Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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

Feeling lost - need a hand hold

10 replies

falaff · 16/10/2018 01:38

Can anyone offer some words of wisdom for how to help myself get over this.

I have very recently decided to leave my partner. We broke up after yet another argument based on him being upset with how I acted despite me doing little wrong. We had some really wonderful times together but he had serious insecurity issues in the beginning that caused me to tread on eggshells. I’ve posted on here a couple of times and had unanimous views to leave him but I loved him and was so intensely involved with him that I just couldn’t. And I so desperately wanted to give him the chance to make things better as I believed that he was also hurting and wanted things to work.

The controlling and insecurity did get better but I couldn’t get over what happened and still felt emotionally affected. I changed my behaviour, activities and communication with my partner to try and appease him, and to be honest I haven’t picked those things up again through fear of it resurfacing. I was also unhappy with other things that didn’t improve, mostly the way he spoke to me and how I was considered to be oversensitive. I am an emotional person and get quite shocked when people treat me badly as I try very hard to be kind to others. It was such an intense but volatile relationship despite being short – great 90% of the time but awful the other 10%. My long-term anxiety went through the roof and I constantly doubted myself. A lot of people also told me that him getting suddenly better could only by a temporary thing and it will just resurface in months or years to come, and I did see signs of insecurities still being there.

I thought I would feel some relief with leaving and some peace with knowing that I could see certain male friends that he wasn’t comfortable with and so on. But in reality I now feel so terribly and totally alone, anxious and terrified for the future. I feel like I have thrown my life away. I can’t stop crying and am having to do everything in my power not to go back. He is so charming and lovely, ambitious, cheeky and funny, handsome and was my best friend.
I live with my parents and have zero friends locally. I have worked really hard to be self employed doing what I love, but that means that I don’t see anyone. There is nothing for me in my home town apart from the work opportunity. When we met I was working in another city and as we met through work we shared the same friends. My whole social life was built on our life together and that city, which I now feel like I have no place being there. My other friends are in other far cities. My sister is in another country.

I feel so, so sad for what I have left behind. This is the second time that I have had to do this in a year – build a life and tear it down. The first time at least I had my social job and was in the city. Now I’m completely alone. If I move I probably won't be able to afford to keep up with my dream of being self employed.

I am relatively young but just don’t feel like I have the energy to fix this. I've had too many hits over the years to my mental health and I am getting so very tired of the hopeless feelings. My anxiety has come raging back over the last year and I have no access to mental health through the NHS - they have really let me down. I can’t imagine how I will ever meet anyone else. I know some people are fine alone but I don't want that.

I know the relationship had some issues but now I feel even worse. I’ve given up everything. Maybe my partner was right in that I should be able to live with some difficulties. He said he would continue to work on things and I just so desperately want to believe that I can go back and things will be better. But deep down I know they won't.

Sorry for blabbing but I just need a handhold. I’m really scared and moving on feels so daunting. I don’t know how I will make friends here and I miss my life and my partner so much.

OP posts:
bumblebee39 · 16/10/2018 01:51

Don't wanna read and run and so I'm sending love plus  whatever your poison is!

I will say that it is true controlling men can act better for a while and then get much worse. My ex went from being jealous and controlling to violent and abusive after we split and got back together.

Good luck Hun, and congrats on being successfully self employed even if it has come at a cost 

Singlenotsingle · 16/10/2018 01:52

You're shell shocked, poor girl. Maybe you expected life to improve immediately but you're still at the grieving stage at the moment, and it'll take a little while to get over it. Spoil yourself, make a fuss of yourself. Things will get better! FlowersCake

falaff · 16/10/2018 01:59

People say they feel relief and know they did the right thing. When I left my previous ex I did feel relief. But since I've made this decision I just have an overwhelming feeling of dread.

I wish I had just one friend here. My parents are lovely but they are frustrated and tired and have their own issues. I see their faces when they see me upset and I just can't keep doing this to them.

I feel like I'm a bloody teenager again. Where on earth do I go from here?

OP posts:
bumblebee39 · 16/10/2018 02:12

Honestly Hun, even though my ex was an abusive violent piece of excrement there are still days I miss him. He was terrible for me and to me in every way, but in other ways for a long time he was my best friend and only ally. Sometimes I feel lonely, I am in a new area and am forcing myself to make friends (sometimes with success but there's been more failures). Honestly though, pamper yourself, take yourself out to the cinema for coffee for dinner (even if you feel like a weirdo). Get to know your neighbours (even the really old ones who repeat themselves or the ones with more than 3 cats or 5 piercings). Get to know the cashier in your local supermarket. Buy fresh fruit or flowers and get to know the grocer or flower shop owner. Drink in the same pub even if it's lime and soda. Go to art galleries or open nights, wonder round parks or museums, go shopping, get a spray tan, book a holiday even if it means getting mega bus and staying in a back packets hostel. Take up poetry writing, or a dream journal, or playing an instrument or doing sodoku. Learn to love yourself, get to know yourself, enjoy your own company, and talk to strangers. Life is beautiful, find that again. And then when you are busy being wonderful independent you you will find Mr Right not Mr Wrong and realise that this was just a passing phase X

falaff · 16/10/2018 02:24

Thankyou. I am going to try and get out. It's weird, I feel very alienated in this place - it's not really for my kind of people.

I feel like I have so much to offer the right person. Why is it so bloody hard?

Does anyone have any advice (maybe in the morning, not at 2.30am!) for meeting new friends? I'm early 30s. I couldn't begin to go to a bar or club on my own and start randomly talking. A lot of my hobbies are sort of one person, girly or existing couply things which doesn't help.

OP posts:
bumblebee39 · 16/10/2018 02:29

Join a club or exercise class, do a course, go speed dating? Xx

bumblebee39 · 16/10/2018 02:30

Ps. I'm a night owl so my advice is better at 2.30am than it would be during the day!! Xx

Cawfee · 16/10/2018 03:59

Are you sure you want to stay at your parents? I know you are enjoying being self employed but that means relying on them. Have you thought about moving back to your sociable city where you have friends and giving it a go on your own there? Spend a few years saving up to go self employed? Would that be better for you mentally right now?

saltandvinegarcrisps1 · 16/10/2018 05:31

Falaff I understand how you feel. I am awake during yet another sleepless night, 3 months after H leaving me for OW. The pain is over whelming and has actually got worse again after a few reasonable weeks. So I understand.

I'm going to give you the advice I should be taking too!!! It as the fear of the split/being alone/ fear of the future rather than truly wanting to be with him. If he was your best friend, you wouldn't be where you are. You wouldn't have left twice.

I too know deep down my marriage was not making me happy, but I was still happier than I am at this moment in time.

Do as others have said and focus on you - whatever it takes to get through the next few months til you start to feel better. I am hoping my step back is the start of me accepting it is truly over and letting go of the idea that somehow we could sort our marriage. Good luck Flowers

falaff · 16/10/2018 09:43

Thanks. Cawfee I would love to move out and go back. But he is there and our friends were mostly mutual. Also my profession is pretty limited and it would be a massive long shot to rent somewhere with the hope of getting a job. It's the sort of profession where you need to be prepared to move for the right job if you see what I mean and k was on a contract.

Honestly the only thing I can think of to make me feel better is some support from friends, to go out and have some fun and try and forget him. But I just don't have that and I don't know how I ever will.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread