11. ‘He rejected all sexual contact and we were only together once a year, no kissing, no hugging.’
“I met my ex at 17…there were a ton of red flags that I chose to ignore. I found out that he had told all of his friends that I tricked him into having a baby and that now my body was disgusting. I watched him ignore the baby and listened to him tell me he didn’t love me or the baby and that I was an awful mother. He rejected all sexual contact and we were only together once a year, no kissing, no hugging. We had been sleeping in different beds for 18 months when a man who was already a part of my life came out and told me that he thought that I deserved to be loved and that my child did too and that he would do anything to protect us from hurt. I cheated. I have zero regrets. I actually felt desired, attractive and valued. He listened to what I said and loved my weirdness. My SO found out (turns out he had been hacking all of my stuff for a long time), became sexually aggressive, and assaulted me. The man who said he would be there for me was. He literally held my hand through one of the darkest times in my life. We’re married now and I finally know what love is.”
12. ‘We both slipped into depression and started drifting apart, and our bedroom became pretty dead.’
“My SO told me he’d been planning to propose a few months previously but changed his mind.
We both slipped into depression and started drifting apart, and our bedroom became pretty dead.
A married friend and I had recently realized how attracted we were to each other. Over the next few months that developed into a connection like no other I have ever felt. This turned into a three-month love affair.
It ended when his wife found a text he’d sent me and not deleted. I came clean to my SO. I lost everything, the married man did not.
Three years later I am still an emotional wreck who doesn’t believe will ever find love again. My ex is in a similar position (we tried to fix things but finally parted ways last month as we can’t seem to move forward together).
The married man and his wife are still together and fine.”
13. ‘I didn’t think he cared about me anymore. ‘
“I didn’t think he cared about me anymore. Things were different before I left for two weeks to Italy anyway. I didn’t think there would be any way for me to contact him, but when I found out a hotel we stayed at had working Internet I was super excited. The keyboard was different and took me forever to type out an email to him saying I missed him and a little about the trip, and he just replied ‘I don’t understand what you wrote’—no I miss you or I love you, just that short sentence. So bad judgment and being mad lead to me cheating…”
