Posted by Temmie on July 25, 2003, at 16:28:21
In reply to Still Reeling in Confusion and Hurt of Infidelity, posted by Temmie on July 22, 2003, at 23:55:48
1. Even though your objective judgment (and perhaps the judgement of others) tells you that the relationship is bad for you and you cannot expect any improvement, you take no effective steps to break with it.
2. You give yourself reasons for staying in it that do not hold water or that are not really strong enough to balance the negatives in the relationship.
3. When you think about ending the relationship, you feel dread, even terror, and you cling to it even harder.
4. When you take steps to end it, you suffer acute withdrawal symptoms, including physiucal distress, that can only be relieved by reestablishing contact.
5. When the relationship is REALLY over (or you fantasize that it has ended), you feel the lostness, aloneness, and emptiness of a person eternally exiled -- often followed or even accompanied by a feeling of liberation.
These have been of help to me, and are taken from the book, "How to Break Your Addiction to a Person" by Howard M. Halpern
poster:Temmie
thread:244403
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030719/msgs/245263.html