I need constant attention and validation from men - it's ruining my life

[Unhappy123]

I have been with DH 8 years married 2. I love him and we have a very comfortable life together. I sometimes feel like we are held up as some sort of pinnacle of a perfect couple by friends and family who are unmarried or divorced etc.

I've finally realised lately that I'm a complete attention whore. I've no idea why I've only just realised this I suppose I have been in denial or something until now.

Throughout my whole adult life (say 15+ I am now nearly 30) I have sought attention from men. I crave it and am unhappy unless there is someone flirting outrageously with me or paying me some sort of romantic or sexual attention. I find that I can have absolutely no interest in a man and then find out he 'thinks I'm pretty' or something and bam - I'm all coy smiles and late night drinks - its utterly pathetic.

The main problem in all of this mess is of course my DH. It is completely disrespectful to him. My behaviour has escalated over the years and I'm seriously concerned that unless I change my ways I am going to end up sleeping with someone. I seem to be able to compartmentalise my home life to the extent that when I'm with a bloke I have no respect for my lovely, kind DH. I am so lucky to have him but I'm going to end up ruining my life.

I seem to fall from one crush to the next and it exhausting and completely pathetic. I want to focus that romantic attention onto my DH but somehow I can't or won't.

Does anyone have any practical advice for me? Trust me I am trying to get a grip and stop being such a selfish cow I'm preoccupied with thoughts of leaving my DH so he can find someone better.

The wives and partners of these men has not escaped my attention either. I realise I am disrespectful to them as well and I have seen the hurt and anguish on these boards.

The OP isn't being cruel to her husband. She feels as she does and has spoken to him about it with a view to resolving their relationship issues. WTF is the alternative? Leave at the first sign of discontent or pretend everything is fine and dandy thus prohibiting her DH from having any input into a resolution.

OP I think it is brave of you to challenge your feelings- I hope you work things out with or without your DH

OP - I was like you until I had children. When I had my first child I felt all the need for outside attention. and approval disappear. I think I needed to feel important and special to someone. Being a mother gave me that in spades.

Christ no, don't have a baby fix your issues

OP,

I've come to this a little late, but I really needed to post, because you sounded so like me and I wanted to share the benefit of my experiences.

About 8 years ago, I was you (except I wasn't married). I was with a lovely, kind man, and we really were the perfect couple in everyone's eyes. After many years of being an ugly duckling I was also blossoming into an attractive woman. And then suddenly, after years of being a 'nice' person I also started to behave like you. My sex life had dwindled, and I started to crave attention from other men and behave really appallingly. And one night I was woken in the night by my DP who'd just got so fed up about my behaviour that he'd gone searching through my bag and found a card from the latest of my EAs.

I knew of course then that I had to end it. That it was so unfair on this lovely man, and that he didn't deserve any of this. That I clearly didn't love him enough. So I moved out. It was truly awful. No one could believe that I was leaving such a good man, he totally freaked out and was devastated. Awful. Of course, what I should have done was some therapy, but I didn't and instead I just got involved with someone else and trundled along for 6 months until I realised that I was really alone without DP and that I missed his safety and warmth and comfort.

So ... I rang him and took him out and persuaded him that he was the love of my life and that I deeply regretted it and for some reason, he agreed to get back together. Later I proposed, we got married and we have 2 children now. But of course... 5 years into the marriage, the same thing has bloody happened. I was unhappy again, and the attention seeking thing happened. And this time it's a million times more serious of course because we have wholly innocent children.

This time round, I've done some intense counselling and realised that I have a deep rooted need for security and safety - to the extent that I clearly got back together with someone I didn't love enough. The attention seeking for me was linked to the fact that I needed to get the love/passion/connection which I don't have with DH from somewhere else.

and let me tell you this, this process has been UTTERLY AWFUL for everyone; me and DH (children blissfully unaware). My lovely DH has had to put up with a doubting wife for years now and it's all because I didn't have the courage or nouse to get some proper help. Ironically, I don't think that I am a bad person who deliberately sought to hurt anyone, I'm just someone really damaged by my past. I wish to goodness I'd realised this before I made the wrong choices in my life.

I have no idea what will happen now, but DH and I will probably split and my children will necessarily suffer. it's very very hard to live with.

I know that's too long a post. But I wanted to say, in the nicest possible way, that you owe it to yourself and your DH and your (as yet unconceived!) children to get this right now. I made decisions out of fear and I have ended up making everyone's life a mess. Please try to be honest with yourself now. Get help. Don't make decisions because of what other people think.

it's scary how I identified with you. I'm even a lawyer too! i wish you all the love and success in the world.

Sorry, but this post is one of the examples of the most hypocritical side of MN. It is so obvious that it would be funny if it was not so pathetic.

"My DH enjoys flirting with other women. Even when he doesn't find them attractive, as soon as they pay him some attention he starts flirting with them in an obvious and outrageous manner... all cocky smiles and drinks with them... Recently I found out he has started having an emotional affair with one of these women and I feel absolutely devastated.

On top of that, he keeps messing with my head. 6 months ago he told me he did not know if he loved me, and he thought the best thing was to leave. I was gutted and tried to behave like a good DW... things seemed to go on and I started getting hopeful again... but yesterday, out of the blue, he told me again that he doesn't think this works and he wants to leave me. I feel my heart is breaking, I love him so much and I don't understand why he does this to me. I feel like I'm going crazy... why is he doing this to me? If he doesn't love me, why doesn't he just leave me? Why does he feel the need to flirt like that? Why does he keep torturing me telling me he is going to leave me? Help!"

If I posted something like this here, do you want to bet what kind of responses this post would get? No need to bet... you women would be telling this woman her DH is a twunt, a bastard, a selfish idiot who does not deserve her, a f*cking wanker who just wants to get his ego massaged and deserves the worst. You would recommend her to leave the bastard and look for another, better man who does not enjoy tormenting her and flirting with other women.

But no, it is a woman posting it. And as it is a woman, she deserves compassion, and she is "not a bad person", she just needs to address her self-esteem problems, she deserves all the love and all the good things in the world. And her husband should be understanding. No, of course she is not being cruel with him. After all, he is a man. Women are a superior race, and a different rule is applied with us.

Well good on you if this is the way you see the world. I would have been there telling the hypothetical woman that her "D"H was a wanker if he was doing these things. And surprisingly enough, my opinion does not change when it is the woman doing it. I also believe the OP is behaving like a wanker and her DH deserves someone better.

"Not a bad person?"... How exactly do you define a bad person then? Whoever treats a person who loves them with utter contempt and cruelty, as long as it is not a woman?

Sorry again, but this thread disgusts me.

I am sorry for your DH, OP. He is married to a completely self-absorbed, vacuous woman.

aurynne
Speaking purely for myself:
I can only address the person 'in front' of me.
I can't help this woman's husband, he's not posting. I imagine if he did, he would get responses very much like the ones you outline above - but some would probably say "your wife sounds very insecure, is she in therapy?" and some would definitely say LTB.

I don't like or admire her behaviour but - crucially - nor does she. She's been advised in all kinds of ways but no one has said "there there, never mind, you don't need to change your behaviour, you're fine and a good person." She's being encouraged in her quest to change her ways and stop hurting other people. She's being encouraged to, basically, fix herself.

How is saying "You are evil and should be ashamed of yourself" helping anyone - the OP, her husband, any of them? It's that I think it's a cruel terrible thing to say and that women are always right and must always been patted on the hand during these threads - it's that this OP came asking for help and the castigation-approach is not constructive.

Agree with blackurrants eloquent post. Admitting to gross behavior takes guts and hopefully is the start of the changes she needs to make

Hi

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respond to me with your various viewpoints.

I agree that my behaviour is terrible - that is why I am trying to change it. I could just carry on, I could just pack my bags and leave without a word, but I'm trying to fix things as best I can.

I have realised I don't like myself very much, and that perhaps if I liked myself more I wouldn't crave the validation from others.

My DH does deserve someone who behaves better than I do. But I deserve someone who meets my needs. I have told him twice in the last six months that our marriage is not meeting my basic needs to feel loved, desired, valued etc and that I want to leave. Both times he has acted as though I have said nothing and just carried on, leaving me to 'get over it' and keep going. I wouldn't say that I have been cruel to him by being honest about how I feel about our marriage - I would expect the same from him.

To be honest, when I left therapy last night I felt more positive than I have in months, about everything including my husband and our possible future together. I think I need to keep further discussion to the counselling room, and so while I am incredibly grateful for every response, I'm going to hide this thread and namechange back to my usual nn.

Slightly Less Unhappy123

Good luck :)

Do you think your husband may have an idea what you are like, and maybe he is scared/insecure.

I think you have v black & white thinking about yourself"I'm awful, I'm selfish" yet I deserve the v best...therapy should help this. It comes across as self-hatred and self-justifying at one and the same time.
You have awareness though which us a real start.

I think you should consider moving out temporarily- its hard to think straight living under same roof and you have no kids yet to keep you there. Take the opportunity while you can!

Hi so glad I found this thread. I hate myself because I am a lot like you. I have 2 kids and my constant need for attention has finally ruined my marriage once and for all. One of my episodes actually resulted in a 2 year affair. I feel terrible for hurting my husband, and this will devastate my kids. I finally realised I need help and will be seeing a therapist in a few weeks. Seems I had to hit bottom and hurt the people I love the most before doing something about this. You still have a chance to fix this. Good luck xx

try reading this, it will help explain what you may be experiencing (btw it's not your fault that you are from America)

This is me I swear

So why bring back an old thread to say that

Is there a bigger issue or something else wrong in your relationship? Not that I've ever done it, I'd end things but, speaking from a male perspective, we only ever look elsewhere if we're not getting all we need from a relationship

OP

Just a couple of random thoughts from me - may be 500 miles wide of the mark.

When I read this thread,my immediate thought was that these destructive attacks on your relationship are in some way an attempt to express aggression towards/distance yourself from/separate from your parents.

You describe your childhood in quite an idealistic way as "idyllic" - and I think the reality is that this is probably an overstatement. Of course I am not saying your parents were abusive or horrid, but it is unlikely that there were NO difficult things in your childhood or in your family dynamics. So it immediately made me ask "has she got rose tinted glasses on? What is not being said here? What are the feelings that are too difficult or shameful to get in touch with?"

I speak from a bit of experience - I had very loving parents and a great childhood and for a long while that was my only narrative. It wasn't till I tried out therapy that I realised that despite things being good overall there were still difficulties (and I couldn't own these at all initially). My relationship with my mother (who is lovely!) was probably too intense - she was very switched on and a very conscientious parent, it was hard to breathe, she always knew what I was doing, what homework I had. I shied away from physical intimacy with her. I wanted to be academically successful to make her proud. All that kind of thing. There is a theme of my parents unwittingly encouraging dependency of their adult children - and all sorts of other things.

And of course one of your parents is a relationship-expert. You said yourself they'd be horrified if they knew about your flirting and need for attention. I just wonder if without realising it, this is why you do it - to attack them, give vent to anger with them that you can't express or own in real life, to separate from them, to distance yourself from them. It may not be much to do with your DH at all.

I notice you haven't got kids yet and IME that can be a major step in achieving psychological separation from your parents (though of course for some the dynamics just continue, with the grandparents intruding on the parenting). But, hopefully, things are different in the dynamic between you and your parents when you yourself are also a parent.

Maybe your your great subconscious endeavour in life at the moment is still to get away (psychologically) from your mum and dad.

Just a thought. Bin if rubbish!

Ah, just realised this is an OLD THREAD! Argh.

Sorry for bringing back the thread, first time on this site...

From what I can think of, nothing is missing. We have been together for 6 years and I can't think of anything. I haven't slept with anyone, but like the OP I have kissed someone once. I did let him know because it killed me. All I do now is text guys, and although they want to meet up, I never make it happen. I guess I should do what the OP did and go to therapy.

Hi Unhappy 123,
I wanted to know how things are with you now.
How was therapy? Did it help?
Are you still married?
My wife has similar tendencies as you wondered if you could offer some advice?
We want to make the marriage work.

You do NOT need to tell your husband why you are going to therapy, regardless of what the reason for going is. You are entitled to privacy even if you are married.

You need to be kinder to yourself. You are NOT a bad or pathetic person. You have acknowledged your problem, and that is very commendable. There is absolutely no shame is having an issue that you need help with. Just be sure you address this before you do step over the line and jeopardise your marriage beyond a point that you could recover from.

I think it's really unlikely the OP is coming back to update five years later. I'm happy to be proven wrong though!

I am a bit like you and have been since I was about 12. Basically I measure my own worth by whether or not men want me, and have made many mistakes because of this. In the last few years it's lessened for a few reasons. I got married and my husband is exceptionally attractive - this seems to give me some sense of worth, like I must be ok if he want's me. I myself am past my most attractive time, getting older and having kids, so I know its just not realistic to expect people to fancy me. I don't really have advice, sorry, but wanted you to know that I get it. It's not something I like about myself, and clearly you don't either, but you are aware, which is good, and it says a lot about you that you've managed not to let it go too far as yet.