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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

Men on here - please answer my question

46 replies

mintytown · 29/05/2012 09:15

Do men continue to have feelings or can they just switch them off (in a way women can't seem to) once they decide not to continue with a relationship?
Thanks for your answer!!!

OP posts:
molly3478 · 29/05/2012 10:46

I know a man who turned to alcohol after his wife left he couldnt eat, sleep, lost loads of weight. Still is depressed 5 years on, and drinking when he wasnt a drinker before. I think men and women feel the same it depends on how much you loved the person you were with

mintytown · 29/05/2012 10:47

Maryz - yes I don't want a relationship with him (or anyone but don't think i'd meet anyone anyway) until i sort my own life out for my children and am in that process now and it is draining itself really. although am starting to feel a bit more positive and in a plan. thanks for advise btw

OP posts:
sternface · 29/05/2012 10:47

All these questions about 'men' are a bit silly. You're not like every other woman are you?

Maybe it's you who's mirroring because you're looking for an escape raft and so the first person to admit he's got a crush on you has been turned into a knight in shining armour who can rescue you from your unhappiness?

Better then to stop looking to a man to save you and make decisions as an adult woman with responsibilities.

But nothing changes. He isn't as into you as you think you're into him and if I were you, I'd examine your own feelings about him and make sure you're not looking for a saviour here.

This is nothing very deep or meaningful in this. You're two adults who've made a connection. If you were both single, you might have had a relationship and it would have been no more likely to survive than your current marriages. He was stupid and unkind to you and his wife for giving vent to his feelings, but ultimately they are not strong enough for him to follow through. Stop thinking of him as a saint who's made a sacrifice. He's just an everyday person who had a crush and was wankily self-absorbed enough to unburden himself before returning to the wife he wants to stay with. It's not romantic and he's no hero.

Maryz · 29/05/2012 10:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sternface · 29/05/2012 10:55

Cross-posted and just seen your most recent.

You said you don't know him very well and what he said was a shock to you, but that eventually you agreed that you 'felt the same' as him.

I think you did a good job convincing yourself that you 'felt the same' as he said he did, that's all. If you didn't know him very well, those strong feelings just aren't possible are they?

cupcake78 · 29/05/2012 10:59

This is going to put a spanner in the works to speak of but I know a few people (male and female) who are extremely well thought of, bored in their marriage but still 'love' their partner etc and yet seek out people for escapism purposes. The cleverest among them hold a good reputation and they do this by laying the ground and not intentionally chasing. Basically they play a game. A game of does he/she really like me! You seem to be in this game (I have been their it is not fun). This continues for months/years. It's like planting the could I should I seed.

The grass may look greener but if you tend to your own patch the grass will not look that different Grin.

Forget him, put your efforts into you

mintytown · 29/05/2012 11:58

sternface- I think you are essentially right (he is not into me) but I have liked him for about 6 years and he said he has liked me since he first saw me too. We don't know each other at all tbh yet I do have these strong feelings. I have liked him all that time despite him moving away for 2 of those years and when he returned he did invite me & dh t oalot of parties through mutual friends but I never went as I did not want my crush to rear up again. When he told me how he felt it was how I had always felt and I was very surprised because I didn't think he would come out with all that.
It was a bit unfair because now it has made my feelings worse. I totally know I have to sort my own life out - I do not want him or anyone else to save me because I know those sorts of situations never pan out.
I am in the process of trying to sort things out for my dc but situation is complicated and don't want to get into that 9not making excuses it genuinley is)
Part of what frustrates me is that as I don't know him I might not even really like him if i got to know him properly so I could be fancying him and having a whole drama in my head over nothing (and in fact am which is pathetic I know!!!!)

OP posts:
puds11 · 29/05/2012 12:07

I am a women, and i can quite easily switch feelings off. I have also known men that have grieved for a long time over the break down of a relationship. Its a kind of person, not a sex.

AnyFucker · 29/05/2012 14:56

This guy sounds like an ego-driven attention-seeker

He tells you this stuff and then does one ?

He effectively fucks with your heart and your head, then withdraws to watch the fall-out from a distance

Get him down off that pedestal you have him on...he ain't no Mr Nice Guy

I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a whole line of women mooning after him, thinking "he is sooooo lovely, if only we were freeeee"

My suggestion to you is to sort out your marriage one way or the other, and give a massive swerve to the stupidly-romantic headfuckers we all meet in this life

mintytown · 30/05/2012 09:58

AF - I think you are right as usual. He is alpha male type always has to be 1st at everything and the best I think he does have a massive ego and you are right this is not nice guy behaviour.

OP posts:
RumbleGreen · 30/05/2012 11:00

There are many men who can just switch off like that I would say this is more common in younger men. But more often than not it is because men keep what they are truly feeling inside especially when it comes to emotional matters.

Punkatheart · 30/05/2012 11:23

I cannot speak for all men. I am not one and I don't know them all. But I have had conversations with my ex OH that have enlightened me a little. He left me last year, after 20 years - with a teenage daughter and serious illness to face. It was all too much for him. On the surface he behaved truly appallingly - six weeks without contact and because we have mutual friends, I knew he was drinking and ploughing through huge amounts of money. When I finally got to see him, he was unbearably cold and seemingly heartless.

But, in further conversations, he described how he 'built a wall around himself' to protect himself. That he 'went off the rails' just to the cope with the horrible thing he had done.

There are ways of people coping that may help them - so that's what they turn to. I am of the not eating, crying, mourning the loss sort of a person.

Yet I have come to the decision that trying to analyse that other person, is pointless, destructive and hurts you more. You clearly state you are unhappily married - so really you should communicate before you look for something elsewhere. Another person is not the answer to unhappiness - getting your own head straight and finding the truth inside yourself, is more of a balanced goal.

My ex OH is not happy. He is now very overweight, looks 10 years older and has some truly worrying health issues. He went from being a caring, loving dad - to very much of an outsider. But he is in turmoil. Men are conditioned to not cry, be a 'brave boy' etc - but women are allowed to indulge their emotions and show their 'feminine' vulnerability....a huge generalisation of course...some people are more modern at parenting...but it is a 'norm' in society and it does affect how men behave.

Depth of love is a tricky one.....I think that a bond is important but some people (men and women) need to cut things free and move on. But it is perplexing, the endless harm we can do to people we have loved. But also the potential for enormous love and kindness. Gender is not relevant.

cheesesarnie · 30/05/2012 11:31

i am female and can switch off feelings easily-its a coping mechanism surely?

AnyFucker · 30/05/2012 18:34

minty stick around, love

slightlypissedoff · 30/05/2012 18:46

You have answered it yourself. He is a nice guy. He has feelings for you, but isn't going to act on it because he is a nice guy. What would you rather? That he kept in touch and miserable, tempted to cheat, tempted to ruin both marriages. Or make a break and make a real go of his marriage.

slightlypissedoff · 30/05/2012 18:56

Cross post. You don't know him that well so you don't know if he is a nice guy or a guy who got an ego boost from you admitting you had feelings for him. Best to just forget him.

MarySA · 30/05/2012 19:01

I'm not a man. But I think men can switch off their feelings. And once they've decided I don't think they mull things over about what could have been as much as women. I think they move on. But this isn't true of everybody.

Abitwobblynow · 30/05/2012 22:44

Very good post larrygrylls. Really well thought out, how nice to hear such openness why can't that be my husband?

Taghain · 31/05/2012 09:29

I am a man, and I can't switch off feelings at all. I mooned for my first lost girlfriend for several years, and being duped by my best male friend and dumped by a close female friend hurt me still. (>15, 5 years respectively) I miss the people I thought they were.

Punkatheart · 31/05/2012 10:39

i can fully understand that sentiment, Taghain. There are varying levels of sensitivity in people and I try to treat people as I would wish to be treated. When other people behave badly or seemingly change abruptly, I am still shocked and bewildered.

I am sorry that you have been hurt. Just think, if we were as hard as nails, no one could hurt us! I am off to buy a magic spell for toughness, right now...

Abitwobblynow · 31/05/2012 11:27

That is a classic quote maleview!

Love is for a man a thing apart; for a women their entire existence

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