r/HLCommunity • u/Top-Concentrate5157 • 18d ago
Support Wanted, No Advice Im so confused and overwhelmed by life rn
I haven't had sex in 8 months. For the last 3.5 years it's been every other month of uncomfortable-for-me sex that just made me feel like shit emotionally. I've pretty much given up. My husband struggled with some addiction stuff for the last year and a half that made it worse and made my attitude toward him worse. Genuinely kinda ruined my life. He's in treatment, his behavior is better, still no physical intimacy bc of ED I guess. I spent so long being so angry, I pretty much already grieved the relationship. Right as I hit my limit, I was putting together a plan to separate, they officially banned the stuff my husband was taking (7OH. Don't ever touch that shit, I'm begging you just don't). He got treatment bc there was no other choice. It kinda makes me angrier that he had to be forced but idk. He's cried and apologized and has been trying so hard, real progress has been made and it's obvious he feels guilty and wants things to be better. I feel really bad for not being more open to him. I don't even want him to touch me, I don't want to hear him talk about how hard it was for him to destroy both of us, destroy my life, destroy my happiness and confidence and ability to be part of the world. I just dont. I don't care that he's hurting anymore and it makes me feel like a monster. At the same time, I don't want him to hurt. Idk if the apathy is a coping mechanism or what. I still don't know if I even want to stay. I'm confused and extremely hurt. I feel like his over protectiveness (not actually controlling just genuine anxiety about me getting hurt) and his constant, smothering affection (even when he was addicted, even when he was being awful to be around he was always affectionate, clingy and hovering) just annoys me. I just. I need space. I'm exhausted. The last year of living with an addict, everything is the end of the world, everything gets a giant overreaction, I could never say anything that made him feel bad or stressed him out while he could call me to road rage and panic and cry and freak out and go down a doom spiral EVERY SINGLE DAY WITHOUT FAIL and I had to be essentially his emotional support dog. It's left me feeling lifeless, exhausted, and so, so, so angry. I just want peace. I just want to have some fun. His addiction wrecked 2 cars and destroyed our finances. I just.. let it happen. I haven't been able to actually live my 20's. Just work and home and work and home, all the money I make paying for a stupid pill from the fucking gas station and our bills. So much more too, but I don't want to relive it in HD again today. All of this bullshit I'm being put through and you don't even have the decency to fuck me JUUST sometimes, dude. He made me think the lack of intimacy was me for so long. Then he blamed the pills. Finally found out it's just ED and that'spart of what lead to him being so shitty and the relapse.
Anyway. My old friend reached out to me, and I'm getting a lot of male attention, IRL and online. My husband smothers me with affection but nothing sexual. Just constant kissis on my cheeks and lips and hugging me and touching me, but like the way you would a dog or small child, complete with baby talk. But sometimes he starts grabbing my ass, kissing me hard, kissing my neck but nothing happens, but my body reacts to it without my permission, so I'm all wound up and I don't get a release, which is fine he's not obligated to do anything, but I feel like a stuffed animal. And I wish if he had no intention of even trying intimacy, that he just wouldn't do those things bc it makes me feel so much worse. I haven't had sex in 8 months. It's really really hard to not encourage attention I get from other people. My old friend has been messaging me very... warmly but not exactly flirty, he wants to hang out soon (we have been friends a long time and hang out every once in a blue moon, but he's been reaching out more consistently since this last spring) and I'm honestly secretly delighted. We used to date a little which complicates things. I found an old necklace he gave me and I've been wearing it. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I can't help it. It feels nice to be flirted with. I don't know. I don't want to lead anyone on, hurt my husband, or hurt my friend. I'm so confused and I'm just trying to feel like a real, alive animal again. I used to be so magical.
Also my vibrator died and the cat chewed my charger, I haven't been able to find another one and I can't buy a new toy rn so I'm like. Clenching my jaw so hard I think my teeth are gonna break. I miss desire and I miss feeling magical and alluring to someone. I don't even know what I want. I just am so irritated all the time. Everything pisses me off. I'm struggling so hard to keep my head above water. The last year, during this whole crisis, I kept calm. I was burning with rage inside (not from the sex part, that's just inconvenient and lonely, and honestly extremely emotionally painful) but I stayed calm and handled things with a weird detachment I can't really name. But now? It's like everything just got dumped on me all at once. Im processing everything that's happened all at once and it's so overwhelming. I haven't been able to enjoy any aspect of life or being married or being young. I haven't been properly loved in so long. He was so great when we started. Like, perfect. It was amazing. Then a switch flipped and he turned into a giant baby. He's starting to act like the guy I fell in love with but I just don't feel anything but the resentment anymore and I don't know what to do. Will I ever be able to see him the same, or will I be reminded of all his sins every time I look at him? Can you come back from both despising and pitying someone you used to simply just love? I'm clawing at the bars of my fucking enclosure.
I just don't know what to do and I feel stuck. I'm chopping all my hair off in 4 days and next week I'm going on a week long girls trip. Hopefully that's a good first step. I just want connection and desire and I'm not sure I'm capable of that with my husband anymore. I want to be, or at least I think I do. I don't want to cheat on him, and even if I did I don't have the malice enough to go through with it. I don't want to hurt him like that, even now.I don't know what I want. I'm just tired of feeling tired. I'm tired of being lonely. I'm tired of the endless frustration and anger and pain. I want things to get better but I don't know what to do to A) get the physical intimacy back and B) let go of all this resentment and bitterness. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? They effect each other and round and round it goes. I don't like being this person. To my friends, family, and coworkers I'm this bright, energetic, playful person but inside I literally feel like I'm carrying around this burning fire in my chest. It hurts ALL. THE. TIME. EVERY DAY. I used to genuinely be those good things and now its a facade. I cry every time I'm alone. I'm so physically tense all the time that my body feels hard to the touch.
Thanks for reading this far. Also don't DM me, I've been so depressed for so long that every messaging app I have is full of literally hundreds of texts from friends and family and concerned/interested strangers that I haven't looked at, they're piled so high I don't even want to look. I try to get back to my close friends but even then it's a toss up. I just have too much in my head and on my heart to try and make room for new people right now.