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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

Can’t Cope with My Husband Being Away!

224 replies

Harperhan · 24/11/2018 15:32

I am sat here writing this in tears. My husband left yesterday to go to New Zealand on a business jolly for 2 weeks. I have subsequently got myself in such a state and can’t cope being separated from him. He knew I didn’t want him to go but still went ahead anyway. He got to Dubai at 5am this morning and phoned me. I begged and pleaded for him to just turn around before he got on the 16 hours flight. I am literally going crazy.

I have three options:

  1. I get on a plane tomorrow and fly out to NZ and we say stuff the jolly and do our own thing.
  2. He books to come back earlier like the end of the week.
  3. He flies home straight away.

I am going out of my mind and can’t think straight. I suffer from depression and anxiety and this is the worst it has ever been.

OP posts:
motherofskinnygirl · 26/11/2018 17:58

Sorry I seem to have skipped some posts.
Was being too harsh given your mental health OP. Good luck

Bluerussian · 26/11/2018 18:02

Hope you are OK today Harperhan.

BumbleBeee69 · 26/11/2018 21:12

I feel for your poor Husband. Flowers

HollyBollyBooBoo · 26/11/2018 21:41

Ahh that's a real shame he's cutting his trip short.

missmouse101 · 26/11/2018 21:47

Well, it's a real disappointment that you couldn't see it through I reckon. It would have been such an achievement for you and done you so much good! Can't you insist he stay put a bit longer?

Perfectpeony · 26/11/2018 21:53

Don’t feel guilty OP, a marriage is about support and he obviously wants to be with you.

So glad you went to the GP.

greendale17 · 26/11/2018 21:57

I made it very clear to him that I would struggle mentally while he was away.

^You are using your illness to control him. I feel sorry for him.

Hospitaldramafamily · 26/11/2018 22:20

It's a shame for you both that he's cutting his trip short. For you because now your anxiety is in control and you have the chance to work through this which would make you feel stronger in the future. For him because living life according to someone else's anxiety can really take its toll. He obviously wanted to go and long haul trips like that don't come around very often.

ravenmum · 27/11/2018 08:47

OP I sympathise, panic is not something you can argue with, but what are you going to do now? You can't live like this, especially if you have, or are planning to have children. My son (18) is currently away from home properly for the first time, first jobs - becoming an adult. It's so good for him. Funnily enough he's in NZ. I'm back here, living entirely on my own for the first time in decades. Would you be able to let your child fly the nest? It's so hard, but you have to.

Even if you are not planning to have children, you deserve better than this life, anyone does. You mention medicine, what else have you tried? Therapy, to work out why you are so anxious? If you open your eyes and properly look at your fear, it sometimes turns out not to be a monster but a mouse. Adjusting your lifestyle gradually so that you slowly build up your confidence? Making yourself do things that are hard for you, as a form of inoculation, to toughen up your system?

Somewhere in there is a very positive person who believes in herself. That's the person who is totally confident that her husband will not be pissed off with her; who knows with absolute certainty that he loves her. Don't label yourself only as a miserable bundle of anxiety, as that is clearly not who you are.

Orchidflower1 · 27/11/2018 08:55

Hope you have a good day OP. 🌷

HollyBollyBooBoo · 27/11/2018 09:05

Beautifully put @ravenmum

SillySallySingsSongs · 27/11/2018 09:12

Don’t feel guilty OP, a marriage is about support and he obviously wants to be with you.

Maybe but where is his support and break in all this?

It is supposed to be a two way street.

Perfectpeony · 27/11/2018 09:24

Yes sillysally but I don’t think the OP should be made to feel bad. As she mentioned, they are in a happy and supportive marriage which is not abusive.

BumbleBeee69 · 27/11/2018 09:43

Yes sillysally but I don’t think the OP should be made to feel bad. As she mentioned, they are in a happy and supportive marriage which is not abusive.

I would differ with that statement entirely. Flowers

Harperhan · 27/11/2018 09:56

Well everyone certainly has differing opinions. What I do know is that what we are doing is right. My husband is concerned for the children and doesn't want them to have to witness me when I am struggling to function. I have got up. I have taken them to school and held my emotions in but they know that something is drastically wrong.

OP posts:
BumbleBeee69 · 27/11/2018 10:04

His concern and fears are for the Children OP, he is worried for their safety. Flowers

SilverLining10 · 27/11/2018 10:08

He was completely guilted into coming back. He wouldnt have gone in the first place if he was well aware of your anxiety. And you suggested a day to day approach about him coming back. Who would enjoy themselves having that hanging over them? You have used this to control him even if your intentions wasnt so.

MarshaBradyo · 27/11/2018 10:30

That sounds tough for him, being beholden

Will you go back to medication? - it could help you both

Oblomov18 · 27/11/2018 10:39

This is not ok. OP will have to do some serious work on this issue in the immediate future.

Orchidflower1 · 27/11/2018 11:04

Well done OP for getting up and sorting the kids.

Nobody forced your dh to come back early and you’ve still spent some time without him. Maybe get some more support and then, finances permitting, get your dh to go away again( even if it’s for two nights and somewhere less far). I’m sure you’ll feel better if you prepped for a trip next time.

As for people saying you’re controlling- that’s ridiculous unless you’ve been in the pit of despair that is anxiety nobody knows how you feel. There and millions of “healthy” relationships where one person has MH issues and an equal number of “ unhealthy” relationships where neither party has MH issues. My neighbour has a long term physical illness and her partner takes her to appointments and looks after her does that make it controlling on the part of the I’ll person- no.

NorthEndGal · 27/11/2018 11:12

It sounds terrible for you and him
I hope you get the help you need

Molakai · 27/11/2018 11:22

Harperhan Can I suggest you hide this thread now? You can always come back and read again at another time. I hope you found it helpful at a moment of extreme anxiety.

None of us can know your back story, MH history or the history of your relationship with your DH. You have been through a very stressful experience. Some posters have a rather simplistic attitude to how easily extreme anxiety can be overcome.

The principle that one has to face up to anxiety-provoking events in order to combat anxiety is well accepted. BUT, the level of anxiety has to be manageable and some posters on the thread don't seem to understand that.

A fear of spiders can be overcome by gradual exposure to spiders - e.g. starting pictures, toys, small spiders at a distance etc etc. No-one would advocate dropping a tarantula on an arachnophobe's lap or shoving them into room filled with the 8 legged beasties and locking the door. The process is done with high levels of support, encouragement and reassurrance.

But when exposure therapy is undertaken, the patient is always told that ultimately they are in control and can back out at any time. It would seem that some posters are not willing to accept that in your case.

Nothing you have written suggests to me that you are controlling your DH nor have you suggested anywhere that you have avoided help. In fact the complete oppposite!

Relapses happen in mental illness just as in physical illnness.
Good luck Flowers

Kittykat93 · 27/11/2018 11:37

I find it a bit odd that you were begging him not to go on the trip and yet he still went - and yet now he's flying back even though you've told him to stay?? Hmm

Either way op, I hope you get the help you need.

SilverLining10 · 27/11/2018 11:51

Kitty that's what I referred to below. He knew she suffered from anxiety but went anyway. It sounds like he was desperate to get away. But then after her phone calls and options she gave him off course he felt so guilty and obligated to come back.

Molakai · 27/11/2018 11:56

Maybe her DH thought that as OP has come so far in managing her anxiety she "would be ok". And like posters on here have said, he might even have thought he would be doing the right thing - along the lines of tough love or being cruel to be kind.

But instead of empowering his DW it caused a major panic episode which he hadn't anticipated. And on hearing how extreme her anxiety had been he decided to come home.

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