoms really, so no need to be so sad…

“I want to start a new thread because then I get the insights of others as well” – I didn’t think about the benefit of communicating with others on a new thread. If you start a new thread, I will not reply to you there. You and I can keep communicating on this thread, and hopefully others will feel more comfortable replying to you on a new thread. It’s been pretty slow on the forums though.

“If I am successful in this, touch wood, I will be moving out of my house” – this is good to read and quite exciting!!!

“My therapist… literally warned me, saying that I have to let go of the guilt because I am doing nothing wrong. Have done nothing wrong. She said if I do not let go of the guilt, I’m setting myself up for serious depression in the future” – I like your therapist!

“My boyfriend is amazing, and I’m really grateful for him being in my life. Yes, I do need to communicate better. We just had a fight an hour ago. Tell me, do past relationships have an impact on the current one?” – good to read that he is amazing and understanding! As to your question: I found out long ago that romantic relationships are less affected by prior romantic relationships than by a person’s childhood relationships with one’s parents. In other words, your relationship with your mother has a lot of power, unfortunately, over your romantic relationships.

I will be glad to help you to communicate better with your boyfriend, if I can, and avoid future fights (Don’t fight!!!)

“I do tend to put a lot of pressure on myself… I also tend to get very overwhelmed, which spikes my anxiety. So, I set very small goals for myself each day, instead of looking at the big picture” – one moment at a time, one hour at a time, one day at a time: one task at a time, everything in small portions of time and work, thought and feeling.

I like how you responded to each part of my numbered advice items. About snow, you’ve never seen snow. I bet you’ll enjoy it the first time you see it, touch it, maybe throw snowballs at your boyfriend (playfully, that is, not as part of a real fight!)

anita