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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

Sex I don't want

114 replies

mightbealittlebitmad · 02/02/2021 07:47

So my husband and I have been going through a trial separation for less than 2 weeks. I'm all over the place at the minute, lockdown is really getting to me and I'm struggling with the kids and no escape from anything. Sometimes I feel like I miss him and that I'm trying to escape from my life and by leaving him that will do it but then maybe that's a fantasy.

I've told him all of my mixed up feelings, said I'm not trying to mess with his head but this is how I feel.

The reason for the separation is because I've not been happy for months, since lockdown was lifted a bit in the summer and I had my life back I didn't think I wanted him in it. I muddled along for a bit until I told him everything and we tried to work on it but I was still left feeling confused. Intimacy from my side had disappeared and I just wanted to be left alone and not touched at all. It led to so many arguments because he felt rejected and told me I was making his life miserable. When I said I was thinking about leaving he said I was selfish and that he hated me, breaking up our family for no reason.

After talking last night he says he wants to come back, I wasn't sure, it's hardly been any time at all and I'm bound to be feeling all over the place, we've been together for 14 years so not having him around will take some adjusting to. He's not happy that I'm not jumping for joy about him coming back but has said that when he does he is expecting some form of action in the bedroom. Even during this separation he's all over me when I've specifically said I don't want him to be. He says if he doesn't get any form of sexual activity when he comes back it will just lead to arguments and he will be miserable. He says it's a huge part of a marriage and something we should want to do.

Now I don't disagree that it is an important part of a marriage but I'm really not interested at all. I hate the way he knows that I don't want to do it but is putting pressure on me to try it because I might like it.

He thinks because I said I might have missed him it means we have to stay together and that we can't make any life altering decisions during lockdown. I agreed with the drastic decisions and said I was willing to do a long term separation but he would need to move to somewhere he could have the kids because at the minute having to be in the house isn't helping my emotions. We agreed that it probably wasn't helping us having to spend time together so he said I should go out but there is nowhere to go if it's freezing and horrible weather so long term it's just not going to work.

I really don't know where to go from here. I feel like maybe I have been messing with his head so he has every right to be angry with me and feel like I'm not putting out because I'm punishing him and on a power trip withholding the one thing he really wants.

It's certainly not intentional, I've been going along with a lot of stuff to keep him happy which he knows.

At his request I'm seeing a counseller to try figure out what's going on in my head.

I'm flip flopping between agreeing to whatever he wants for an easy life or telling him I'm moving out as soon as I can find somewhere to live (not easy, being on furlough and using UC to top me up means private landlords won't touch me and the demand for a council house is insane) He on the other hand has a secure well paid job and would find it no problem renting short term but I would struggle to pay the mortgage even with UC.

I'm just so confused.

OP posts:
BubblyBarbara · 02/02/2021 20:07

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Silenceisgolden20 · 02/02/2021 20:13

What a pointless add Hmm

RandomMess · 02/02/2021 20:20

It's chilling reading your posts. He treats you like a sex object and he doesn't care about your feelings or autonomy at all Sad

I feel utterly ick o you behalf.

Nanny0gg · 02/02/2021 20:30

@Pechanga

At the end of the day you want a sexless marriage and he doesn't. It's you whose taken sex off the table and you are expecting him to live without the intimacy he needs.

Of course, you should never feel pressured into sex when you don't want it - but why don't you want it? That's what you need to explore, and do you want this to change, would you like to increase your libido and he more intimate?

It would be unfair to just stay in the marriage because you feel comfortable after all these years and life alone would be difficult to adjust too. If you aren't compatible or if you don't love him anymore, then the kindest thing to do is leave him to find happiness elsewhere.

What 'intimacy'? He seems to want sex at any cost without any consideration of whether his partner is interested. There's a name for that.

I think most women wouldn't want sex with a man like that.

mightbealittlebitmad · 02/02/2021 21:22

It's true but I'm also not giving him any kind of intimacy. I've recently given him a couple of hugs after feeling a bit all over the place but up until then I would even back away from a hug.

It's doing my head in just like I'm doing his head in. I don't understand what has changed but I know something has, I've never been touchy feely and he has but it never used to bother me. I feel like crap because everywhere I go I see happy couples and I'm like why isn't it that me. Then I wonder if I was ever truly happy and if I just settled. I was never madly in love with him but I figured that was just fairytales, I pressured him into getting married and maybe I shouldn't have done. Did I want to marry him or did I just want to be married.

It's crazy how all of these things are coming up now, I remember the bad times but also the good times. We were happy, I may not have been blissfully happy but I was certainly much happier than I am now.

My counseller said that if I wanted to end it I would have done by now. So there is something keeping me from saying I'm totally done. Is it the fear of the unknown? Do I miss him? I don't miss the sex stuff but I miss us, the easiness and the comfortableness and I hate that it's all gone so wrong.

OP posts:
AnotherEmma · 02/02/2021 21:25

"My counseller said that if I wanted to end it I would have done by now."

What?! Sounds like you need a new counsellor.

RandomMess · 02/02/2021 21:31

Fear of the unknown is a huge one.

Believing your needs and wants don't matter enough to have a "reason" to end it.

Silenceisgolden20 · 02/02/2021 21:31

You def need a new counsellor. They adorn seem to be helping you much.
Look up trauma bonding. It may answer a lot of your own questions
Also ask yourself why you keep denying your feelings and questioning it.
You seem to be pushing against everything your gut and body is telling you. All your questions involve poor him rather than you.

Silenceisgolden20 · 02/02/2021 21:34

You seem to miss what has become your normal. Imagine what your life could be like being free to have your own thoughts and feelings without having to think if someone else .
Imagine the freedom without this stress.

PickAChew · 02/02/2021 23:55

Lockdown isn't the reason. It's just driven home how shit your situation is.

PickAChew · 03/02/2021 00:00

It bothers you now because you've previously filtered out his behaviour but now you've realised what he's up to you have the ick.

MagicalCreatures · 03/02/2021 08:30

OP, you sound just like me.
I'm going through exactly the same.

I am also having a 'break' from my husband. 3 and a half weeks into it now.

I haven't wanted sex for many years. Haven't wanted him to touch me. I've done it to shut him up. He moans alot about it.
I noticed I started to not want it when he's behaviour changed after moving in together.
We've been together 10 years.
He's been verbally abusive towards me. Coercive and has accused me of making his life miserable for having to support me and our DC.

I lost all respect for him.

He even started buying cheap sleazy underwear of eBay for me to wear and demanded I wore it everytime we had sex. It just pissed me off.

I told him I wanted a break but really I've been dwelling over whether to leave him for years. My child is still young so that's what kept me here.

I started to think the lack of sex was because there was something wrong with me. Maybe I'd lost my libido.

But I haven't at all.

I just don't fancy him.

I found that out one day when I was at a park during lockdown and noticed a guy I thought 'oooo I wish you would ask for my number'.
And since then, it's gotten worse. I look at certain guys and imagine ripping there clothes off and bam my sex drive is back.

Because I think I've finally emotionally left my husband and I'm not tied to him anymore. Now just for the physical leaving.

I won't qualify for UC once our property is sold but it's no where near enough for me to afford to buy myself somewhere else.
I'll have to go into private renting but I really don't care at the moment.

I have my freedom.

Private message me if you want to talk.
I still have my moments where I think it's all coming crashing down on me but Im positive about my future.

Take care x

MerryDecembermas · 03/02/2021 08:58

You sound utterly ground down by his abuse OP. He has relentlessly been abusing you and putting you in fear of him. He knows he's doing it and he doesn't care how unhappy he is making you. He is not going to change. You don't have to accept being his property, you can end it.

PlinkPlink · 03/02/2021 09:15

Hey, it took me 6 years to end mine. My mind was so cluttered due to various things. It was only when I got counselling that I finally gained the mental clarity I needed to see I was unhappy.

You don't feel that way anymore because his behaviour has made it that way. People are allowed to not have sex. Begging, pawing, sulking and pleading for sex from your partner is extremely off putting.

I found it just made me not want to have sex more.

If he wants to leave because he's not fulfilled sexually, fine. Thats fair enough.
But to coerce you into it, is fucking awful and guaranteed to make you not want it.

Its traumatic to be worn down by someone so much you just cave in and lie there. It will have a profound effect on your relationship. I'd argue there's no going back after it, I'm afraid.

I've just gone back and read your OP. You know, you will miss him after you break up. That's normal. Even when you don't like the person anymore. It's normal to miss certain aspects. Don't confuse yourself by going back. But eventually you can find someone who matches your sex drive, someone who respects your boundaries and decisions.
Doesn't sound like your OH does tbh.

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