Quote from: HelenW on June 04, 2006, 07:12:36 PM
Welcome, Kristen! ... You won't be alone if you keep coming here - the people in this forum are very friendly and supportive. I've found that I can share things here that I could never breathe to many people that I know face to face. I feel safe here and hope that you will too.
Also new, and while I cannot directly relate to the problems expressed here, I would share this important advice:
Wherever you go, there you are.In other words, if you are tempted to break up a relationship because you're not happy, consider the possibility that you are the source of your own unhappiness. In other words, it's not them, it's you. And chances are you will take your unhappiness with you into the next relationship.
I have acquaintances who've been through multiple marriages, and each time the same basic problem occurs. Different partner, same problem -- which tells me that it's not the partner that's the problem.
The important thing is to supply your own happiness, and learn to live with imperfection in relationships. If you get along fairly well with your BF/GF/whatever, and you're not being used, abused, beaten or ripped off, you're probably doing better than you might think.
Too many people are always looking for that "magic" relationship -- the wonderful, dreamland, be-all, end-all -- and in searching for that, they keep throwing away "pretty good" or "better than OK" relationships. That kind of perfectionism is a one-way street to unhappiness.
I don't know how this relates to any of the specific problems anyone here might be experiencing, but ... remember that a decent/OK relationship might be about as good as you'll get.
On the other hand:
You can do bad by yourself. If somebody is seriously mistreating you (cheating, drugging, abusive, etc.), then you would surely be better off alone. In fact, one of the keys to being happy in a relationship is the ability to be happy by yourself -- that way you aren't "high maintenance," always requiring attention.
I suppose this kind of generic encouragement is not especially helpful to the specific issues discussed here, but I hoped to contribute something useful.