I gave up

So, I gave up on NC. I have been thinking pretty hard about all the factors of what happened during the break up, and I even wrote her a letter about how I felt and that she seems to have no remorse or regret. She said she has remorse and regrets how she went about things and how she treated me… A

After further thought, I decided that she might be sorry about how she did it, but not sorry that she did it. And that was enough for me to see that, even though it’s sad to say bye to my first love of 12yrs, I can’t make or attempt to make myself emotionally available to someone that is in no way good for me in her present state. No matter what is going on in her life, no one should treat someone they love like she treated me during the breakup. I’ll continue to better myself, and I will find happiness with someone…and this time, I’ll know what NOT to do.
Thank you all who have given advice and helped calm the anxiety. I’ll still be on the forums from time to time… :slight_smile:

Good for you…I’m happy for you

Thanks! :slight_smile: Good luck to you!

I am proud of you letting go!
Best wishes!!!

Aw, bummer, that is not the ending I wanted to hear from you, BUT doesn’t mean there is no happy ending, just gotta add more chapters until you get there :slight_smile:

Hey Catafox,

Today, my ex messaged me. Told me she misses me a lot, and she cries when listening to certain songs that remind her of me. I gave in and messaged her back to tell her that I have to pull away from her because there is a lot of hurt on my end, and I need to heal. I need to be able to accept a loving and healthy future for myself down the road, and if I am in the roller coaster ride with her and we aren’t even together, then that hinders my progress. I then told her that maybe we can be friends in a couple years when we both have grown into better people.

She said she loves me and she understands, and that she has cried about how she hurt me and what she’s done. We chatted about positive things for a few minutes and then I told her bye. She said bye as well. About an hour after that, she messaged me and asked if she could make love to me tonight. She said she already figures I’ll say no but that it was worth a shot. She followed up with saying she wants to make me feel good.

I told her that I appreciate that, but it would set me back and destroy the progress I have made because she is in no position to be what I need her to be. I told her I need room to be able to create something new. She said she wants to create something new with me, and that we can do it together. I rejected that and said it won’t be easy, and I feel she hasn’t taken the necessary steps to be able to create something new. (Still has issues, jealousy/insecure). I ended it with another “I appreciate it”.

I’m not confused. Surprisingly. I know time and space is imperative for growth and to better myself. I just stopped having anxiety, and her doing this would put me right back to where I was. I never imagined I’d be able to say no to her. I love her so fucking much! lol NC really does help. Maybe not like some want it to in the beginning, but it gives a logical outlook. Not an outlook fogged up my emotions! My friend just called me spock. lol

Anyway,

I’ll keep you posted.

by* emotions. fml all these typos.

I’m proud of you! You are very strong!
I have to say, if mine did that, I would absolutely not have the resolve that you did. I would crumble. That says so much about how far you have come. Your relationship probably never would have worked, long term, without the changes that you mention haven’t happened yet. Good for you!

SuzyL,

So proud of you! Good for you! You have come a long way and proved how much you’ve grown!

You just beat me to the punch. I did give up as well by sending him ‘the letter’ but I don’t want to mess your thread with my story.

Best wishes!

Julia. There’s room for everyone’s story here!

And thank you to both of you. Yeah, as I was telling you my story, I was like “Wow. I’m so much stronger at this point than I thought I could ever be. Progress!”

The relationship wouldn’t work long-term for sure since she is still showing signs of insecurity. Plus, there needs to be real healing and forgiveness. She was pretty cruel to me during the breakup. I feel like she even cheated, but she disagrees. She needs to mature. I encouraged her to work on herself, and she said she has been trying and now that she has her own place she can be by herself and really focus on what she needs to do to better herself. I’m proud of her.

Did I kind of want her to come over… yeah. lol It would’ve been nice. =D But I have a clear mind now and it just wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

The end result wasn’t getting my ex back, but I am gaining my identity back, I have no more anxiety, and I’m learning about myself. I’m a success story!

Julia, feel free to share! :slight_smile:

SuzyL,

I just did but on the ‘Share your struggles’ section. I would love your input…

So, because of how solid I was feeling about my ex and the breakup, I decided to answer a phone call from my ex. The conversation was good, constructive, positive and full of honesty. I played it cool and was confident sounding. Warm but not needy or emotional. She told me that I am what she wants in a partner. And that she wishes I was this new person in the relationship. I explained to her that it’s no ones fault, but in a cycle that we couldn’t break…neither one of us could be who we really are. We lost ourselves. I lost my identity, and I am taking serious steps to get it back so that I can be open to love and a great relationship whether with her or someone else.

She began to cry and says she doesn’t know why the connections fizzles out, but that I am everything she wants in a partner. I asked her if she thought guilt, anxiety or fear has anything to do with it. She said she honestly doesn’t know. I told her that we just need to progress as individuals. Neither one of us knows what will happen, but that I need to continue my progress…and I wanted to limit communication. She started crying again and said she will probably cry herself to sleep because she wants me by her to “snuggle”. We ended up passing out on the phone together.

I did not attempt to make contact the next day. I wasn’t expecting her to either. I just went about my day, and eventually she called and texted me. I waited a while before responding and told her that I was busy at rugby. After rugby, I called her and she answered and then hung up. It sent an old familiar feeling of sadness and anger. About an hour later, she left a voice mail saying she was at dinner with a friend and her friend was telling her about a crisis. She didn’t mean to answer at all, but just to hit ignore. I believed her, but the feeling I had when she answered and hung up let me know that I am not ready to have the “false friendship” type thing.
We talked about random things for about an hour, and then she said something about “When I have my kids…blah blah blah”…and I stopped listening. Again, sadness took over. If she has babies, I want her to have them with me! So, today…I am going on another NC journey. Not to win the girl back, but to progress even more. I want to be able to not feel sadness when she does or says certain things. I guess what probably changed my feelings a bit about my outlook is that she actually told me she is very sorry and that she has cried about what she’s done…and she even expressed how ashamed she was of her immature and cruel behavior.

So… I am not set back too much…but I feel like NC is best for now.

Just wanted to let that out.

What do you think about this:

If she felt a connection to the point she wanted to make love (after finding that our “happy list” was exactly the same) that there could be a chance for a solid connection in the future? I’m curious. It’s obvious that when she sees the positive changes in me that she feels like there’s a chance… but often she doesn’t think about being in a relationship with me. She just misses me like crazy.

Wow, maybe if it doesn’t work out for me… i need to move on. I’ll be that strong… how inspiring.

Well, I thought about a false friends type of deal where I could build a connection. She thinks I’m sexy and attractive…and the last couple of days she has cried to me about how mean she’s been and how sad she is things turned out the way they have. But, as I stated in another thread, she would rather say bye to me than to her rebound (and according to her they don’t speak or see each other much). I feel like she really loves this other woman, and just won’t tell me. But this other woman has backed off from my ex…and my ex wants me around to fill the void until the other woman is ready.

So. I told my ex that I am moving on and I want no further contact with her. Good riddance. No one should have to be subjected to that…especially by someone who says they love you and cherish you more than anyone else. Makes a lot of sense. lol People…

Well done. The ship is in your hands now, capt…Spock. that’s good. :slight_smile:

Oh…sorry, do you mind if I ask you some questions just to understand the process, since we have a similar story?

  • Who broke up? - How long were you 2 apart? - Did you start NC right after the break up or you had some contact with her, emotional emails or fights after? - How long did you NC till she came to this conclusion? - I know you were afraid of her rebound too, how long were they together?
    thanks.

It’s a pretty complicated story. lol We were fighting for months. She claimed I broke up with her at the end of April. I said I broke up, but we never straight up said “lets get back together” in any past breaks. We just kissed, cuddled, had sex…planned for the future. And all was forgotten. Well, she has really bizarre behavior for a month and we fought, made up and began speaking of a future. She even tried having sex with me, etc. One weekend, she went to a party and slept with another woman. (Her current rebound) And a few days later told me about it, and said she wasn’t in love with me anymore and wanted to pursue this rebound. She told ppl we had been broken up for 2 months, and that’s a flat out lie. She claims she didn’t cheat and didn’t leave me for this other woman. Both, I believe to be lies. I begged her to come back home and fix our 12yr relationship. I truly believed she was my soul mate. She refused. She wanted to pursue this other woman. That was back at the end of June. So going on 3 months ago.

Right after she told me she wasn’t in love, I didn’t do anything. I was frozen. She said she wasn’t in love and she said she didn’t think I was either. The only thing I said was, “I’ve been in love with you since the day I was born.” She began to cry, but quickly stopped. I then asked her what are we going to do about the living arrangements.

After about another month, she came over. I played like I was happy. I bought new clothes. I lost weight (from 127lbs to 110lbs) and I spoke confidently about my future goals and my life. She kept telling me how beautiful I was, etc. We had sex, and she told me she has hope for us but she wants to date down the road and try to reconnect. She didn’t want to jump right back in because a lot of shitty things happened. I agreed. The next day, she obviously spoke to her rebound and came to my house, screamed at me that she didn’t want it…and was super fucking cruel. I just sat and cried. Then, as she was leaving, I was having a meltdown. Two days later, she called me and said again she has hope for us, but she is confused. She said she doesn’t know what she wants, she just doesn’t want to wake up in the same place, with the same life.

We spoke on and off for a couple of weeks. We kind of dated, and we went on about 5 dates. She then approached me about working on a future. I told her I am hesitant, but we needed to go to therapy…and I didn’t want her talking to her rebound while we were trying to connect. I didn’t think it was right. She had a look on her face as to say, “I really don’t want this now.” The next day, she spoke to her rebound and told her that she couldn’t speak to her. Then I called my ex, and she said that she wasnt sure she wanted to be in a relationship with me. I asked her if it was because she spoke to her rebound. She said that her rebound was deflated and sad, and that it made her feel a certain love for her…and if she is feeling that way then it isn’t fair that she try to connect with me. She came and got her things out of my house, and she left with barely any hesitation.

That’s when I went to this site and began NC. I went 9 days of NC, and during NC I realized a lot about myself. I even learned a lot about my ex. And about 9 days in, I realized that I don’t need my ex. Pretty much whatever happens happens. That’s when I created this thread, “I gave up”. Since the initial post of this thread, my ex hit me up constantly. I finally answered through facebook. I explained that I am progressing and finding my own identity and seeing and speaking to her at this point would set me back. I didn’t care about what I told her, because I felt that my goal wasn’t to get her back anymore. It was to be happy no matter what. A day or so after that, she called me…and I posted the whole thing in another thread “My ex wont stop talking to rebound so we can connect” I think that was the title. lol

Sorry for the long story, but I didn’t want to flip through pages to find the link to my story. But yeah… we only went 9 days total of not speaking to each other. And after she pretty much said bye to me a 3rd time because she wants to be able to hang with her rebound and speak to her while essentially dating me. She makes sure she mentions we don’t have titles because if her rebound wants to have sex or date or whatever…she is free to do so. I decided after that…I was doing NC for 6 months. After the conversation about the rebound and her refusing to say bye to the rebound, she messages me and called me a handful of times and played like I never said anything about taking a full on break from communication. She just kept saying she misses me, she loves me, she wishes I was next to her… It’s like she doesn’t take me seriously. So NC it is.

I’m not sure how long she’s been with her NC. I know I was first told they had sex middle to end of July. She then kept it going pretty steadily with the rebound for about a good month and a week, and overtime they slowed down. Now, according to my ex, they don’t speak very often and they don’t really hang out anymore. Which confuses me because why will she not stop speaking to the rebound all together so we can connect and work on things. I mean, I know I’ve said at this point, my ex has a lot of growing up to do…but this whole thing, this past week, has really proven she isn’t the right one for me at all given her current state of mind.

I’m not sure if she’s waiting on her rebound. Or what…and I can’t get her to really open up to me about it. The only thing she will tell me is why her and the rebound slowed down…and it kind of seems like she pissed the rebound off with her up and down feelings about getting back together with me. Not only that, but my ex also told the rebound that she wasn’t trying to jump from one relationship to another. Add in baggage on both sides, and it’s no wonder things slowed down…but yeah.
I’m still positive about everything. I’ll be happy no matter what.

I’m not sure how long she’s been with her rebound** not NC. lol