My (24M) parents very suddenly divorced when I was around 13 years old, and it seems to have had long standing effects on my ability to maintain romantic relationships. Have you or anyone you know had a similar experience?

TLDR: have seemingly become emotionally stunted since parents divorce in early teenage years, haven't been able to love a woman. Any similar stories?

The divorce was seemingly out of nowhere, it absolutely fucked me up emotionally, I didn't tell anyone at school about it, I never processed it until recently.

Basically, I've been able to meet girls, become close to them, but will very quickly start to push them away from me. I will ignore them, or reduce contact with them. Become very uncomfortable when they talk to me. In a nutshell I've had short relationships ever since the divorce.

I met a beautiful lady two years ago, we became very close, I made her aware of my issues yet she still wanted me. She loved me, tried her heart out to help me, but after countless therapy sessions where we just seemed to find out I had anxiety tied to relationships, and went on antidepressants for awhile, her love became too much for me (?) and I broke things off as I was feeling overwhelmed. There's more details to the mental health side of things, but they're not overly relevant.

I tell myself I'm incapable of love, and I want to feel love. So this post is about possibly hearing from others who may have had a similar experiences, in terms of divorce at a young age, and how you have processed it and moved forward. Or haven't moved on and how it is affecting you today.

Submitted February 27, 2022 at 01:02AM by TheTotallyRealAndy https://ift.tt/GYF32Mt