Name changer here. Great thread - thank you OP.
I can't breathe, most of the time. My throat closes up and then I panic and then I can't breathe again, but worse than before... I am completely lost.
I left my husband because he spent our whole marriage (17 years) getting drunk and sticking cocaine up his nose. I'd tried everything to get him to change, he didn't... So I made him leave. My H is so subtlety manipulative.. so now he is back at home. He's clean, owns his addiction and has it firmly in the past. What about me? I don't, I am lost because of it.
He scares me, he's bruised me badly in the past, smashed in doors, broken stuff... We have two DC who remember more than they should. I caught him doing it so many times in our house and I'm sure I have some sort of trauma attached to it. I knew it was going on - I just made sure, once he'd passed out, that I'd clean up. My poor children. Why did I put up with it.
And now I love someone who doesn't love me back and I can't let it go. I've deleted his number, but not blocked it. He will call because we are friends, when he calls it will go back to recovery day 1... I can't sleep or eat when I've spoken to him and then I can't breathe for days afterwards. Fucking hell I am pitiful. He was my strength when I was strong.
I need to concentrate on myself and the DC, but I can't. The strength I had last year has gone.