thread to get over a breakup

had dinner recently with someone i broke up with almost 6 years ago and i think i might finally be over it? wasn't so sure even a month or two ago.

i think sometimes you never really "get over" the experience of the relationship, or losing the relationship, even if you get over/are no longer interested in the person you had it with.

^^^excellent insight.

yeah. i think there are relationships that you never really want to get over, too. heal, obviously, but not forget and not lose some measure of pain to remind yourself that it mattered, a lot.

exactly.

that would require some on point pain delegation.

it just kinda happens naturally

man the thing where at first you think you'll be 100% fine whatever movin' on up and then reality slowly reveals itself as a newly barren wastseland. where's the fast-forward button.

OTM

yeah, I'm never getting over this breakup it turns out.

it takes way longer than you want it to

You'll surprise yourself someday, but not today and not this week. Go easy.

Oh no Clay I am sorry :-(

Ha well I just wrote about a thousand words finally laying it all out on this thread because I've got to be emo somewhere and pressed the wrong button on zing and it disappeared. Guess I'll give it another shot tomorrow.

half-drunk shoutouts to dayo and stevie (the latter of whom who slept in her old apartment for a few days ffs) for the positive vibes in this, probably the actual worst time in my life since idk I guess highschool sucked.

I realized a couple days ago that six years isn't a breakup, it's a divorce.

close enough alright

cheers clay; you're a good dude. get that post up here, follow through and release, feel better afterwards

when my ex went on trips without me, she would sometimes leave little love notes hidden in various places that i'd be likely to find while she was gone

i just found one in the back of my sock drawer that's several years old : /

:(

Ooof.

damn man. hugs.

I still find shit like that every once in a while and know exactly how it feels. It sucks :-(

that happened to me once about a year after a breakup:

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x18/gr8080/note.jpg

:(

Jeez.

A little over two years out and just found out about the requisite 'marrying the dude I got ditched for'. I feel today will be a lot of running to stand still.

Good luck with handling that, shaane. Tough deal, but it sounds like you're not going to crumble.

- eternal reminder to self to never get involved with another person who even comes close to being an alcoholic, chain-smoking, self-hating, selfish, intimacy-fearing, borderline-aspergers, unemployed punk/rock musician who loves his dog more than his girlfriend

Internet hug from belgium - you rule and I + everyone on ILX <3 <3 <3 u

Oh rrrobyn! It can take some time to be sure that the person really is those things. Generous people like you probably allow a lot of time. There's an upside to that as well as the nasty downside. But yeah, good advice to self.

/hugs rrobyn, and can I just jump this bandwagon and say

- eternal reminder to self to never get involved with another person who even comes close to being an alcoholic, chain-smoking, self-hating, selfish, intimacy-fearing, borderline-aspergers, unemployed punk/rock workaholic indie musician who loves his dogcar more than his girlfriend

That seems like a selfish post (mine). How are you doing, rrobyn? I hope you're ok, healthily bitter like rocket, not unhealthily bitter like old lettuce.

/wave ljubljana. How are you?

thanks, guys <3

not a selfish post at all, zora - it's good to know i'm not alone and that having hope in love isn't a crazy thing to possess. though i should've known... i'm not bitter really, just hurt (and feeling quite misunderstood by an irrational person). i know it's definitely good for me to not be in that relationship! i usually don't go out with people like that, at least not for that long, but i felt like there were good reasons to keep my heart way open, and so i glossed over a lot of the red flags (so many). it's complicated stuff, but whoa do i know what i really need in a relationship now (and what i really don't need) and that keeping my heart open isn't a bad thing - i just need to listen much better to what my heart/intuition tells me...

Being misunderstood is so bloody frustrating.

/hi Zora! I'm ok. I don't really know what the hell I'm doing at the moment but I'm plodding on regardless, ready to veer off if necessary. I miss you when you don't post!

basically required some heavy crying followed by superb hangouts with friends followed by dancing in my livingroom to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3szM702Ofk

xp

(ironically, sung by an anxiety-ridden alcoholic... sigh.)

hugs rrrobyn <3

and that is an A+ dancing song given the circumstances

mm, is there anything better than dating an irrational person who chronically misunderstands you? feelin you here. good riddance to bad rubbish imo

dated this dude too many times, tbh :/ and yeah, don't beat yourself up for keeping your heart open despite the red flags. it doesn't say anything bad about you.

<3 rrrobyn

<3

god yeah i really and truly hope i don't, i mean, i am just not never going to date a dude like this again
here's an awesome kicker: last night, sad and only mildly drunk and yet also sound in the knowledge that i don't need this relationship in my life yet i'm still sentimental about it and the different kinds of love/not-love that we all go through and trying to feel through that and all these ~feelings~, i posted the mtn goats "love love love" on fb. looking through fb this morning, i see in the wee hours that he posted the mtn goats "no children." yep. (argh social media whyyy)

lol *not ever* i obv mean

It's clear who's to blame there, but it's too late - we've lost our chance to stop the Mountain Goats.

(Also really sorry to hear this, but it looks like things'll be getting better in a post-loser world?)

(Also also you've cut the fb cord now, right?)

avoiding the ex on fb in situations like this is key!

At least it worked for me, when I realized it was necessary and keeping that line of connection open was just more painful than not.

never get involved with another person who even comes close to being an alcoholic, chain-smoking, self-hating, selfish, intimacy-fearing, unemployed punk/rock musician who loves his dog drugs more than his girlfriend

Girrrrrrrl we need to stop being the same person.

I am sorry for u but also really happy for u! that you are out of this. Because you are SO much more.

don't beat yourself up for keeping your heart open despite the red flags

This is a quandary I find myself in often - nearly all of us have some sort of red flags, and ruling them out because of them would leave a tiny remaining pool of prospective partners. Not to mention nobody walking the planet would ever date me since I hemorrhage red flags.

I'm unable to be in love with someone without seeing her in the best possible light. It's when I start seeing things that aren't really there that I get in trouble. I know there's a limit to how many red flags are acceptable, but it's hard to place just where that limit should be. IME, anyone who has lived an interesting life is likely to have accumulated plenty of baggage and red flags.

i think we are using the term "red flags" rather differently... everyone has "flaws" and baggage they're carrying around but those are not necessarily red flags, those are just the result of being an individual with background/experiences different from your partner. a relationship includes those and accepts them in a state of open communication and a certain amount of mutual compromise. i'm using the term as something beyond {in)compatibility, as indications of certain manipulative or abusive or just generally hurtful behaviour brewing. i suppose some people can deal with those behaviours in a partner. i cannot.

no one should!

Yeah the acceptable number of red flags is none (makes note not to go swimming or motor-car racing with Leee)

rrroybn, I think I meant "red flags" more or less the same way you did, it's just that I know several of my best relationships over the years could have been sidelined before they ever happened had I let those flags dissuade me. There are certainly *some* of those that would be dealbreakers for me - chronic alcoholism, or verbal or physical abuse of any kind. But I had a great relationship with a girl who could fall into the "self-hating" category, and I made it a point to "correct" her every time she said something untruthfully self-mocking until she started to see herself in a new, proper light. She would tell me she feels like a used-up dishrag; I'd remind her that she was an innocent child who was taken advantage of, and that no kid that young should have been expected to say "no" to adults that had forced themselves on her. I wouldn't let her get away with saying anything bad about herself that wasn't true. And over time, she stopped thinking this way, and there'd be one less red flag in her life. Sometimes she'd ramble off some trivial items about her day and then catch herself, say "I know I'm dull, so i'll stop talking before i bore you to tears", i'd respond "you're fascinating and interesting; I'd love to hear more". And so on.

Just gotta decide which red flags really are dealbreakers and which you can work around. I can't speak for everyone else, but i'm ready to change one or two long-entrenced habits if it means being with someone i love. 5 or 6 habits, though, should probably look elsewhere....