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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Ive just realised that i dont think im over my ex and its been 4 years!!!

3 replies

halfa · 23/04/2011 15:55

As the title says really, and i dont know what to do about my current DP now.

Me and the ex split up 4 years ago, as he met someone else. I dont think it was a good relationship, and certainly not healthy for either of us. It got us 2 DC though. We dont see each other except at handovers, and its been strained for ages. Hes very bitter about my behaviour during the relationship and ditto for me.

I realised today that im not over him, and i want him to want me back, not sure what id do then, but i think id be stupid enough to go back there, which makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall!!

How can i get over him? Obviously cant cut him out of my life completely because there are the DC, and also ive got my current DP. Weve been together 18 months and i care for him i do, but its not the same.

I need to get over my ex, HELP!

OP posts:
valiumbandwitch · 23/04/2011 16:03

Try seeing him through somebody else's eyes?!

He's bitter? He cheated on you (I presume) and he's bitter? Why is he bitter? Did you not just shrug prettily and say 'ok then good luck with the next woman'. I presume you said things which made him feel guilty. HOw dare you make him feel bad!!?

He sounds a bit Hmm and I think it's just unsettling that he didn't value you, he cheated on you (and that's a rejection).

It's also four years since I left my x. You're lucky to have met somebody new. I doubt I ever will. I'm 90% fine about that, have accepted it.

MoistTowelette · 24/04/2011 13:47

I spent two years feeling exactly like this about someone who treated me like crap for three years.
One day he invited me out to lunch and I was very excited. About 30 minutes into lunch, I realised what a sad, pathetic man he was (friends had been trying to tell me for years).
Maybe you need closure?

garlicbutter · 24/04/2011 14:25

It still gets to me sometimes and it's been 9 years!!! I don't have kids, either, it's just those those flamin' "what if?"s and "was it me?"s. At least, these days, I know what's going on.

Bad relationships leave more of an aftermath than they should. When you've spent years of your life believing you can make it okay ... that you love each other really ... that if only you tried harder, tried less hard, tried believing in him or believing in yourself ... that's a whole lot of trying. The harder we tried, the more invested we became in getting the happy outcome. It never was going to be a happy one, but we weren't able to admit that, were we? So we kept on trying.

Then, whoosh, it's all over. All that effort, all the changes we made to ourselves, all that hope in the face of the facts (!) not only gone but wasted. It's hardly surprising our poor, overworked brains still hang onto the idea that maybe it could work - or could have worked. Old habits are hard to break, especially when you put so much into developing those habits in the first place.

You say you want him back and you want you back. That makes me think you're suffering from exactly the same problem! Who is the "you" you want back? Did you change yourself, twist your self out of shape a bit, for him? Maybe you invented a "you" to go with the "good" marriage you made up in your head? I know I did. I'd go as far as to say I actually forgot who I am - the wife I invented, and the wife he said I was (not the same wife, by any means!) took up all my thinking and there was no room left for me to be myself, iyswim.

I think you're missing the dream - the man you thought you were marrying and the marriage you expected. Not the grinding, tiring, confusing reality.

Lots of things have helped me along since then, and one of the most powerful is posting to Mumsnet. Discussing my painful relationship, with other women who've experienced similar, gives me a reality check. I didn't marry the sweet, thoughtful, sexy bloke I fell in love with, he was a fake. I married a self-centred liar who hates women. When my brain asks, yet again, "What could I have done differently?" - there is only one correct answer: I could have recognised the signs instead of ignoring them. I could have chosen not to delude myself.

I imagine you're thinking it's best for you not to keep thinking about it. But maybe, in fact, you need to think about it more - write on here about things that went wrong, and start building up the true picture of the relationship you miss so much. You may well find it's not worth missing after all ...
Good luck :)

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