After years of arguments and bitterness my wife and I have agreed to separate. I'm not quite sure I want to get into the reasons plus doing so in public is not fair.
I recently left teaching after nearly 21 years due to burnout and now work IT support for a reduced salary (take home pay is 600 pounds down). Despite the long term arguments there were signs of stability returning (after tumultuous wider family events the previous year as well) however after some issues my wife started pushing to separate. We have two children, 9 and 7, and we had also booked a holiday overseas leaving christmas day to see my mother for her 70th birthday. She has also lost her job recently and has been unable to find employment yet (but is not actively looking). We are therefore still living together.
The kids haven't been officially told but I'm pretty sure they have sussed what's going on. My friends locally are all parents with kids in the same classes as my kids. I therefore can't escape easily. I have no local family.
She has only now agreed to go to Relate but overall I feel we missed clear opportunities to rescue this. Regardless I feel that we need to separate only because I have no choice anymore and I've been pushed into a corner.
I really don't know what to do and this is beginning to affect my health and my work. I am diagnosed depressed and on prozac (with a doctors appointment coming up soon) but last night I spent 50 minutes howling on the phone to the samaritans.