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anita

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  • #455346
    anita
    Participant

    * un-attuned, unempathetic presence

    #455345
    anita
    Participant

    Dear Alessa:

    I get it about walking 🐕🚶‍♀️Bogart- wasn’t aware of it all, how to train him to slow down. Silly, I know 😃 – I tried to get the message across to him by saying “slow down”.

    Okay, so now I have hope to prevent my shoulders from dislocation- thank you 😊 🙏 , Alessa, Dog Expert!

    He speeds up, I STOP ✋️, say NO, he walks slower, I walk along and say “Good boy!”. He speeds up- repeat. I am looking forward to letting you know how it works!

    Talking about saying NO, your son feels safe with you, so he says no. I would have never dream of saying no to the mother. She never gave me the option to say Yes or NO, it would have been a privilege.

    Being able or allowed to say yes or no would have given me the 3rd dimension, from object to human; from passively to autonomy.

    I slept very little last night 🌙 because I thought my tattoo apt was this afternoon and I was afraid. I found out this morning that the apt is for next Thursday and felt a relief.

    If you do choose a tattoo. I wonder what it’d be.

    I think I get one significant difference between your mother and mine: you say she avoided you a lot, which is why, I imagine, you were able to be an independent child? Mine was always there, physically (unless she was at work), suffocating me with her loud and constant and controlling, yet unattended, unempathetic presence.

    No room for me to be independent, not even able to say Yes or No.

    What your mother told you, of course, is highly inappropriate. My mother told me and others (in my presence) sexual details about other people’s lives.. highly inappropriate to expose a child to adult content.

    It’s encouraging to read that your adopted mother had a tattoo when she was about my age. Maybe I’ll survive it (if I don’t cancel the apt).

    Sounds like 👍 you’re doing an excellent job building internal resources, one of which is to comfort yourself. I need to build more of that, self soothing.

    I hope 🙏 you are having a good evening. Here it’s just after 10 am, very cold out, a few thin snowflakes appeared for the first time this unusually warm winter. But now the sun is out.

    I feel like I just had a talk with a good friend🙏

    🤍 Anita

    #455343
    anita
    Participant

    Dear Alecsee:

    Someone with your emotional style — deeply feeling, anxious when uncertain, loyal, expressive — would thrive in relationships where the other person communicates openly, doesn’t disappear during stress, can talk through conflict, offers reassurance without being asked, and doesn’t punish vulnerability. This doesn’t mean constant attention — it means consistency.

    You need a partner who says what she means, follows through, doesn’t send mixed signals, and doesn’t withdraw without explanation

    Predictability is safety.

    You’d thrive in a relationship where the other person shares about herself, expresses affection, initiates conversations, shows appreciation and meets you halfway. You need emotional exchange, not emotional guessing.

    You wouldn’t do well with doesn’t do well with silent withdrawal, sudden distance or unclear expectations. So, a healthy partner for you would say things like: ‘I need a quiet night, but I care about you.’, ‘I’m overwhelmed, but I’ll check in tomorrow.’ This would prevent your anxiety from spiraling.

    How can you stop repeating this pattern?

    A. Learn to recognize early signs of avoidant partners. Avoidant partners often struggle to share feelings, need a lot of space, get overwhelmed by emotional closeness, send mixed signals and disappear during stress. You can learn to spot this before you get attached.

    B. Slow down the pace of emotional investment. Anxious partners often bond quickly. You need to take time, observe consistency, see how someone handles stress and see how they communicate needs. Attachment should build gradually, not instantly.

    C. Build emotional regulation skills. This helps you pause before reacting, tolerate uncertainty, avoid panic-driven decisions and communicate calmly. There is the difference between reacting and responding.

    D. Choose partners who are emotionally available. You deserve someone who texts back, shows up, communicates and doesn’t disappear. Compatibility matters more than chemistry.

    E. Strengthen your sense of self. The more grounded you feel in yourself, the less you’ll chase, panic, overthink, idealize your partner and lose yourself in relationships. This is long-term work, but it changes everything.

    Being grounded in yourself means you have a steady emotional center, so you don’t fall apart when someone pulls away, gets busy, or doesn’t respond right away. It means you know who you are, what you need, and how to calm yourself without relying on another person to make you feel okay. When you’re grounded, you don’t panic, chase, or lose your identity in a relationship — you can pause, breathe, and respond thoughtfully instead of reacting from fear. It’s basically the difference between feeling like your whole world depends on someone else and feeling like you can stand on your own two feet even when things are uncertain.

    🌱🛡️🌿🧘🤍 Anita

    #455341
    anita
    Participant

    Dear Alecsee:

    I reread your first posts starting with the first on July 8, 2025, then fast forwarded to your posts yesterday/ today (Feb 18-19, 2026).

    This was indeed an anxious–avoidant relationship, like you said yourself, which tends to be the most painful combination.

    You needed reassurance, communication, emotional closeness, consistency and transparency.

    She needed space, independence, emotional distance, physical proximity (not long-distance) and low-intensity connection

    Your needs were fundamentally incompatible. And as a result, you pursued → she withdrew → you panicked → she shut down → you escalated → she cut off.

    This is a textbook anxious–avoidant pairing.

    Neither one of you is ‘the villain.’ You were simply mismatched in a way that amplified each other’s worst fears.

    Your posts show a man who has been losing himself in the relationship for a long time. The breaking point was her father’s death when she withdrew completely, and you panicked completely. This is when you started messaging her repeatedly, visiting, leaving gifts, and trying to force clarity. You weren’t trying to harm her — you were trying to stop the emotional freefall.

    The “cheating lie” was not a calculated act. It was a panic response. You were thinking along these lines: ‘She’s gone=> I need her to respond=> I need something to break the silence!’

    Her responses were harsh, final, and deeply wounding, and you spiraled into self-blame, regret and obsessive replaying of events, trying to understand what went wrong.

    Her final messages were angry, defensive, overwhelmed, emotionally reactive and final. She was trying to protect herself. Her words reflect fear, anger, exhaustion, a desire for distance, a need for control and for closure on her terms.

    She was not in a place where reconciliation was possible. She explicitly said she never wants to be in contact again, blocked you on multiple platforms, told you to stop trying, said there is “zero chance” of reconnection and ended with “Goodbye.”

    This is not an ambiguous situation. This is a closed door.

    You kept asking: “Did I have a chance?”, “Could I have saved it?”, “Was it doomed?”, “Did I ruin everything?”

    The truth is: the relationship was already ending long before the cheating lie. The lie accelerated the end, but it didn’t cause it.

    Your needs were incompatible from the start. You didn’t ruin a healthy relationship — you clung to an unhealthy one.

    You’re grieving the idea of her — the version of her you hoped she could be. Healing means accepting that she wasn’t emotionally available, she couldn’t meet your needs, you couldn’t meet hers, and that the relationship was mismatched from the start

    Letting go isn’t forgetting. It’s accepting reality over fantasy.

    It’d be easy to paint her as cold, avoidant, or cruel. But her behavior makes sense when you understand her emotional world. She was overwhelmed — she had an all-consuming job, a parent’s death, chronic exhaustion
    and a limited space within her mind for conflict or intensity.

    Avoidant people shut down when overwhelmed. That’s how they protect themselves. Avoidant partners fear being engulfed. When they feel overwhelmed, they retreat.

    Her harsh messages came from fear and anger. This wasn’t her at her best. This was her in fight-or-flight mode.

    She wasn’t capable of giving what you needed because she couldn’t handle emotional intensity, couldn’t handle conflict, and couldn’t handle long-distance. She couldn’t handle someone who needed reassurance. This makes her incompatible with you.

    Here’s what moving forward can look like for someone in your position:

    A. Accepting that the relationship is over- not because you failed, not because she’s cruel, but because you were incompatible. Acceptance is the first step toward peace.

    B. Letting yourself grieve fully- allow the sadness, anger, confusion, longing and regret. These emotions pass when they’re felt, not when they’re avoided.

    C. Rebuilding your emotional foundation- this means reconnecting with friends, rediscovering hobbies, grounding yourself in routine, learning emotional regulation, and practicing self-compassion.

    You need to rebuild the parts of yourself that were shaken during the relationship and breakup.

    D. Learning healthier relationship patterns- you can learn to communicate needs calmly, choose partners who are emotionally available, recognize red flags early, avoid chasing avoidant partners, and slow down when anxious. This is how you can break the cycle.

    E. Understanding that attraction can be rewired- being fixated on her body type and the physical chemistry,
    that’s normal after heartbreak. But over time, you can learn to be attracted to emotional safety, consistency, kindness and reciprocity.

    F. Realizing that love isn’t supposed to feel like panic- the love of your life will not disappear for months, block you repeatedly, leave him in uncertainty, or make you feel like you’re drowning

    Real love feels like calm, safety, mutual effort, emotional presence and trust.

    You haven’t experienced that yet — but you can.

    🌟 The bottom line: You’re not broken. She’s not evil. You were simply incompatible in a way that activated both of your deepest wounds.

    You can heal. You can grow. You can love again — in a healthier, more grounded way.

    And the pain you’re feeling now is not a sign that you lost “the one.” It’s a sign that you cared deeply, and that you’re ready to learn what real emotional safety looks like.

    * I will add more in the next post

    🤍 Anita

    #455326
    anita
    Participant

    I’m really looking forward to understand better in the morning. What’s clear to me now is that your love for her has been intense for so long. Intense is the word.

    B Back Thurs morning (Wed 8 pm here).

    🤍🌙 Anita

    #455324
    anita
    Participant

    Oh, I just noticed you submitted another post. I will read and reply in the morning. Please 🙏 direct empathy toward yourself. B Back Tomorrow.

    🌙 Anita

    #455322
    anita
    Participant

    Dear Alecsee:

    I’m just not focused enough to process your post of 5 minutes ago, being that it’s night time here, but I intend to listen and process tomorrow morning 🌄, in about 12 hours from now.

    I don’t know what time it is where you’re at.

    Try to be there for you, even if no one else is. Try to have empathy for yourself, be on your side.

    🤍🌙🙏 Anita

    #455318
    anita
    Participant

    Dear Alecsee:

    I’m so sorry 😞 you’re still hurting so much and for so long. You’re so attached to her, having been for so long.

    I feel your pain and Wish it wasn’t there, meaning, I wish you weren’t hurting 💔

    🤍 Anita

    #455317
    anita
    Participant

    Whatever comes to mind this Wed night 🌙-

    I love you, mother, I always loved you. I did, in my clumsy, unskillful, unwise ways, everything in my power to transform your life from Misery to Happy.

    I spent 5 decades in misery myself- because of your misery, seeing 👀 you as the most important (to me) person in the whole wide world 🌐 worthy, more than worthy of the sacrifice of me.

    And then, on the 6th decade, I ended contact, trying to bring me, my life into consideration.

    And now. I Love you still, always loved you.

    Thing is, just as my love for you didn’t reach you for HALF A CENTURY, my love for you having made ZERO difference for you for 50 years, it’s not going to make a difference for you now, at 85.

    I will not put myself through yet another “my love makes NO DIFFERENCE” experience with you, my mother.

    Goodbye 👋 beloved mother. May love reach you somehow, somewhere, elsewhere.

    I don’t blame you because of all the abuse you suffered before I even came into your life.

    You have my forgiveness. May peace be with you, and may all my love be there within your heart now and forevermore. Amen.

    🤍 Anita

    #455315
    anita
    Participant

    When was the last time you communicated with her? What was the last exchange between you and her ( as in what did you say, what did she say?)

    🤔 Anita

    #455313
    anita
    Participant

    Dear Alessa:

    So, as I walk Bogart, the moment he starts pulling me (walking too fast, or at times, he gallops like a horse), stop, no moving forward.. until he stops pulling (if he does), then restart walking until he pulls again?

    Coming to think about it, he often pulls, just that at times harder/ more forcefully than other times.

    I need to check on “anti shock leads” and “harnesses designed to prevent pulling”. Bogart is certainly a Puller.

    One more week of antibiotics for you?

    I had too much 🍷 yesterday. I forgot about having a tattoo apt until you mentioned it in your reply, Alessa. How do I cancel it perhaps, as it was made while under the influence of alcohol???

    Part of it is that I really like the tattoo artist, such a charming young woman, affectionate, vibrant.

    The tattoo is supposed to be on my lower arm and contain 5 letters, that and nothing else, but my skin is SO THIN (it comes with aging), that it’s scary 😨

    Yes, you got it, part of my difficulty in regard to talking to my sister is that she’s involved in her mother’s life and every time I talk with her, I’m afraid she’ll tell me something about the mother.

    I would much rather get 10 tattoos on my paper-thin skin than hear about how the mother is doing irl these days.

    I was wondering 🤔, Alessa: growing up, I was drowning in empathy for her. Do you remember feeling empathy for your bio-mom?

    Mine used to go on endless “poor me” sessions, describing her terrible childhood and suffering. Your bio mom didn’t do that, did she?

    I hope that it’s okay that I am asking these questions. If it’s not okay, please let me know and I won’t ask such questions any more. I want to respect 🙏 your boundaries.

    Sounds like you made the right decision to not get in touch with your brother.

    Thank you for saying that I’ve always been a person 🤍🙏. I wish I knew it, all those decades of feeling like a 2-D object.. and not a valued object 😢

    I think that everyone has difficulties being alone for too long and we all rely on others for love. Bogart does, all social animals do.

    The tattoo, it’s ALULA. This was what a child long ago, said when trying to tell me “I love you”, but couldn’t say it, being a toddler.

    I’ll never forget it: a child’s sincere, honest, trustworthy expression of love, something that was new to me: being loved- simply, truly. I felt so undeserving of it, back then.

    🤍 Anita

    #455310
    anita
    Participant

    * Correcting a typo from in my previous message: It’s clear to me that this relationship meant a lot more to you than lust.

    #455309
    anita
    Participant

    Dear Alecsee,

    I wanted to add, after spending more time in your thread, that what stands out to me is that you’re already doing something many people never do — you’re looking inward, trying to understand the patterns underneath your reactions, not just the surface events. That takes courage.

    From what you described, it sounds like both you and your ex were carrying old attachment wounds into the relationship. When two people with anxious and avoidant tendencies come together, the dynamic can become intense very quickly — longing, fear, closeness, distance, all mixed together. It makes sense that you felt pulled toward her and also deeply hurt by the push‑pull cycle.

    You’re also noticing something important about yourself: the desire to be “perfect,” to avoid rejection, to please, to hold things in until you reach a breaking point. Those patterns don’t come out of nowhere. They usually start early in life, long before any romantic relationship. Exploring where that began — how you learned, as a child, to manage closeness, conflict, and approval — can help you understand why this breakup hit so hard and why certain behaviors came out under stress.

    It also makes sense that you’re grieving not just the person, but the meaning she held for you — the familiarity, the shared background, the feeling that she brought out parts of you. Losing that can feel like losing a piece of yourself.

    None of this means you’re a bad person or that your reactions define you. It means you were overwhelmed, in a relationship that activated old fears, and you didn’t yet have the tools to navigate it differently. You’re already starting to build those tools now by reflecting instead of blaming yourself or her.

    If you keep following this thread — understanding your attachment patterns, your early experiences, and the ways you try to protect yourself from rejection — you’ll be able to move forward with more clarity and less pain. And future relationships will feel very different.

    You’re not alone in this, and you’re not broken. You’re learning.

    🤍 Anita

    #455308
    anita
    Participant

    Dear Alecsee:

    It’s clear to me that this relationship meant a lot more to you than just.

    So, you’re saying 🙄 that yours is Anxious attachment style, and hers is Avoidant, and both came about because of insecure attachment with parents?

    🤍 Anita

    #455307
    anita
    Participant

    Dear Peter:

    Thank you 😊 🙏 for your thoughts and for the poem✨️

    🤍 Anita

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 5,517 total)