Dear Tee,

“The problem is that we cannot selectively switch off just the unpleasant emotions while keeping the pleasant ones” That’s the weird part. I am able to freely smile and “enjoy” a lot of things without facing any issues. I can even smile and laugh even right now. So is it actually affecting me?

“This is a negative bias towards women: that women do stupid things, and that it’s normal for them.” I think you misunderstood. I am not saying that women do stupid things, I am saying that women do things that men (I) view as stupid, such as spending hundreds of dollars on makeup and outfits, or when they are dramatic about lots of issues or when some women see their man interacting with another woman for 5 seconds, they are able to be upset for the entire day for literally no reason when all the man probably did is show the woman some directions or something. That is not an attitude I picked up from my father, that is something that I have seen from real life situations. And I only saw B through that lens cause of the absolute foolishness she kept doing. This woman broke up with me just cause I left my phone online on Instagram while I was sleeping. That is the foolishness I had to deal with. And what makes it even more stupid is that she had access to my Instagram account so if I were doing any suspicious activity, she would have known. This opinion of mine may seem like bias to you but it’s really not. I have seen multiple men complain about these same foolishness before I realized this is actually normal. It is normal for women to be overthinking about even the smallest things. They have proven it through their actions. I am not saying all women are like this, but the women that I have seen, the women that I’ve heard other men complain about, have all been like this. Tee, the women today even post sexy photos of themselves in revealing outfits and claim they are doing it for themself. IF THEY ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELF<, WHY NOT JUST KEEP IT IN THEIR GALLERY???? This is not something that only B did, but other women have done it too. I have heard enough first hand experiences from men to know this kind of foolishness is normal to an extent but that doesn’t mean I will tolerate it more than I should.

“I don’t know of this new “normal”, where women leave their man if he shows tears.” This is quite normal in this world. Even women using divorce to steal half of a man’s wealth has become normalized in the current society. That is why most men live in fear of dating women. I can give you lots of real life stories that I witnessed with women behaving in similar manners. One such experience was when my father brought in a foreigner to work at his company and he found a woman here to marry. They got married and hit it off for a while but then one day, following an altercation, that woman called the immigration officers on him while he was at work. He was then arrested and taken to the detention center, where he cried to his wife and my dad pleading for help to get out of there, but the wife did nothing to help him get out. So my father got him out by sending him to Cuba and fixing his paperwork so that he can return to work at his company again. And they got divorced as soon as he landed here.

Another similar example was my dad’s other friend, who had a girlfriend and a teenage daughter. They were a lovely couple and I always visited them with my dad. One day, the woman got offered a job in the US and she wanted to move there to work but the man couldn’t move because his entire family was here and his job was here too and it would be difficult for him to get another job in the US. However, because she wanted to move to the States so badly, the man did extra work to make the money necessary to send his gf and their daughter to the US while he stayed behind to make more money so he can later join them. But a few weeks later, I found out that the woman got the job in the US (Florida to be precise), broke up with him, and married some doctor in the States, leaving him behind, broken. I can give you more real life examples that I actually witnessed regarding women like these. Therefore, I cannot really blame my parents for having their bad opinion about women when the women they have known are women like these. I don’t know where you live but the men there must be extremely lucky to not have these issues, cause these women are normal here.

“So I guess they’ve brought you up with this outdated stereotype about how a true man and a true woman should be.” If my parents brought me up in the actual outdated stereotype that you assumed them to have done, they would have taught me that men should go out and do all the work while women must stay home as housewives bearing children and etc. That is not what my parents taught me. My parents taught me that women should be treated with respect and love and that women should be allowed to study and pursue their dreams and marry the man they desire and they should be loyal to their man, and the same goes for men too and etc. My parents taught me that when a man and woman become one, they should share their burdens, not force them on one person. The wife should be the husband’s best friend and the husband should be the wife’s best friend and they should work together to make decisions and always be responsible for each other and for their family. They taught me that the man should be the head of the household but he should never shut down his wife and always let her share her opinion regarding things and let her assist in decision making. That is what my parents taught me, and I do not believe there is anything wrong with the things they taught me.

The only reason my parents shut down my feelings is because they cannot comprehend my feelings. They cannot comprehend the pain that a suicidal person is going through. They just use logic instead of emotions to deal with such issues, and they cannot relate to me in any manner or form. So their inability to understand me forced me to shut down my feelings because I would be wasting my energy trying to make them understand. The fact that men cannot show their emotions is something that society taught me, not what my parents taught me. My parents wanted me to express myself but their inability to understand forced me to shut down my feelings instead of telling them. They literally cannot comprehend it. That is why they only saw the humiliation when the church found out that I was suicidal.

Look at all these feminists and other women out there creating an environment where the man has to just endure and never complain until they are completely fed up. Not every women is as mature as you are. Especially nowadays, look at all these young women just going to clubs and drinking and sleeping with multiple men and men sleeping with multiple women and etc. That is the state of current society right now. Do you think these women will appreciate a man who is in “touch with his emotions”? Immature people like these women won’t understand complex emotions. These immature women will only treat the men with emotions as weak men. Their only focus is themself. I am not saying that all women are like this. I am saying that women like this do exist, as shown by the real life examples I told you earlier.

How do you differentiate between a good and bad partner anyway in this day and age? My uncle and aunt got married in December 2012 and when we met my aunt, she was the most amazing woman that any one of us had ever met. I was like 7 back then and even I was impressed by her, and you know that if an innocent child is able to say you are amazing, that means YOU ARE AMAZING. My aunt was so caring, so loving, so kind and understanding, always taking care of each of us family members, always helping out in the kitchen and taking responsibility and etc. Even my father told the other women in the house that they should learn from her (as a joke). She was a well respected teacher at a high school and was always looked up to by the kids there. But only recently did we find out her true nature. She had rejected Christianity and she disrespected my grandfather who is a priest. She had been emotionally cheating with another man (A TAXI DRIVER!!!!!) while my confused uncle was at home wondering why she was behaving so hostile to him. Everyone knows my uncle as the deacon and the well respected teacher. Everyone knows that my uncle is kind, gentle and innocent (to the point that they take advantage of him to borrow money which they never return). EVERYONE KNOWS THAT HE IS NOT EVEN THE TYPE TO ABUSE HIS WIFE. But this woman divorced him cause he was not masculine enough for her!!!!!! This is the type of woman that exists in society now. This woman is a perfect example of a woman who would leave their man for showing his emotions. Then she married the taxi driver and converted into his religion. She even tried to turn their two kids against their father, but the older one was mature enough to realize what a horrible person his mother really is but the younger one was easily manipulated by treats and other stuff his mother brought. She even forced her own brother out of her family and treats her mother like trash, and we didn’t know any of this until recently cause of how good she was at hiding it. So how do we even tell who is a good partner and who is not a good partner? They can easily hide it from us, make us believe that they are the most perfect person in the world, while hiding their true nature.

Paradoxy

Dear Anita,

My parents may have taken the short cut to make me an adult, but it has shaped me to be who I am now and I am quite satisfied with it to an extent. And other adults have shown approval in my maturity, even their own children who are much older than me behave worse than me. And I also advise other students at this college to make better decisions regarding women and etc. But I don’t know if it was worth it to become who I am now and I do not know if I have the right to be advising other people considering the situation I got myself in.

It is too late to be Godwin-the-child, I have a med degree to finish and I am too old to be behaving like a child. I should be focusing on my future career and etc. Med is already a pain on my behind so I do not have the time nor energy to share to Godwin-the-child. I do have a lot to grow Anita and I will. Eventually I will get past this.

Paradoxy.

Dear Tee,

Thank you for kind words, I appreciate it. I am not sure if I can actually have a fraction of empathy for myself cause the guilt of hurting others always overwhelms me. In some cases it may have been accidental yet I became the reasons that others had to go through a bad experience. That guilt overwhelms me. My ex-crush probably still sees me as that creepy guy that made a humiliating website for her, and the other church members probably sees me as the suicidal kid. That was not the label I wanted to be known for, and I don’t think I can change it. But I was never offered a chance to show my real personality to anyone, so they all pushed me away. The one person who didn’t push me away was B, but here I am. Makes me wonder if I should give her another chance since she gave me a chance too. But I already gave her multiple chances I guess.

“What you call the starting point (your parent’s influence) is like the foundations of a house” I made a mistake, I used the wrong term to define their influence. Their influence is actually minor. The starting point was actually a girl who lived in the same street as me who constantly bullied me. Whenever I tried to make friends with the kids in the community, she would turn them all against me, insulting me, calling me names, making me a laughing stock in front of them. This constant isolation made me constantly on my own. Not having friends and not knowing what it means to be cared for became the starting point for my miserable life.

By the time my parents’ influence on my misery became strong was closer to age 13-16, which are basically teenage years and therefore I associate my parents’ actions as their method to deal with normal teenage rebellion. However, that does not change the fact that they never thought of encouraging the things that I liked, whether it be music or coding or etc. They never let me have a childhood, always forcing me to “act like an adult” and etc. But honestly, I am not interested in stupid adult politics and etc. They make me sit with the adults but I am literally just sitting near them being awkwardly quiet while my parents do the talking. It makes me look more like a fool in front of them cause there is literally nothing I can contribute to a conversation that I am neither knows anything about nor interested in. The constant pressure of needing high scores and everything in order to get into a college to pursue a degree in something I hated drove me to where I am as well. So I do not think my parents are the foundation of my misery, but they do play a role in it.

You are right about everything else you said. But have you ever wondered, if others would even realize that you are not in the room anymore? Like you are basically invisible to them. They do not realize you exist until something relevant occurs. Have you never wondered, what difference would it make, whether u exist or not? Is ur existence actually causing trouble for others or would they appreciate never having met you?

It was my mother who said my behavior was humiliating for them. My father tried to understand but he is the type of person that constantly tells me that suicidal people are idiots and etc. And regarding the school friend, it’s okay to be worried but sometimes it’s better to do nothing than doing something especially considering how delicate suicidal people are. I told her that I am fine and not to tell anyone and that is the exact thing she did. She refused to go along with my wishes and look at where it got me. In a bigger mess than what I was already enduring. All she did was give me more reason to kill myself. But I am a Christian who believes in hell and etc. I would rather spend a 100 years suffering on Earth than an eternity suffering in hell. Yes I understand that authorities should be notified but most suicidal people wants some help, but I did not ask for help cause I knew I was not going to kill myself. The least she could have done is trust me/ respect my wishes, especially after I told her that it was just a feeling and not something I would act on.

“Children can sometimes be very cruel.” Her brother was no child. This happened in Grade 10, between ages 15-17. He is the son of the deacon at our church. He is like one of those kids who actively participate in church activities. I feel like calling him a child is an understatement. He was perfectly aware of what he said, but I do factor in normal teenage foolishness, but he was still aware. We were almost adults, he obviously knew what he was doing even if its not with a mature mindset.

Each experience shaped this “house” of mine. Like I stated before, this self hate started with the girl who bullied me, and the combined impact of my parents and other experiences influenced me to believe in this core belief of mine. But the thing is, I knew that this core belief of mine was wrong, but I still continued to believe it, cause I wondered, what if I went back in time to the day I was born and just killed myself as a baby? All these experiences would never have occurred. No one would even realize that something is different about their lives. My existence means nothing to anyone. Even my father has pointed that out to me. Whether I exist or not, the world would continue on, so what is my purpose anyway? That was when I made helping people as my purpose. To be the reason that other people are happy. I adopted other people’s happiness as my own. Watching other people be happy made me happy. I couldn’t be happy myself so might as well seek happiness in knowing others are happy. Otherwise I would just be hollow, someone without something to live for. B was my something to live for. But what do I have now? I am back to my hollow self, desperately trying to glue the broken pieces of my empty shell. Even homeless people on the streets have something to live for. But I have just accepted death. If death was an actual figure like the grim reaper or something, I would gladly come and hug him like I just found my long lost friend.

I am well aware that all my thoughts are wrong, but it is just how I feel, the thoughts I have, the things I wonder. I hope you understand.

Paradoxy.

Dear Anita,

I will try to get individual therapy. But I doubt I have time as it is exam period currently and med is a pain right now.

“Your months-long torment is like rottenness in your bones, is it, Paradoxy?” And yes the months long torment is like rottenness in my bones. It is deteriorating my mental health and emotional health. I have noticed that I am becoming colder, but only towards B.

“You want to teach her in her 3rd decade, post her formative years, do you?” Yes I wanted to teach her to be a good wife in her 3rd decade. I thought that I could fix her by pouring out all my love to heal the scars that she had but my love was not enough.

“So, mathematically, statistically, you wouldn’t be motivated to consider another woman.” Yeah you are right, I would not be motivated to find another woman. And I said that B is a 100000x better than most woman because I observed other people’s relationships, conversations, etc and generally, the women were all annoying, but some were dating multiple men while others were using the men for their money and etc. And in other cases, the men were the problem, as they wanted sex and the lack of being sexually satisfied triggered breaks up too. I only found few proper couples that I am actually quite jealous of to be honest. The guy living next to me started dating around the same time as me and he seems to barely have conflicts with his partner (she is a med student while he studies econ).

The key phrase that you missed is that I said that she is still the best compared to MOST of the other women that I HAVE MET. So technically it is not a fact, it is just an opinion based on my observations.

Regarding my parents, the emotional abuse was just based on the fact that I have always felt alone and abandoned. I felt like a burden to my own parents, a waste of time and money. They have never listened to me and they always forced their way on me, always claiming that the path they have laid out for me is the best option for me. They force their family tradition on me, not even letting me date who I want to date (but I guess they have a point considering what just happened).  But overall, dating is out of option for me which is why I had to secretly date B.

My father raised me the way old fashioned people brought up a man. So that means I have no room for emotions and etc. He always wanted me to think like older people despite being still a child, and that made me never get any chance to enjoy my childhood (I had no friends anyway so them preventing me from enjoying my childhood barely changed anything). We were poor too so I never got to enjoy things other kids got to enjoy, but I did not mind cause I understood the value of money and that I should not waste it on things like video games and etc. But my parents still tried to let me have some fun. My father bought me a second hand PS 2 which was the first time I got to experience gaming but that only lasted for a few months cause he eventually hid it to let me focus on studying but by the time I found it again, ants had already destroyed the hard drive. But anyway, I do not see my parents as a bad people for the pain they caused me because with the bad things, they have done some good things but I always understood the reasons for the bad treatment. However, there were moments like guilt-tripping and other similar circumstances where they would manipulate me into doing what they want without complaining (my father is a pro at psychology, and he is so rigid that everyone, whether it be his own boss, his friends, or our own relatives, knows that he should not be messed with because he always speaks the truth and can put anyone in their place by using pure logic). Everything that my father taught me was logically correct, but I was wise enough to know that there are exceptions to the wisdom he passed to me. I did not let his opinion about things completely blind me, but it guided me to make even better decisions than he did, but I still have a long way to go as shown by the current situation.

My father suffered a lot in his childhood, worse than me to be honest. He was the oldest among the three children but that means he got treated the worst too. He was abandoned and belittled and treated like trash by his own family and distant relatives too, and he was traumatized by an incident when he was 5 where he was falsely accused of stealing 10 cents and was tortured for weeks with physical beating by his teacher until he had to admit to stealing to stop the pain, even though he did not steal the money (the teacher hated his father because he was a priest so that anger was redirected to him). This event was so horrible that ever since that day, whenever something goes missing, people would instantly be suspicious of him, even to the point of accusing him of teaching his brothers to be thieves as well. The trauma from that incident was so severe that I have seen him cry about it even now and he is almost 50 years old. But these harsh situations made him grow his resolve to be better than everyone who treated him poorly, to the point that he was the only person to have a highly respected and high-earning job as a marine electrical engineer in cruise ships and cargo ships, while everyone else had average engineering jobs or teacher jobs etc. He is also a devoted Christian, always telling me to trust God as his God never abandoned him when everyone else did and he never went against his Christian principles which I respect and follow too but I do not like it when he muddles up family tradition with Christian principles.

Please do not view my parents as horrible parents, as I am their first child anyway so their poor parenting is understandable. My father was harsh in hammering in foundations in mathematics and other disciplines, but now I realize that hammering in that discipline has considerably helped me academically as well as making me wiser than others my age. I think they tried to correct their ways for my younger sister, but that caused her to become a spoilt brat who always fights them and have her tantrums to get her way (She is 10 now by the way). The main difference between my sister and I is that she received too much freedom and I received too less freedom. My parents still think I do not know what freedom means. They think I view freedom as the ability to do anything, right or wrong, but in reality, I view freedom as the ability to not be limited by other people’s judgements and opinions etc, while also being aware of the line between right and wrong. And that freedom, I will never get, as even now I am controlled by my parents’ desires, and when I try to go against them, they install me with the fear of “what if I am wrong”. The career path to become a doctor gurantees that I will be successful in life especially since I can handle the work load to a degree, but will I be happy doing this? Probably not. Though I like helping people, I don’t think med is the best way for me to help people.

My parents have influenced the core belief that  I am the source of pain for others, but they are not the main influencer. They have behaved in ways that made me feel like a burden to them but that is just a starting point. The real influence came from my own peers.

I made a website to confess my feelings for my first crush in grade 9, which became a publicly known thing for which I was made fun of for a while, and I felt like I humiliated my crush and that I was a burden to her. We have barely ever spoken since then.

Later I made a pressurized vessel as a bomb to kill myself (which I told u about 4 years ago), for which I also became known for after I injured my arm from the explosion to the point where my classmates made fun of me by asking me about information regarding making bombs. This suicidal behavior caught the attention of my church/school friend who I spoke to about my depression and my suicidal thoughts and I specifically told her that it was just a feeling and I do not plan to act on it anymore and she should keep it between us but she told her parents about it, who told the church about it, who called my parents regarding the issue. My parents felt humiliated by that experience and was very angry with me, making me feel more of a burden. I could not forget that betrayal from her and I cut ties with her then.

Then several months later, her brother pointed out to me what a loser I was and how nobody cared about me. And I realized he was right. I spend my recess times walking around class looking for a friend to hang out with but there was never any who wanted me. This further drived me down the depressive spiral as I felt abandoned by everyone. Not to mention the constant insults I kept getting from my peers. There was no actual bullying, just some hurtful things that I felt were true and I did not have a smart mouth to talk back to the things they said.

Later on, I had a geography project to do with 3 other people with one of them being a well known girl for being a role model student for others. The assignment was quite simple but I tried to convince my group to make the project different from everyone else, but we ran out of time, and 2 of the members had to leave for another class and the girl started crying as we had run out of time but the teacher gave us some extra time to finish the work but her friends started to berate me for causing her to cry and I felt responsible for it because it was my plan that caused the issue. I stayed behind and completed the project with the girl but the pain of being criticized by everyone there was too much for me and I had to get out of the class before anyone saw my tears cause I knew it would just be more humiliation for me and no one cared anyway but unfortunately, one guy and some family friend students saw me crying and asked what happened but I kept everything to myself, crying in silence for being a burden to others.

In grade 10 I started talking to a girl who I started developing feelings for as she showed me compassion and friendship when no one else did. I came by so often and my drastic change in mood and behavior was so noticeable that her friends knew that I had a crush on her. Eventually I confessed my feelings for her, which she rejected but a few days later she said she had feelings for me too but then next day she changed her mind cause she knew her parents would disapprove. So I felt sick cause I felt like I humiliated her in front of her friends cause that’s how obvious it was that she was my crush. But then she told me that she told her parents about me crushing on her. That added to my depression cause her parents were friends with my parents and they just stopped coming to our house from then on (the mother comes by nowadays though but they stopped back then) and it made me feel humiliated in front of her parents for feeling the way I felt, combined with the fear that my parents would find out that I had feelings for her.

Weeks after that, I started searching for online friends and I met with a Muslim girl who I talked to for a bit and we sort of connected and we instantly fell in love with each other. We talked for several weeks before my parents found out and made me break up with her. I grieved for a while cause of the pain but in that time, she moved on to another guy and I took pretended to be someone else to ensure she was happy, which she was. The new guy treated her way better than I could and it made me realize how worthless I am. How worthless my love was. And I had caused her unintentional pain by breaking up with her cause of my parents.

Then later, I fell in love with another online girl but this one was a rebound, where I felt feelings for her as a coping mechanism to the breakup but that relationship became a toxic one as I was the one constantly pouring out my love while she just took the love and never returned any. She even broke up with me one day, went on a date with another guy, then got back with me the next day. Sounds similar to you? Lol. I eventually realized the toxicity in that relationship and I left her as I felt like trash being with her and I felt unlovable and that my love was worthless to her.

Then I met another Muslim girl who I talked to daily and eventually fell in love with. But my parents caught me again but I lied that I was not in love with her. But a few days later she ghosted me. So now I was back to square one again. Abandoned and forgotten.

I got in touch with my first online gf again and found out she broke up with the guy and she was no longer in touch with her other friends. So we talked for a while and eventually reconciled. But then she broke up with me, despite how much love I poured out to her, and she said that she just did not want to date anyone right now. Then later I look at her status to find her dating another man, who treated her poorly anyway and then she ghosted me too. Leaving me there, alone.

Few months later, closer to my birthday, I used my computer skills to track down the other online gf who ghosted me. I found her and she told me that her parents forced her to cut ties with me, which I understood. I asked her if she wanted us to continue our relationship and she agreed. But that did not even last a week. She ghosted me again. So now I was right back to where I was. Abandoned, alone and forgotten.

I am grateful that those online relationships did not last cause I doubt I would have been able to maintain it, and it did teach me things about relationships to an extent. But the pain it caused me drove me believe that maybe I am not cut out for anyone. And the other experiences prior to that added to the depression and the belief that I am a burden to others. And combined with my Dark Energy influence, being the source of pain to others became the core belief of my existence. God’s failed experiment, I call myself. Ironically my real name is Godwin but in reality I am a loser.

Paradoxy

Dear Anita,

Lol yes, I guess paradoxy is a fitting name for me at this point.

“You love her, but alas, the paradox: you also love to hate her, evident in the many upper case typing.” I do not love to hate her. The use of upper case typing is whenever I feel the rising anger in me as I am literally writing out my thoughts here. The things that I hate about her are the things that torment me. I have not slept properly in the last 3 months. I have been going through a depressed phase of just wanting the pain to end, whether it be through death or amnesia or something. But I understand your point. I never thought of the possibility that I could be projecting my hate for women in general, on B. But I still disagree with it, because if I hated women like that, I would not have even tried dating at all. All i wanted was to find a woman who can be a good friend to me, who is willing to care for me, and do everything else a wife should do, have God at the center of our life and I just wanted to serve such a deserving woman. I just wanted to find such a perfect woman, someone who despite her flaws is still the most perfect being I have ever met. I would be more than willing to serve such a woman, to give her everything she wants, to keep her on that high pedestal, to be treated like the queen that she is. It will be my honor to serve such a woman. And I believed I found that in B, and I have realized that even though she has done a lot of stupid things, she is still 100000x better than most of the other women that I have met. Its like I cannot even blame her for being stupid cause I know she is trying her best to do the right things. How do you even improve someone’s decision making skills? Like how do you teach someone to make better decisions?

Yes you are right about the things I said in 2020, but it had all changed upon meeting B. I had initially loved the pain, the ‘Dark Energy’ but meeting B completely annihilated that feeling. The feeling of being loved by someone for the first time was literally changing me for the better. Knowing that I had her in my life felt like a factory reset button. I was a thousand times happier, more energetic, no longer depressed, no longer suicidal, no longer in love with that Dark Energy. I wanted to do everything I could to make her life better. I wanted to treat her like the special woman that she is. I literally wanted to just serve her, to maintain her happiness, etc. But now that I lost her, I can feel the things of the past slowly creeping back into me, starting with self hate.

I think I agree with what I said in March 23-25, I do not wish to fall in love again. I do not wish to endure such pain again. Love is blinding, a pain in my behind. The relationship with B has ruined me for the worst. I literally do not want to be with anyone else. I do not want to even give anyone a chance, cause that is the mindset I grew up in. Love one woman and one woman only. Even if I give another woman a chance, I feel like I would constantly be subconsciously comparing her to B, and I do not think that is right nor fair for that person. I have grown to realize that everyone else is happier without me existing in their life. All I would be is a source of pain for others, which I do not wish to do. I have thought about everything in my life and I have realized that if my role in each event had been removed, the persons affected by the event would have been happier. Maybe I should blame myself for breaking up with B in January, which caused her to do what she did. Maybe the love I offered was not good enough. I don’t know. And just like I predicted, by choosing to love again, I became an idiot and a fool.

My parents are good people. Though their methods are questionable, their aim was to help me. They did not physically abuse me. But you could say that I was emotionally abused, while B was physically abused.

“In addition to their abuse, they instilled in you the core belief that women are bad, dishonest people who are not to be trusted” No they did not install in me that women are bad, dishonest people. They have taught me that women in the modernized world, can have ulterior motives for loving you so I should have my guard up and should not be vulnerable around a woman. But I am wise enough to realize that though they meant their words to apply to all modern woman, there will always be exceptions to their belief and I should become wise enough to distinguish a proper woman from gold diggers and etc. I listened to my parents but their words only guide me, not control me. So I do not believe that all women are bad, dishonest people. That is why I argued with my parents that B was different from the rest. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

I am not directing the anger for my parents on other people. Do not misunderstand, but I am wise enough to decide who deserves my anger and who does not. My parents are generally good people, they have only wanted the best for me. It is just that their methods are a bit too old fashioned. They are too narrow minded to accept change in life style. To accept a different method to handling situations. They have never listened to me. Always discouraging me from what I wanted to do. Even this med career was their fault. I never wanted this. I wanted to do music or computers. But here I am. But they are still good people. But their methods are questionable, just like Aunt 1, but they are nowhere near as morally twisted and stupid as Aunt 1, and they will never cross that moral line. I am wise enough to see the underlying meaning/purpose behind their actions and therefore, I have chosen to forgive my parents because they do not know any better and their wisdom still taught me to be a good man to the best of my ability, but I will never forget the pain, the anger, I have endured cause of them.

Yes my anger is directed at B right now. Cause she had the power to make the right decision and she still chose wrong. She had many opportunities to tell me the truth. She had opportunities to reject her aunt’s plan. But instead she went along with it. She is a 22 year old who obviously knew what was wrong and what was right. She was aware of the things I liked and the things I hated. She knew that I hated seeing her in revealing outfits in public. She knew that sleeping with another man is wrong. That is why I said that she is a full grown adult capable of making proper decisions because she knows what is right and what is wrong, yet she still intentionally chose wrong.

My anger towards my parents and the anger towards B are totally different things. Do not muddle up those two. I am not that foolish. It is part of my moral code to never redirect anger to someone else, cause I have experienced that myself. I have had my parents’ anger towards something else redirected to me, so I know how it feels so it is part of my morals to never redirect my anger for my parents towards someone else, to never let anyone suffer the way I suffered.

Paradoxy

Dear Tee,

The ex is actually a housemate, as they are not sharing rooms but sharing the house. Besides, I have no choice but to forgive that they are living together because it is not their fault that they are college students who cannot afford to get their own place, but I cannot forgive the fact that she did not let me know who he actually was even though she made me aware of the existence of a male housemate. And regarding the sexual encounter, it is just a possibility as they were both half nude but I can never be certain. I can only wonder what could have happened. So should I give her the benefit of doubt?

“It appears to me that she cannot stay away from men’s advances and men’s attention. This could be a result of her being sexually abused and used for prostitution since her youth. In other words, it could be the result of trauma.” She was not sexually abused and used for prostitution since her youth. She was only put in that state once. She was physically abused by her mother, but other than that she had a normal life. Top of the class, most known romantic couple in high school, church choir girl, etc. Even in the case of her first boyfriend, she broke up with him because she could not afford to buy him a birthday present. That is the level of immaturity that I am dealing with. Her first boyfriend treated her very well: protecting her from her mother’s abuse, getting a phone for her to call him whenever necessary, etc. The neglect from her parents may have affected her, but she was already in the process of healing from those experiences. In fact, I am the only person who took on the role of helping her heal. Not her father, not her aunt, not her cousin or ex boyfriends. It was me. I showed her what it meant to be properly loved. I showed her what it feels like to be respected. Yet she rejected me and followed her stupid aunt.

Her aunt was not her primary caregiver. In fact their relationship was not even that strong. She only lived with her aunt for a year or two, and she did not even maintain contact with her for an entire year until she needed her again. So there is no evidence to show that she had no choice but to obey the aunt. She had a job, supported herself, saved money to go to college herself without asking for help from anyone etc. Even outside of that, she had support from me and her father, and we both truly cared for her. So there is no way that she could have been manipulated into obeying her aunt. She reads her bible, tries to follow the rules in the bible, knows that a wife belongs to her husband and the husband belongs to the wife yet she still managed to put herself in this situation. Like there is no logical explanation for her action and it’s driving me crazy.

“Sounds like she was taking good care of your physical needs” False, she tried her best with my emotional needs as well, I just didn’t think of listing them which is why I said etc. She tries to motivate me whenever the stress of medicine gets to me. She even supported my music development, computer engineering projects etc. She always tried to ensure that I was emotionally and mentally well generally, but it is just when it’s regarding other men and simple misunderstandings where the issue rises.  I guess some people are just too stupid/blind regarding certain things. Though she tried her best, her best is not good enough. She refuses to listen to me, accept when she is wrong, shuts me down, always misunderstands things despite how many times I break down the information for her to process better. It is just amazing how such a woman can be the most wonderful wife and still be doing foolishness.

“She isn’t able to reject other men’s advances.” That is the funny part. She does reject other men’s advances. This woman is actually very beautiful and very sexually attractive to many men. I have seen first hand how so many men are attracted to her and she has rejected countless advances from men already. So she is actually capable of being faithful. She has people from modeling agencies, to popular music artists, to company ceos interested in her and she has rejected all of their advances. So I am just confused as to how this situation even happened. My only logical explanation is just plain stupidity.

“If she is blaming you for her behavior and telling you it’s not a big deal that she has secret liaisons with other men, and shutting you down when you want to talk about it… then she is far from accepting that she needs therapy” No she stopped making the excuse that it is not a big deal, but she continues to do things such as posting pictures of herself in very revealing bikini outfits (which is normal since a lot of women does it despite being told not to by their partner but I am not going to tolerate it). And she shuts me down when she is busy accusing me based on her misunderstanding of various situations and she just overthinks so much that she is not able to accept the correct understanding of certain things despite me trying to break down the facts to make it easier for her to understand. Eventually she understands but the amount of pressure I have to put to force her to listen is really high. I have to figuratively shut her mouth with tape to make her listen, that is the level the situation has become.

I am trying to step away from the relationship right now, but I still have lingering feelings for her. Besides that, I know that if I do not protect her, her stupid behind is going to get herself in trouble again and I do not wish to wake up tomorrow to learn that she was raped and murdered. And I also have to think about what she may have felt when she was doing all of these things. Technically, we were broken up when she decided to sleep with other man. So does that technicality give grounds for forgiving her? Should I put into consideration the fact that maybe the break up was so painful for her that she needed some form of sexual release to cope with the pain? We have agreed to try some couple’s counseling but I do not think that will work. I appreciate your advice though.

Paradoxy

Dear anita,

I appreciate everything you have said. Summarizing all the events helped me organize my own thoughts as well and I must really thank you for it. As it is my first ever relationship, I forgave the general “stupid” things she did because I felt they were normal overthinking and misunderstanding that females tend to go through. So I forgave her for the things she did, that is why I continued to take her back every time she behaved in a “stupid” manner.

“All this so far quite intense, but still in the parameters of teenagers/ very young people in love.” You are right about the incidents that happened in the first couple months could be considered teenager/young people issues that are quite normal. But don’t you think we should be trying to behave like proper adults? Everyone knows that few of the most important rules in a relationship is to not cheat, not hide things, and not to lie to their partner. The first incident of “cheating” happened when she was naked with only a towel wrapped around her while her ex removed her braids. I was already uncomfortable knowing that she had relationships with a few men over the year and slept with multiple men before. And she was well aware of that. But knowing how humans are, I understood that in each relationship she probably assumed that her partner then would be the person she would spend the rest of her life with and so it doesn’t matter if she slept with him before marriage, so I forgave her for her past, because what she did is understandable. However, I think it’s quite disrespectful that she spent a day with her ex partially nude right after we broke up. Anita, how would you feel if you and your partner broke up and the next day he went right back to his ex? And how would you feel if you found out that this happened, but your partner tried to hide it from you first before confessing? Isn’t that a red flag? Doesn’t that mean your partner would probably hide other things from you as well? And how would you feel, knowing that there is a possibility that your partner slept with his ex but denies sleeping with them to you? He probably didn’t sleep with her, but knowing that they were both partially naked, can you really rule out that possibility considering what your partner already tried to hide? I don’t think this kind of behavior is a young people issue cause even adults way older than me have had these kinds of experiences with their partner.

Anita, I understand that what she went through was one hell of a traumatic experience for her. I totally understand that. But knowing what she has done before, it’s hard to ignore the possibility that she is hiding certain details to make it seem like she was manipulated and raped. She already admitted to me that in her previous relationship (with the ex that lives with her which we can call T), she was using the guy as a rebound after her breakup with the guy before him. She admitted that the guy before him (who we can call Al) was the one who taught her everything sexual related, and that means they have done a lot of sexual pleasurable things that she enjoyed but Al also cheated on her so she broke up with him, and then used T as a rebound. So with those things in mind, it is very hard for me to ignore the possibility that she intentionally chose to go along with her aunt’s plan as a rebound after our break up. Maybe she wanted a sexual release as a coping method to dealing with our break up. But it goes back to what I stated in the previous paragraph: how would you feel if your partner slept with another person right after you break up with them? I believe that is utter disrespect. That kind of behavior indicates that she never loved me that much anyway. If she was able to easily move on to the next man, I think it is reasonable to believe that she never loved me properly.

“It is very difficult for a child to see a parent or a parent figure as a bad, horrible person.” Ma’am, this is a 22 year old woman. She is a full grown adult, who has already experienced the pain of being cheated on, and is capable of making their own decisions. She was already aware that going along with her aunt’s plan is extremely wrong, and she still went along with it. Yes you stated that she probably felt indebted to her aunt for taking care of her. But do you think her loyalty to her aunt is more important than her loyalty to her own future life partner who has PROVEN IT IN HIS ACTIONS THAT EVERYTHING HE DID FOR HER WAS OUT OF THE PURE LOVE THAT HE HAD FOR HER? A LIFE PARTNER WHO HAD PROVEN COUNTLESS TIMES THAT HE IS A MAN OF GOD AND ONLY MAKES WISE DECISIONS THAT ONLY BENEFITS HER. Do not forget that I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG AND I WARNED HER!!!!! I warned her that something was wrong about the way her aunt was giving her so much money without expecting nothing in return. And the other thing is that the woman has a daughter of her own who is literally the same age as B. She would not have sold off her own daughter. She chose to sell my girlfriend. B knew what was going to happen and she still went along with it. How can any man bear that? How can any husband, father, or brother bear the pain of knowing that their wife, daughter or sister was sold off by a relative for sex work? And the next day we got back together and we went to the movies like nothing ever happened. I met her aunt and family too and they all pretended like nothing happened. The overwhelming grief of being lied to and the feeling of helplessness, knowing I was not able to protect the woman that I loved so dearly is too much for me. But I thought like you said, and I decided to forgive her for everything she did. But knowing what happened, the severity of the issue, has been eating me from the inside ever since I found out what happened. She lied to me for a year anita. She could be lying about some of the specifics too, I would never know. She continued talking to the man bruh. She continued texting him, to the point that she admitted that she developed feelings for that man, WHILE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH ME. How can I bear this pain? How can I ever get over this? Of this feeling of taking advantage of. Knowing that you poured your heart and soul into this relationship, only for your partner to do this behind your back? I have studied enough psychology over the years to know that her feelings for the man may be a result of Stockholm syndrome, where the person becomes attached to their abuser. But it is hard to ignore all the other possibilities. And knowing that I am probably being manipulated by her is also eating me up. She had all the opportunities to tell me what happened. Instead, she chose to hide it for a year, making me believe everything was normal for an entire year. If she had just told me, I would have helped her through the trauma, but choosing to hide the incident has opened up a lot of questions and doubts regarding whether she can be trusted and about the possibility that it is all a lie.

Months before she confessed what she did, there was another incident with another man, which I forgot to mention earlier. There was another man who was interested in her, a classmate of mine to be precise, and he was not aware that we were dating. And whenever he made his advances on her, she always pushed it aside like it was a small thing. I told her to let him know that we were dating but she said it was unnecessary. Then couple weeks later, right after we had broken up over another fight, I checked her phone when I went over to collect my belongings and noticed that the classmate texted her about the sexual things that he wanted to do to her, and she went along with it, behaving as if she enjoyed it and wanted to experience those sexual things. I was livid when I found out. Can you see what is happening anita? Its literally a pattern. EVERY TIME WE BROKE UP, SHE WENT TO GO ENTERTAIN ANOTHER MAN. LIKE HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID TO GIVE HER ANOTHER CHANCE? AND I DID. MY STUPID SELF FORGAVE HER THEN AND GAVE HER ANOTHER CHANCE. THIS IS PURE STUPIDITY. You really cannot tell me that she is not doing this pattern intentionally. There is no way in hell that she did not do this intentionally. This adds more doubt to her confession about her being taken advantage of by her aunt. She could easily be lying. There is no possible excuse you could come up with after you see this consistent pattern, no excuse to convince me to forgive her. The word stupid is not even close enough to describe the severity of her actions. No matter what hard lifestyle she had, I should not have to be forced to put up with this kind of behavior from a woman who knows better. It is not fair that I am being a very loyal, caring man to her, ensuring that no woman could make any advances on me, only for her to be treating me like this.

I offered to be a friend and not her boyfriend to help her heal and move on with life, but she rejected it saying that she wants me to continue being her boyfriend and she does not want to be just a friend as she still has feelings for me. My undying feelings for her makes me want to give her another chance, but remembering everything she has done makes me not want to. She got enough chances already. I need to have some self respect. What do you think? Should I give her another chance? I always believed that everyone deserves another chance, and as someone who knows the value of a second chance, I am tempted to give it to her, but this experience has completely changed my mind.

Paradoxy

Hi anita,

Yes I definitely remember you and I appreciate all the advice that you gave me back then. I can’t believe I have the honor of meeting you again, especially after almost 4 years.