nissangirl74 wrote:Stace,
I stayed with my ex for fifteen years, giving him chance after chance after chance. The time didn't make him realize anything. All it did was give him a chance to have his cake and eat it too. From a physical health standpoint, get the hell out before he gives you something you can't get rid of. From a mental health standpoint, get out before he makes you depressed. From a financial standpoint, get the hell out before he bleeds you dry. Money buys things and stuff. You can't buy love. I could go on and on but I'll leave you with this. Those fifteen years, I can't get those back and I can't erase what happened. Live your life as if you've always got just one day left. Don't waste it.
This, this and THIS.
Mine wasn't 15 years, but enough years (3) to get a taste of all of this.
One of the worst feelings in the world is having to go to the doctor to get an STD test... just in case... all the while wanting to cry because "why can't he just LOVE ME!" and then he won't pick up the cell phone that YOU pay for to talk to you, because he's driving around in the car that YOU put a down payment on, probably to visit said "Jane".
Not... that I know exactly how that feels or anything...
You know what to do. You don't want to feel like a failure because hey, "I put so much time, effort and money into this relationship so I mean, HEY, it has to work eventually, right? Just one more shot." No. It won't work. Yes. It failed. I'm sorry, but hey, not everything is going to work out. In fact, a lot of your relationships will fail. But that will just make that ONE who IS right for you all that more special.
It'll come to you. None of the advice we give (while all good) will convince you. We can only give our opinions, and I'm sure your friends and family will, or have, said the same. But the fact that you're coming to us with this issue already shows that you KNOW something is f***ed up, somewhere. So it has to come from you. And one day, you'll step back and say to yourself "What the hell am I fighting for? And is he fighting for the same thing as I am?"
I'm not saying that relationships are supposed to be perfect every waking moment and aren't work. They are. Constantly. But you shouldn't have to work THIS HARD against something so... wrong.
We know it. You know it. He knows it.