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Tee

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  • Tee
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    Dear Paradoxy,

    She is not in need of money as of right now, so does that mean she still wanted my validation?

    I don’t think so, since she has already moved onto someone else:

    I just found out that she already started flirting with a guy who she knew in high school and he expressed that he has some feelings for her already. And she told him that she is healing from a relationship that ended FEW months ago.

    And she is already twisting the truth to the new guy, telling him you broke up a few months ago, which is not true, because you broke up beginning of April, right? (and you stayed broken up only because you refused to reconcile, right?)

    So she is already feeding the new guy a re-touched version of the story, according to which she is “healing”, presenting herself as the victim of her ex’s (your) abuse.

    And besides, she made it clear in this letter that she doesn’t want anything from you, she wished you a “good life”. So she knows she can’t get anything from you anymore. However, she doesn’t want to come out of this fight as a loser, as a defeated one. She wants to kick you one last time (They were not all slaps, they were different types of hits, like an elbow to the face when she opens the door or something, and the next time she kicks me in the shin while walking).

    I see this letter as her “parting gift”, in which she repeats once again all of her “grievances” against you, and blames you for her own actions. A letter where she presents herself as the victim, and you as her abuser. And she managed to achieve her goal, because you are again doubting yourself, thinking that what if it’s all your fault:

    But reading her messages make me feel like maybe she is right, maybe I am the problem overall.

    I don’t want to be the cause of her pain

    She has been falsely accusing you all this time, making you believe that you are the cause of her pain. That you are harming her, when in fact, she was harming you. The pain she caused you with her lies and deceptions (and false accusations) is much bigger than what you caused her by trumpeting your parents’ false beliefs about women.

    So if you are looking at the bigger picture – which you should, rather than focusing on details and technicalities – she is not your victim, but you are her victim. And she is trying to turn that around: turn the truth upside down, and present herself as the victim.

    I don’t want to be the cause of her pain but I don’t see any other option but to leave.

    I hope that you’re not entertaining the thought of reconciling again? I thought that chapter is closed, and frankly, I wouldn’t like to keep convincing you that you should stay away from her, and why.

    So I do hope you can start moving on, i.e. start healing and learning from your mistakes.

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Dafne,

    If I was sad, I had to get over it & stop being so sensitive about it. My only coping mechanism was to shut down & find solace in my solitude.

    I am sorry, Dafne, it is very hard when you have no one to confide in, no one to understand how you are feeling.

    I stayed for too long. I felt frozen. I felt that there was no way out & that there is nothing better out there in this scarry world. And fear was my only companion.

    You concluded those things based on your childhood experience: an abusive and neglectful father, and a mother who is pushing you to love him. No wonder world seemed like a scary place, because you didn’t have anyone to protect you and to understand you. You were lacking a basic sense of safety, which is one of our existential needs. Perhaps you didn’t lack physical safety as much as emotional  safety – to have someone to understand you and empathize with you and validate your feelings.

    The same old fear comes back to me when I think that I ruined my chances with the man I’ve met at the church outing.

    This fear would then be the fear of staying alone and left to struggle with your emotions alone, never be seen for who you are as a person, never be soothed that things will be okay and that someone has your back. It seems like both the need for physical and emotional safety, right? Which you are looking for in a man, in a romantic partner.

    Those are all our basic childhood needs, which if we don’t have met, do cause us a great deal of fear and anxiety in our adult life. We believe we need a partner to meet those needs, when in fact we need ourselves and a good therapist to help us along the way.

    Somehow I still keep thinking of what did go wrong and if not contacting him first, contributed to his decision?

    You actually did contact him and sent him a video, if I remember well, but he never responded to that. So it wasn’t the lack of your initiative that made him pull away, but probably he wasn’t “feeling it” with you, which he felt with that other woman. It’s not about you not doing enough, you can be sure about that.

    But I understand how the fear of staying alone is making you believe that you didn’t do enough, that if only you had written a few more messages, he would have shown interest in you. That’s not true – it’s your fear speaking. Fear of staying alone and not having those basic needs met.

    Yes, Tee, most of my relatives passed away, and unfortunately, there is no one now to really listen.

    This holiday felt quite lonely. I’m still taking care of my elderly and feel guilty leaving them. Talking to my mother seems pointless at this stage. It always ends up in some kind of argument and pointing all my past mistakes. I also realised that she feels quite comfortable with my current situation.

    I am sorry, Dafne, that none of your living relatives can really understand and support you. I am not surprised your mother is unable to do that. She is in fact invalidating your feelings and forcing you to go against them – forcing you to be kind to your mean father. So don’t even aspect any kind of empathy from her.

    And yeah, I can imagine it suits her to have you stay single and take care of her (if that’s what you are doing for her?). And who are the other elderly, that you need to take care of, if I may ask?

    So it looks like I am on a good path to healing, I am aware and I know that I need to work on my self worth more. But at the same time I feel stuck again and can’t find an exit.

    It’s great that you are aware that you need to work on your self-esteem. But what is also important is to be aware of those basic childhood emotional needs (the need to be seen, appreciated, your emotions validated, also the need to be seen as special and important), that you need to meet, at least to a certain extent, before you can actually have a healthy relationship.

    Basically, you would need to meet the needs of your inner child. Perhaps till now, you have been identifying with your inner child – the part of you which is scared, feels helpless and needs others to save her. And you were looking for a partner, who would fulfill the role of the loving, caring parent – whom you didn’t have as a child.

    But now, the goal would be to stop identifying with the inner child, but to strengthen the adult part of you, who isn’t so helpless but can actually do something to help yourself. The more you feel capable of changing your life, the more chance you have to be happy and even find a healthy partner in the future.

    But the focus right now should not be on finding a partner, but on strengthening your adult self and soothing your inner child. In other words, on meeting some of your basic needs.

    For example, if you feel that you are stuck in the caretaker role for others ( I’m still taking care of my elderly and feel guilty leaving them.), and that you are neglecting your own needs, the goal would be to start paying more attention to your own needs and reject some of those requests if they take a toll on you.

    The goal would be to learn how to set boundaries and say “I can do this for you, but I won’t be able to do that.” Basically, learning to set boundaries, the same as you are learning in the relationship with your father.

    Setting boundaries and respecting your own needs (both physical and emotional) is a way to become more anchored in the adult self, and less in the helpless child self.

    So I would suggest learning about childhood emotional needs, and then trying to meet those needs, either by yourself, or with a help of a therapist. I can provide you with some resources (youtube videos and such) if you’d like to start learning about childhood emotional needs and how to meet them.

    Dear Dafne, you have the capacity to help yourself, please know that. Start small, with tiny steps, and you won’t feel so paralyzed any more. It’s great that you are helping in the animal shelter – but that’s again helping others, focusing on others and their needs.

    I think it would be super important to start focusing more on your own needs (e.g. to simply become more aware of them throughout the day) and how you can actually meet them – be it by simply taking a nice bath, or going for a refreshing walk, or doing something else that fills you with energy and inspiration.

    Thank you for your kind words, and your empathy and encouragement on my healing journey. I wish you healing too, and want to ensure you that healing is indeed possible! <3

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Paradoxy,

    I’d like to comment some more on her letter, because it is quite telling…

    So here are some things she said about you:

    you had expectations, and when those weren’t met, I was crucified but made excuses for it at the same time.

    I never felt safe enough to tell you because I felt like I needed to be the one who was there for you. I didn’t feel protected by you

    you had broken up with me while I was going through the inhumane things I was experiencing [btw, did she tell you before that fight for Christmas that her aunt is pushing her to prostitute herself (if those are the “inhumane things” that she is referring to)?],

    and then the things your parents said about me… your parents labeled me as a gold digger, a girl trying to secure her future by dating you; they said I was taking advantage of you; I would cheat on you, etc., all because I am black and from the west.

    So around Christmas 2022, before she prostituted herself, she saw you as someone:

    • with whom she felt crucified for not meeting his expectations,
    • with whom she never felt safe enough,
    • who couldn’t protect her,
    • whose parents are racists and will never accept her, and
    • who is under the influence of his parents and will not marry someone they don’t approve of (“I told her why my parents would not approve of her and the consequence of us dating would be that I would have to choose my parents over her when it is time for marriage if my parents reject her“).

    And yet, merely a week after the prostitution, she came back to you, wanting to reconcile because: “it felt like you were the only good thing in my life at the time.”

    So she described you as a judgmental, unsupportive, bigoted guy, who is most probably not going to marry her. And yet, she wanted to return to you, because “you are the only good thing in her life”.

    And then, as the time went by, she says you were “destroying” her more and more, and that she became unrecognizable:

    Before I met you, I was happy and glowing. While I was dating you, I became unrecognizable. Sad. Always trying to please you, wear what you wanted me to wear, say what you wanted me to say, and do what was pleasing in your eyes.

    But still, she always wanted to go back to you. After each break up she would tell you she misses you… even though, according to her, you were abusing her.

    I was thinking how is that possible. One explanation could be that she developed a trauma bond with you (trauma bond is when the victim is trying to get love from her abuser, and therefore cannot leave the abuser). However, that could have been an explanation for her behavior – if she truly became a different person and “unrecognizable” due to being in the relationship with you. For example, if she became isolated from her friends, depressed, sitting at home all the time, wearing only the clothes that you approve of, not posting anything on social media, etc.

    However, based on everything you said, it seems to me that she didn’t become a different person: she actually kept behaving the way she liked, not the way you told her to behave. You did try to control her and change her, which was a mistake (because controlling someone like that and trying to force them to be something they are not is abusive. But that’s a different topic).

    So you wanted to try to fit her into your vision of a perfect wife, but she never “gave in”. She might have apologized, but those were fake apologies, because she continued to do stuff that you didn’t want her to do. So in that sense, I believe she never “succumbed” to your pressure, and never became a different person.

    That’s why I think that she wasn’t really your victim, as she is portraying herself, but in fact stayed with you for a reason. Not because she was trauma bonded and wanted your validation, but for a very pragmatic reason: because you were helping her financially.

    In the beginning I thought she might really need your validation (and that’s what she herself claimed). But after the financial aspect of your relationship became clear, I realized that she most probably doesn’t need validation, but money.

    Anyway, that’s my current understanding. I believe she wasn’t your victim, but chose to stay with you for her own purposes. It doesn’t mean you treated her well, even though you believed you were a loving boyfriend. We can talk more about your own mistakes.

    But in any case, I believe she wasn’t a naive, innocent girl whom you harmed, but rather, she seems like a calculating woman, who stayed with you for her own interests.

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Paradoxy,

    She apologized for saying that it was not my business to know about what happened in January but she could still be manipulating the truth.

    It was also very recently that she was still claiming that you didn’t need to know about it, because you were not together in that week:

    We are already broken up, but we still kept in contact since she owes me a lot of stuff but she cut out the last part of me that cared for her when she told me that what happened to her in January was none of my business because it happened right after our break up and that she shouldn’t have even told me because we were not dating when it happened

    So I wouldn’t trust any of her apologies. Because it seems that’s her modus operandi: first she tries to find an excuse, then she blames you, and then if you’re still insisting that what she did was wrong, only then does she apologize. Her goal is take the responsibility off of herself, at all costs. No matter what she does, she isn’t to blame. Everybody else is, including you, but not her.

    In her letter, her 3rd sentence is already a lie and twisting of truth:

    The fights and lies were a lot to deal with for both of us.

    She doesn’t say “I lied to you”, but she makes it seem as if you both lied to each other. Which isn’t true because she was lying and hiding the truth about her ex. You did nothing of the kind. She was lying to you, but she makes it seem as if you both lied.

    because I was your first relationship, you had expectations, and when those weren’t met, I was crucified but made excuses for it at the same time.

    She blames you for having expectations, and says that you had those expectations only because it was your first relationship. As if having expectations is wrong. Well, your expectation that your partner shouldn’t lie, hide the truth from you, or deceive you are totally legitimate expectations. But she feels “crucified” for not having met those basic expectations.

    She was shamelessly lying to you, and when found out, she feels “crucified”. That’s victim blaming. She blames you for calling you out on her dishonesty and deceitfulness. She presents herself as the victim, as the “crucified one”. Whereas you – the real victim of her lying – she views as the perpetrator. She is not only twisting the truth with this one, but turning it upside down!

    Because I know I am being held to a certain standard, I have always told you that I felt like you were pure, and I didn’t like that I had sex with you.

    As if the biggest problem is that she had sex with you. A much bigger problem is that she had sex with other people, while being in and out of the relationship with you.

    I felt terrible because I knew that I had so many things to deal with that I could never tell you.

    Well,  she did tell you (very early in your relationship) about her aunt’s plan for prostitution.

    Though I was your girlfriend, it felt like I was your protector,

    Protecting you by hiding crucial information from you, such as that her ex (whom she still had feelings for) is her housemate? How “thoughtful” of her…

    You think I didn’t wish I could just run to you and lay everything at your feet? You think I didn’t want to just tell you everything and know that I was safe and secure? You don’t think I would love the feeling of me feeling like I don’t have to worry because my man got me?

    If you were “her man”, why was she secretly living with her ex?

    Godwin, you had broken up with me while I was going through the inhumane things I was experiencing, and then the things your parents said about me that had you upset and coming to me, which then turned into a fight later, made me feel like I really needed to handle things on my own. I did not feel safe telling you any of that.

    Your parents labeled me as a gold digger, a girl trying to secure her future by dating you; they said I was taking advantage of you; I would cheat on you, etc., all because I am black and from the west.

    I had already never felt safe. I love you, and I felt like over time we would reach that level of security in our relationship, but I was not feeling it, and with the fight and what your parents said added on top of it, I decided to deal with it on my own.

    Let’s see: she was hurt by your insensitive question (whether she was a gold-digger) and by your parents’ (alleged) racist comments, where they warned you that she would cheat on you and that she is a gold-digger, only because of her skin color? (is this true btw?).

    She felt they labelled her unjustly. She presumably felt alone and abandoned by everyone, and then…. she decided to deal with it on her own? So her way of dealing with an offer for prostitution is to accept it?

    And then to blame you (and your parents) for “forcing” her into it?

    See how insidious it is? She is again playing the victim: this time she is the victim of your “racist” parents (and of you, who is upholding their beliefs), and she had “no choice” but to accept the offer for prostitution. But why? That’s a very twisted logic. Actually I think I know why she accepted it, but it has nothing to do with you or your parents offending her. You are not to blame. But she is still blaming you.

    Even though in the very next sentence she says she is not blaming you:

    I do not blame you or anyone else for anything. I was a grown 21-year-old who was dumb in my ways. I take responsibility for my actions.

    Yeah right. The whole previous paragraph was about blaming you and your parents for her prostitution.

     

    Okay, I’ll stop here because it’s hard to read all those lies and manipulations. I might continue analyzing her letter later.

    B keeps saying that she is not trying to justify her actions. She says that she is only explaining how she felt.

    But you see that she IS trying to justify her actions and blame you in process, don’t you?

    But reading her messages make me feel like maybe she is right, maybe I am the problem overall. Maybe women are just better off without me.

    No, she is manipulating you because she doesn’t want to take responsibility for her actions, even if she claims she does. She is still blaming you, while claiming she is not. Pretty insidious!

    I understand my mistakes and I want to correct them.

    Good to hear that. But you shouldn’t take advice from her on what to change, because she is a very manipulative and abusive person. Please don’t believe her words, don’t believe her judgment of you.

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Paradoxy,

    Unfortunately we cannot work with just assumptions, I don’t want to take that chance.

    It’s more than an assumption, but a very strong likelihood, if we take into consideration everything that happened and the type of person she is. It is actually common sense to assume that she slept with him, since they both had feelings for each other. And she’s not some prudent girl, but someone who believes that it’s okay to sleep with another man if she on that particular day is broken up with you.

    Moreover, she conveniently lived in the same house with him, perhaps not in the fist week of your relationship, when the half-naked photo was taken (because you said she had a female housemate at that time?), but soon enough. Because in December he was already living there, and was angry and jealous of you when you came to her place. So that was an arrangement she was hiding from you. I have no doubt in my mind that her intention was to deceive you.

    In a recent conversation she claimed that she found out where the money was coming from a day before the guy took her.

    As I said, in recent conversations she was twisting the truth, making herself appear more “innocent” and less responsible for what happened. She was re-touching the story and changing the facts.

    based on that, she knew her aunt’s plan, but she had apparently rejected that plan.

    Well, she hasn’t rejected the plan.

     

    Maybe stereotype number 1 did blind me. But a lot of guys told me it was normal, so I thought it was normal too.

    Those guys obviously grew up with the same stereotype. In what part of the world do you live, if I may ask?

    My father never said that women are inferior, he just said that women will be hard to deal with cause of their actions are based on emotions than logic, but they should still be treasured.

    Well, if emotions are inferior and women base their decisions on emotions, it does make women’s decision making inferior, doesn’t it? And so, women are inferior too, at least when it comes to decision making about important things in life. The conclusion: women shouldn’t be trusted to make important decisions, right?

    but they should still be treasured

    How should they be treasured? If they fulfill their role of wife, housewife and mother? Cleaning, cooking, taking care of their husband’s needs, and… not having a say in important life decisions?

    I will comment on B’s message a bit later. But what I notice is that she is presenting herself as the victim and minimizing her own bad behavior: her lying and deception regarding her ex, as well as her prostitution, as if those were minor things.

    I never expected anything from you other than respect and faithfulness,

    When a promiscuous girl like her tells you she wanted faithfulness…. and she started cheating from practically Day 1. It’s called hypocrisy. She is not seeing the log in her own eye, and then blaming you for your own.

    In fact, your own “log” (the false belief about women) is what made you fall for her excuses, but it also made you look down on her and treat her with contempt (telling her she was stupid, a whore, etc). Your own log upheld this toxic relationship, and it did hurt her as well.

    But her log is huge, and she isn’t willing to take responsibility for it, but is blaming you.

     

    in reply to: Body Positivity & Gratitude #431661
    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Helcat,

    those are all great affirmations for improving body positivity! Yes, we often focus on our imperfections and what is lacking, while forgetting and taking for granted what we have.

    Very long ago I was very unhappy with my own body, but as I got older, I realized that health is the most important. And I was grateful to my body for serving me so well. Nowadays, with my health (i.e. movement) limitations, it is harder, but I am not blaming my body. I know it’s not my body’s fault that things turned out the way they are, and so I am trying to work on my mind, to help my body too.

    I am glad that you are finding more and more acceptance of your body every day, loving it, and taking care of it. Also it’s wonderful to hear that your husband is a great support, both in taking care of your baby, and in every other aspect of your life.

    And congratulations on finishing your exam!

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Sorry, bad formatting. Here it is again:

    Dear Paradoxy,

    here are my thoughts on suppressing emotions…

    We’ve already talked about your father and how he believes that emotions are bad and should be suppressed. Since women aren’t able to disregard their emotions so easily, and are more prone to be lead by emotions, I think he believes it makes them less rational, less smart, and therefore, more stupid. He believes that “succumbing” to emotions causes them trouble.

    As we have established, your father doesn’t want to get in touch with his emotions, and so he accepts a worldview where emotions are bad and inferior, and where he, with his “pure logic”, is superior. Consequently, women too (as more prone to be governed by emotions) are inferior to men, who are (or should be) governed by “pure logic”.

    Unfortunately, you have experienced on your own skin how logic can be twisted. Because B was twisting logic: she was claiming that sleeping around isn’t cheating, as long as on the day of cheating she is officially not in a relationship with you. Even if she was with you a week before and a week after having “gone astray”.

    This logic was unfair to you, it was hurtful, but you couldn’t find a way to dispute it (“I don’t know how to argue with the technicality”), because indeed, she wasn’t with you on the days she slept with another man.

    You couldn’t dispute this “logic”, which is focused on “technicalities”, without taking into account the emotions: your emotions, to be more precise, and your pain. You were being treated unfairly, you were emotionally abused, but the logic said: “she hasn’t cheated”. But your heart knew the truth: that she hurt you. And that you were in pain, because of her.

    Your father used logic too, without considering your emotions. He could shut you down, using pure logic:

    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.

    And it seems B too could shut you down too, with her twisted logic. She could disable you and you didn’t know how to fight against it.

    Because your father taught you not to fight against it – he taught you that emotions are not important. So you couldn’t just say “she is hurting me, I am leaving.” Because that’s not an “argument” for your father. Emotions are simply not an argument.

    So this is my take on how suppressing emotions can lead to a twisted, heartless logic. It’s not even logic, but a kind of reasoning that excludes the heart and emotions. It’s a false reasoning… technical reasoning, perhaps, which disregards the heart of the problem (pun intended).

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Paradoxy,

    here are my thoughts on suppressing emotions…

    We’ve already talked about your father and how he believes that emotions are bad and should be suppressed. Since women aren’t able to disregard their emotions so easily, and are more prone to be lead by emotions, I think he believes it makes them less rational, less smart, and therefore, more stupid. He believes that “succumbing” to emotions causes them trouble.

    As we have established, your father doesn’t want to get in touch with his emotions, and so he accepts a worldview where emotions are bad and inferior, and where he, with his “pure logic”, is superior. Consequently, women too (as more prone to be governed by emotions) are inferior to men, who are (or should be) governed by “pure logic”.

    Unfortunately, you have experienced on your own skin how logic can be twisted. Because B was twisting logic: she was claiming that sleeping around isn’t cheating, as long as on the day of cheating she is officially not in a relationship with you. Even if she was with you a week before and a week after having “gone astray.”

    This logic was unfair to you, it was hurtful, but you couldn’t find a way to dispute it (“I don’t know how to argue with the technicality”), because indeed, she wasn’t with you on the days she slept with another man.

    You couldn’t dispute this “logic”, which is focused on “technicalities”, without taking into account the emotions: your emotions, to be more precise, and your pain. You were being treated unfairly, you were emotionally abused, but the logic said: “she hasn’t cheated”. But your heart knew the truth: that she hurt you. And that you were in pain, because of her.

    Your father used logic too, without considering your emotions. He could shut you down, using pure logic:
    <p style=”margin-left: .5in;”>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.</p>
    And it seems B too could shut you down too, with her twisted logic. She could disable you and you didn’t know how to fight against it.

    Because your father taught you not to fight against it – he taught you that emotions are not important. So you couldn’t just say “she is hurting me, I am leaving.” Because that’s not an “argument” for your father. Emotions are simply not an argument.

    So this is my take on how suppressing emotions can lead to a twisted, heartless logic. It’s not even logic, but a kind of reasoning that excludes the heart and emotions. It’s a false reasoning… technical reasoning, perhaps, which disregards the heart of the problem (pun intended).

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Paradoxy,

    Yes Tee, I understand, there is nothing wrong about your harshness. I was just afraid to face reality.

    I am glad you didn’t find it offensive or inconsiderate. But yes, unfortunately the truth can sometimes be harsh.

    Regarding the half-naked photo, I think your assumption that she could have slept with him is actually right:

    I confronted her and she said it was one of her exes, the one who she still had feelings for. She did not imply anything about sleeping with the man. I am the one saying that she COULD HAVE slept with him, and she could just be lying to me by not giving the details of what happened on that day, cause she was naked with only a towel wrapped around her. Everyone has hormones and if she was sexually stimulated enough by her ex, she COULD HAVE slept with him.

    She said he still had feelings for him, and you later realized that he had feelings for her too (because he was jealous of you). So what do you think happened when they reconciled and she told him she still loves him? I am pretty sure they didn’t remain platonic, and then, after they’d presumably abstained from sex, they made a photo with her naked, wrapped only in a towel.

    I mean, it’s pretty clear what happened. She actually told you that indirectly, but she also said it doesn’t count, because you were broken up in those few days. You said that’s her logic: even if you break up and reconcile every second week, sleeping with someone else in between wouldn’t be cheating, according to her. So it wasn’t “technically” cheating. But I am pretty sure it happened.

    But then, when she talked about it a year later, suddenly they didn’t sleep together…

    I don’t remember recalling events more favorable to her. I am considering all the factors that are playing in the situation.

    Okay, here it is. On April 8, you asked:

    Is it still considered cheating if she only slept with the man AFTER we broke up? Even though preparations were made WITHOUT her knowledge?

    However, in your very first post, on March 20, you said that the preparations were made with her knowledge. You said she knew where the money was coming from, but didn’t want to tell you:

    SHE KNEW BEFORE IT HAPPENED THAT THE MONEY WAS COMING FROM A MAN AND SHE DID NOT TELL ME WHEN SHE FOUND OUT.

    Also:

    The aunt told her about the married man when B and I started dating. So she was already in a healthy relationship when she learnt about the married man. And when the suggestion was made, she already told me that her aunt wanted her to do it and we had already discussed how wrong that was and it was obvious that I did not want her to do it and she had agreed.

    And:

    It so happened that her aunt had been giving her money for several months, which she had told me before but I told the fact that her aunt is giving her so much money is weird because no one gives money like that without expecting something in return.

    So she clearly knew about her aunt’s plan – she even told you about it. And when the money started coming, she knew where it is coming from. But she didn’t tell you, although you were suspicious about it.

    So that’s what you said on March 20, in your very first post. But on April 8, you said that the preparations were made without her knowledge. I mean, she knew about her aunt’s plan, she was receiving money beforehand….  there wasn’t much unknown to her.

    That’s why I thought that either she changed the story, or you started remembering it differently, to be more to her favor, because that was a part of self-deception. You wanted to believe her so badly, to make her seem innocent, and so perhaps you started remembering things differently?

    We do have a counselor here but that is the last thing I want right now. The only place where I get to rant is here. Besides, I have priorities. I find comfort in making music now as it is what I wanted to do more than med, and I find that good enough for now.

    Good to know you’re finding comfort in making music! Perhaps some day, soon enough, you’ll decide to see a counselor too.

    I can’t even confide in the close friend of mine because everyone is human, I can’t just rant to him like that. He most likely wouldn’t want to support me in that manner. That is why I said I have no friends. He is literally all I got and I am pretty sure he is tired of my drama cause I tell him most of the time whenever B and I break up only to get back together.

    I understand. He might not know what to say or how to support you properly. But you can tell him that you broke up with B (this time for good) and that you’re pretty devastated. But I guess you’ve already told him that?

    I am just disappointed that everyone was right about her.

    Yeah, sometimes it makes sense to pay attention, if everybody is telling you the same. But it’s hard, it often takes a big disappointment and disillusionment, before we can see the truth.

    I believed she would be the exception to the stereotype everyone (not my parents) kept describing.

    Yes, that’s hard – to believe you’ve managed to find a good woman, who doesn’t fit the stereotype, only to fall into one.

    Actually, I think the stereotype your parents (and everybody else) taught you consists of two parts: one part of the stereotype is that women do stupid things (women “overthink” and “don’t listen”, as you expressed). And the other part of the stereotype is that most modern women are gold-diggers and/or immoral.

    I think you didn’t completely adopt the second stereotype – you didn’t completely believe that all women are gold-diggers. You thought there are exceptions (and you thought B is one such exception). But you completely believed the first stereotype: that women tend to do stupid things, or behave stupidly. And that’s what made you believe that B’s behavior is stupidity, rather than manipulation. So believing in Stereotype No 1 blinded you to B’s true nature.

    That’s why I said that a part of your healing should be to get rid of those stereotypes, i.e. false beliefs about women.

    If you have more things to say, might as well finish it off in this thread because you never know when we might talk again.

    Yes, I wanted to write some more about how suppressing emotions leads to believing that women do stupid things, i.e. to Stereotype No 1. I’ll try to get to it soon.

    Thank you for all the advice and support you have given me.

    You are most welcome, Paradoxy!

     

    in reply to: Feels like Time is passing too fast #431626
    Tee
    Participant

    Hi SereneWolf,

    thanks, I am fine, my back is better again, so I feel good. Hoping that it will last… (a praying hands emoji)

    Yes that’s what I try to tell my inner self like no matter what I’ve been through I didn’t lose hope in humanity and connections. Then have some love for yourself.

    I am happy you haven’t lost hope in humanity and relationships. Because there are wonderful people out there, not everybody is like your father, or even your mother. So yeah, cheers to good people and good, healthy relationships! 🙂

    And I am glad that people at your new workplace, including your bosses, seem super cool:

    I’m finished with my onboarding, It wasn’t that long, But I’m still learning their ways, I really like that they’re not rigid about certain ways If I like something my way I can do it that way. But they’re humble enough to show like here’s what we think is the most efficient way.

    That’s fantastic, SereneWolf, and it means so much! That they give you the freedom to do it your way, if you find it better. So it’s not like receiving top-down orders, which you need to follow, but they give you a degree of freedom and independence. Which is exactly what you cherish, isn’t it?

    Yes I do think it’s like that I don’t perform good if I’m not attached to it emotionally. But It was also because of my people pleasing behaviour, Like I didn’t wanted to disappoint my parents. But nonetheless later on I did, After 4 semester (2 Years) I put a stop to that college.

    Yeah, I know what you mean. They wanted you to study in that field, and you wanted to please them. You tried, but it wasn’t working out. It’s good that you decided to put a stop on it eventually. Even if it meant hard decisions, like getting a job and supporting yourself.

    But you’ve managed to make up for it all: you’ve earned your Bachelor’s and now you’re doing a Masters in the field you like. So it all turned out well…

    And I’m kinda proud of myself since They already gave me an assistant (She’s also intern doing Masters in sustainability) in just 2<sup>nd</sup> week because during the talk they didn’t say I’d have manage anyone. But they trust me enough even taking on consulting projects. So my work is more diverse towards Product analytics and Consulting side as well.

    Congratulations on getting an assistant and being entrusted with more demanding projects!

    And another cool thing we’re all in different time zones. That means no unnecessary meetings.

    Hahaha 🙂 True to your introverted nature 🙂

    And talking about it it makes me remember this point. Is this why I’m also not impressed with anyone’s educational qualities now? Or just not impressed with anything that much. Like huh. Good. So what? Am I becoming my father?

    Hehe, well, your inner critic is very similar to your father. It is your father’s internalized voice. But you know, it’s a good sign that you can be proud of yourself (you just said you’re proud of getting an assistant). It’s a sign that your inner critic couldn’t spoil the party – couldn’t tell you “so what?”, or “big deal”. Seems you are getting out of its grip, which is a very good development!

    And Yes I’m trying to be vulnerable with friends, Just a recent example, My friend’s friend reached out to me and wanted talk even though another friend told me how she is opposite of what I like, She smokes, she’s dramatic and her anger is always on the edge. But I didn’t said no. I saw it from a different perspective this time we talked till 2am. I tried to understood why she’s the way she is and I noticed that it’s just her coping mechanisms, At heart she’s kind and loving woman.

    Okay…. was it like a date? I must admit, it got me worried a little that now you’ll go into the opposite extreme of being open and receptive to everyone, without discernment. And kind of “try to understand” this girl, who might have anger issues… which might not be the best predictor for a healthy relationship. I mean, in case you are considering dating her…

    Sorry if I am preaching, I just wanted to say that you don’t need to like everybody, you don’t need to suddenly drop all judgment. In fact, the ideal would be not to be judgmental, but to still have discernment. Anyway, I felt the need to mention it, just in case 🙂

    Also I’m not judgy like I used to be. Before I’d be like hmm this person and labels them now I try to understand first and I don’t try to fix them or at least urge to fix them is gone.

    Good to hear that you don’t have the urge to fix the person. You can simply observe and see whether they are (in this case, whether she is) compatible. If you like her and don’t feel like changing anything major on her, that’s a good sign.

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Paradoxy,

    The more I talk to you, the more aware I become, the more broken I get

    I am very sorry, Paradoxy. I was rather harsh, specially in my last post, because I was trying to break through the thick veil, where you still wanted to find excuses for her and ascribe her behavior to stupidity and naivete, rather than manipulation. I was trying to tell you: don’t you see?? she is fooling you! Get away!

    But I am very sorry for what happened to you. Yes, she was manipulating you, and I actually found a “proof” that she was lying about the half-naked photo too. I’ll present it to you now, just in case she ever comes back claiming she was never lying and that it was all a “misunderstanding.”

    So on March 20, in your first post, you wrote that she admitted (back when it happened, in Nov 2022) that the man in the photo is her ex, whom she briefly got back together with, since she still had feelings for him:

    I confronted her when I realized she deleted it and she told me it was the ex that she still had feelings for, and it happened on the day after that we broke up from the decision that its better to not date at all. Obviously I was hurt and I broke up with her in that moment of pain but then I decided to take her back on the technicality that we were still broken up when this happened, so I cannot accuse her of cheating. She got forgiveness on a technicality.

    So basically she admitted to having slept with him, but you forgave her since on that particular day you were broken up, right?

    But then a few days ago, on April 9, you said that she later gave you a different explanation of the photo:

    She said that on the day she took the picture and video with her ex, she was actually in her towel with her ex’s sister who was removing her braids but when she got busy, the ex’s sister told the ex to remove the braids for her and so she just allowed him to remove her braids for her. Keep in mind that she was naked, but she had the towel wrapped around her body so her naked body is not visible to her ex.

    So now, according to this version, she claimed that she didn’t sleep with her ex, but that he was only helping her with her braids.

    So when the half-naked photo was originally taken, sometime in November 2022, she admitted she slept with the guy in the photo. Only you didn’t know at the time that this guy was also living with her, as her housemate. But then a year later, when you found out that the guy in the photo is actually her housemate ex, she told you a different story: that she didn’t sleep with him, but that he was only helping with her braids.

    In other words, she was lying…

    You probably forgot what she said a year ago, and so when she came up with this new explanation, in which she presented herself as innocent, you believed her. And she got away with a lie.

    I can imagine there were more examples like that. You actually said it yourself that you don’t remember exactly what happened more than a year ago, which is only normal:

    the issue is I don’t know the exact dates of her “cheating” and she said she doesn’t remember and since it has been more than a year, even my memory is not that accurate.

    I found another example, related to the prostitution case, where you in recent days remembered the events more favorably for her than what you stated in your first posts, some 3 weeks ago. Perhaps as you were arguing about these events in recent days and weeks, she was coming up with new versions of the story, different than what she told you even 3 months ago.

    So it seems to me that she was twisting the story all the time – to make it more favorable for herself – and you couldn’t follow it any more. And you wanted to believe her, and so you did.

    Anyway, I hope that you see now that she wasn’t innocent and oblivious, but unfortunately wanted to deceive you.

    Now everything feels fake. What if every moment we had was manipulated? What if all the happy moments I had were fake? What if I was being used the entire time? The realization is breaking me. I want to cry.

    I hear you, Paradoxy.  She was fake, I mean she wasn’t honest with you. She might have liked you, but she had her own demons and her own crooked ethics, which she learned from her aunt and probably the rest of her family too. That’s not an excuse at all – so please don’t see it as an excuse and a reason to reconcile. Because she did hurt you immensely.

    But it is a lesson, a learning experience, as you say. And you had this important lesson early in your life, at only 19. If you learn from it and heal what needs to be healed, you can have a much healthier relationship sometime down the line.

    You can still find a loving and caring woman to be your wife. But in order to do that, you’ll need to do two things: 1) heal the emotional wounds from your childhood, and 2) update your view about women – get rid of the false beliefs.

    But what now? I have no one. Not my parents. Not my friends. I am just all alone. Like I was, once before. My suffering is all for me to bear.

    Dear Paradoxy, I hear you, people on this forum hear you. You are not alone. And also, it would be important to have someone with whom to release and process your emotions. Please talk to a counselor, if you’ve got one at college.

    I want to cry. I want to release my pain but I have exams and other things to worry about. In a week, I will be traveling to my parents’ place again and I cannot show them my grief cause they will ask questions.

    Your urge to cry is understandable. You do need to cry it all out. But you’re right, it wouldn’t be good to show it in front of your parents, because you’d probably only get judgment and scolding from them. They would hurt you even more. So no, don’t show your pain to them. But show it to someone you can trust. Perhaps to the close friend of yours, whom you confided in about your fights with B?

    But the best would be to express it to a counselor. Because they are professionals, they know how to “hold you” and contain you as you express your pain.

    You don’t have to be alone in this, not this time. You were alone and helpless as a child, but now you can help yourself, by seeking people who can understand and who can help you. A counselor, primarily. And it’s good that you reached out here too, baring your soul, even though it wasn’t easy.

    I feel like God gave me this experience to teach me to be careful what I should wish for.

    Well, I believe you had this experience to learn and heal, as I said above. Please don’t use it to make false conclusions, neither about yourself nor about women in general. You can come out of this a new man, a healed man, who is ready for a healthy and a truly nurturing relationship. So use this opportunity for good: for growth and for healing.

    I am here, if you need to talk. I have more things to say, but I’ll stop for now. I hope to hear more from you, as you start a new phase.

    I know it’s hard, it’s excruciating to have your dreams crushed like that. But you know, what you had with her was a house built on sand. Now you need to build it on a solid rock… and as I said, that requires healing…

     

    in reply to: How can I do what I wan’t to do with joy? #431570
    Tee
    Participant

    Hi Beni,

    I think I was strong for my mom. My mom tells me that I was really intense.

    In what sense were you intense?

    I think you had a simillar struggle if I remember right.

    Well, I always tried to console my mother, i.e. explain why she shouldn’t be so negative, why things are not so bad as she sees them (and I never succeeded). But that was already when I was an adolescent and in my early 20s. As a child, I wanted approval, I was a good kid, a good pupil. But I never got approval, e.g. I was never praised for my good grades. Instead, I was scolded if I got a B instead of an A. So I was supposed to be perfect.

    I also don’t remember super much. It’s hard to differentiate between analyzis and expirience.

    Do you remember at least something from your childhood? Do you remember more from your teenage years?

    I notice that I’m cold to my mom when I feel vulnerable like I do not send emojis then. I don’t trust that she can handle it then. Like she would get high on it.

    I think I was strong for my mom.

    Okay, so when you feel vulnerable, you don’t have the compulsion to please her, to “console” her, to make her less sad, right? Because I am guessing (based on what you said about her earlier) that she tends to complain a lot and would like to receive sympathy from you. And she would “get high” on it, i.e. it would only confirm her martyr stance, right? But you don’t want to take part in that game of her playing the martyr, and so you are cold with her. You are not giving her sympathy, right?

    When you say that as a child you were strong for her, maybe it means that you didn’t want to express your own sadness or upset, not to bother her with it? Because she was burdened with her own stuff anyway. Maybe that’s when you rather smashed the window, or hit your own head, or got in tension with your younger brother?

    So she wasn’t able to meet your emotional needs, and then you suppressed those needs in front of her, but then acted out in different ways, like smashing the window, having tension with your brother and suchlike. Is that what happened?

    You know what Gabor sais, it’s what’s not there. Empathy and the ability to express how you feel, really listen with the heart. I do not remember my parents doing that.

    Yeah, “what is not there”. It’s emotional neglect. What you’ve experienced from your parents is probably emotional neglect. Your mother didn’t have the capacity to soothe you, to regulate your emotions, because she couldn’t do that for herself either. And you say your father was rarely home, and I guess not really emotionally available (even when he was home)?

    BTW how did your parents react to you smashing the window, getting in tension with your brother etc?

    Telling me how they feel or having these moments of connection much. Even nowadays it’s difficult and often I create it. I meet people who tell their parents are like their best friend and that’s how I imagine is how it can feel when you can express yourself both ways.

    Well, when we are children, we are “takers” – we need our parents to emotionally soothe us and be there for us (not the other way round). And that’s how the emotional bond is established. So we are takers, we receive, and they give. They give us love, support, care, understanding.

    At least that’s how it should be, with healthy parents. But often our parents are not emotionally healthy and mature, and they’re not able to meet our emotional needs. Your parents were like that too (and mine too).

    For people who had healthy parents, they have established that emotional bond of trust and unconditional love, which is always there. And so as grown-ups, they can share everything with their parents: their worries, dilemmas, whatever is on their heart…  and their parents will be there to listen and help if they can. With no judgment, no blaming, no manipulation.

    And indeed, those parents are their children’s best friends. But that’s rare, or at least it’s not too frequent. According to some studies, around 50% of children in the USA are securely attached, i.e. have that secure emotional bond with their parents. And maybe that’s even too high of an estimate, I don’t know.  So probably at least 50% of people you see around don’t have that bond…

    Mhh, yeah I do that and it seems to be wholesome. I still think the mentioned situation is in a way superfiscial but honest and authentic. It often feels not deep enough.
    I feel that I long for a partner.

    It’s a different level. Being kind to a stranger in the park is not the same as opening up to someone in all your vulnerability. In that sense it is “superficial”. But it is serving a purpose of you being true to yourself and doing acts of kindness – something that your heart is telling you to do. As you say, it’s honest and authentic. So it counts. But it’s a different level, of course.

    I think love couldn’t be received emotionally by my parents as much as I needed it or was toxic when given.

    Yes, it seems they couldn’t provide that emotional support for you. Perhaps they weren’t abusive (e.g. criticizing you harshly, or shaming you and humiliating you), but they simply didn’t pay attention to your emotional needs. So yeah, it would be emotional neglect.

    Yeah, that’s what I want most in live. So, simple. Thanks for the support Tee ,<3

    You are very welcome, Beni! <3

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Paradoxy,

    And she didn’t gaslight me, she just said that she thought the fact that the guy was her ex felt unimportant to her

    She already agreed that she would not wear the less revealing outfits, and barely did it too but she tends to have the habit of forgetting things too easily

    She has a habit of considering things to be not as important as they actually are, which means she thought it was okay to have a casual hug with men; she thought all she had to do was not partake in one of those more intimate hugs

    So if someone slaps you in the face, but then says “I thought it wasn’t important not to slap you in the face”, and then apologizes, and then keeps slapping you in the face, and apologizing… what would you think of this person?

    She has been slapping you in the face all this time, pretending she is oblivious, she “wasn’t thinking”, she “forgot”, she “didn’t think it was important”…. when in reality, she has been lying to you, manipulating you and making a fool of you.

    You believed that she is oblivious and too “stupid” to understand those things. And your belief (which you adopted from your parents) that women tend to “do stupid things” actually came as a boomerang: because you believed she too is innocent and stupid, rather than manipulative and calculating.

    Basically, the false belief that you have about women blinded you to the fact that this girl is manipulating you. That she isn’t some silly oblivious woman, whom you need to teach the right manners, but in fact a very good actress and a manipulator.

    she apologized and told me she was just ranting her feelings in anger and she didn’t mean it,

    She always apologizes, but then keeps doing it. That’s why I told you: those are fake apologies. She knows if she apologizes, you will be naive enough to forgive her, and it will all stay the same: she behaves the way she likes, and she gets to keep you as her financial backup.

    Because that’s what she’s been doing all this time: taking your money and even convincing you to invest in some financial schemes, in which you lost a lot of money (we lost a lot of money in trading too). And whatever little you earned, went to cover her health expenses (she got severally sick or she had to get her tooth removed or something).

    Now, after knowing the situation a bit better, I am almost sure that this girl doesn’t want to lose you because you are giving her money. You have been financially supporting her for most of the time that you were together. And she doesn’t have anyone else to support her, because it seems her father is not giving her money, and her aunt… well we know under what conditions she can get money from her aunt. So she depends on you financially. And that’s why she is so keen on keeping you around.

    She still says that what she did in January is not cheating because we had broken up in that one week and that it is none of my business because we were not dating

    You were breaking up and reconciling all the time. It was your pattern – you always reconciled after a few days or a week at most, haven’t you? You even broke up and reconciled around Christmas 2022, when you were visiting your parents, and she was visiting her aunt who lives in the same area. The reason for the breakup was that you asked her the gold-digger question, but a few days later you already reconciled:

    But a few days later we realized we could not live without each other and we got back together.

    So let’s put this into perspective: she knows you have a turbulent relationship, with constant breakups and reconciliations. But after one such breakups, which is similar to the others, and which is most likely only temporary, she suddenly starts feeling so “depressed” and “heart broken”, that she falls for her aunt’s evil plan and goes and prostitutes herself. For 3 days out of 7 that you were broken up. And then you reconcile and you travel back together to college (if I understood the chronology of the events well?). As if nothing happened.

    Go figure. I am actually having a hard time comprehending this. But what is for sure is that she wasn’t too affected by her stint with prostitution, since she later acted as if nothing happened.

    Oh and by the way, if you were only broken up for a week, but she kept messaging with the guy for a while afterwards, and even developing feelings for him – then this would be cheating on her part, wouldn’t it? If we want to be super “technical”.

    She still says that what she did in January is not cheating because we had broken up in that one week and that it is none of my business because we were not dating

    So if you break up every second week, and she goes to sleep with another man each time you break up, it would be none of your business either? And she would be called loyal and faithful?

     

    Tee
    Participant

    Dear Paradoxy,

    My gf might have lied to me and slept with another man, but I didn’t know all of that until a year already passed. So for most of the relationship, she never showed me her bad side.

    Okay, let’s see whether this is true….

    This is what you knew about her before Christmas 2022: you knew that she had feelings for her ex, due to which she broke up with you. You knew that during that time of being broken up, she took a half-naked picture with some guy, for whom she was claiming wasn’t her ex. So it would have been a 3rd guy that she was involved in, in a short time span (later you found out it actually was her ex). And you also knew that her ex was her housemate, and that she was hiding it from you, and when you found out about it, she claimed that it wasn’t something you needed to know.

    So just this behavior of hers: that she was hiding an ex in her house (for whom she admitted she had feelings for, and who had feelings for her too, because you said he was jealous of you), and then gaslighting you that you didn’t need to know about it – is a huge red flag. Not only a red flag, but something that warrants the red card (in soccer) – exclusion from the game. This behavior – which you were aware of before Christmas 2022 – should have been a reason to break up with her for good.

    But you fell for it, you fell for her gaslighting and her excuses. And you still thought very highly of her, even after that incident:

    excluding some moments where she does stupid things, she was actually a very good, loyal, loving, caring woman that any man would desire. She displayed all the characteristics that I was looking for in a good wife, excluding the stupid things that most woman do, like overthinking and not listening etc, which I did not mind cause I knew it was normal for women.

    You saw her as caring and loyal, when frankly, I think her behavior with you was obnoxious. It wasn’t something to be forgiven, especially the part where she arrogantly claimed that you didn’t need to know about the housing arrangement with her. But you still saw her as good, caring and loyal.

    And I think it’s because you were blinded by the idea of her as your perfect wife, and the physical aspect of your relationship (not just sexual, but also massage, touch, her taking care of your hair, cooking and cleaning for you). I think the idea of the “perfect wife”, which you adopted form your parents: cooking, cleaning, taking care of her husband’s physical needs, might have prevented you from seeing other aspects of her personality.

    What I want to say, Paradoxy, is that she did show you her bad side right from the start. But you didn’t see it. Because you were blinded.

    What happened later – her blaming you for having slept with another man for money – is also obnoxious. It’s not even the fact that she slept with another man that is the most disturbing – but that she is blaming you for it. That’s the most disturbing, in my opinion.

    And yet, you are not sure because:

    she uses the technicality that we had broken up during that one week to claim that she didn’t cheat on me.

    No, technically she didn’t cheat. But blaming you for it is so deeply unfair and emotionally abusive – that the only word that I have for it is: obnoxious.

    She is taking advantage of the technicality and saying that she didn’t cheat and I don’t know how to argue with the technicality.

    Dear Paradoxy, you might want to tell her something like “your behavior is obnoxious, you’ve hurt me so much with your lies and manipulation and blaming me for the things that are your fault, and I’ve had it. I don’t want to argue with you any more. We are done.”

    In other words, tell her the truth. Because it’s not important whether she technically cheated on you or not. What is important is her attitude: one of refusing to take responsibility for her actions and endlessly blaming you, accusing you and manipulating you.

    And what is also important is how you’re feeling with her: emotionally drained, exhausted, ruined (your words).

    Your emotions matter. Even if there is no logic behind them (and there is – there is a very fat, solid logic), you have the right to feel what you feel and refuse to engage with the person who is abusing you.

     

    in reply to: How can I do what I wan’t to do with joy? #431460
    Tee
    Participant

    Hey Beni,

    Mostly it is helping myself these days. Yeah, like today and yesterday I need support to play and be stimulated and it’s so hard to give it to me. So the best I can do is try to not suffer too much and endure it.

    Still part of me feels that I only get accepted if I do whatever pleases people and I endure it.

    I wonder if you, as a child, felt guilty for playing and simply having fun and being care-free, because your mother was always unhappy and sad, in the martyr mode? And so you felt guilty if you were happy and enjoying yourself?

    And perhaps you rather did what was expected of you? Actually, now I’ve taken a look at you earlier posts: you said that you didn’t do what was expected of you, but would rather freeze or engage in a self-destructive behavior:

    I’m not sure if I tried to help her. I’m more prone to the freeze or self destructive behavior. I belief she couldn’t give me space, maybe I was part of meeting her needs.

    Okay, so you were not a “good, obedient” boy – you rather went into the freeze or rebel mode. But underneath that reaction (which was a defense mechanism), you felt not accepted for who you are, right? You felt that not even your purest, selfless love is good enough:

    I just want to be accepted. I’m when I think of it even afraid of that when I give selfless/love that it might be received that way.

    It sounds like you felt you were not good enough, your love was not good enough. Perhaps you simply being yourself: a joyful, playful, loving kid was not good enough? Perhaps when you were playing and wanted to show your achievements to your parents (in the sense of “Mom, look at me!”, or “Dad, look at me!”), they didn’t appreciate it – your mother because she was always sad and burdened, and your father because he was working a lot and rarely at home? So perhaps play became not a source of joy and pride, as it should be for a child, but a source of distress and pain?

    If so, then allowing yourself to play – to feel the joy and the impulse from within, without feeling guilty about it – might be what you truly need at the moment.

    I think what I can do well is to create harmony in daily live that’s what I do when I regulated myself and I’m doing public things. Maybe there’s someone who’s afraid to skate in the park and I notice it. I go to the person and I talk with her about it and let her know he/she’s welcome.

    That’s nice. You did say in the beginning of your thread that you would like to have a deeper connection with people (“Right know I belief that what I actually want is deep connection with people.”). So it seems you are doing that now, offering your selfless, pure love (in form of kindness and help to a stranger), and that’s how you are expressing what you couldn’t as a child, i.e. what was not appreciated by your mother (or both parents?).

    I think it’s rather simple that the meaning is to feel what would be the greatest now or in the foreseeable future and if you make it happen, that’s the meaning.
    Like give a hug to this person or walk to the Garden, leave the house. Express yourself. Ask someone who she archived a goal. Tell someone that you appreciate him.

    Yeah, it seems expressing your true self, your compassionate and loving self, is your priority at the moment. Also, expressing yourself perhaps in play (e.g. skate-boarding), or doing other activities that bring you joy, instead of getting stuck in the usual freeze response, which actually blocks your joyful self-expression.

     

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