Need a bit of perspective, feeling lost and alone
Hi All,
Apologies as this is long winded.
I have been trying to make sense of things lately, it feels like everytime I take a step forward, I take twenty backwards.
I will just start off with a the start of this that goes back four years ago.
I met this amazing girl at a bar we chatted, got drunk and had sex the same night.
This is unusual for me as I am painfully shy and never done anything like that.
We wound up spending the next day just walking around the local area, turned out she just lived 10 mins away.
So we started to text constantly, go on a couple of dates and before you know it we are spending most of our free time together.
This goes on for a few months and things are going great, we were making so many plans to do things, like visit her home country etc,
One day she lets it out and says that she loves me.
It completely blew me away and I reciprocated as I felt the same way.
I asked he would she be my girlfriend and she accepted.
I was absolutely elated as I never felt so strongly about another person and it felt amazing that it was genuine.
Without adding detail I grew up in a severely broken home and I (still) struggle showing my true emotions to another human being.
A few days later out of the blue she dumped me without any logical explanation.
Just that she said that she could never be in a relationship with anyone, but still loves me.
I was completely heartbroken and felt worthless...
I had thoughts of just disappearing forever. I cut myself off from family, friends for a couple of years and just existed as revenant.
I wound up getting counseling and it helped me out a lot and I managed to repair my relationships with everyone that I cut myself from.
I lost a hell of a lot of weight from working out and eating right and was happy with myself again.
So fast forward summer last year (three years later) I met an amazing girl and we started pandemic dating,
Which was going amazing, I was taking it cautiously and not trying to screw it up.
One month in my ex texts me after three years of no contact and asks would I like to go for a drink to talk.
So I accept with the notion of just getting some closure, if my friends knew they would have went ballistic!!!!
And that's all it was ws a chat and her profusely apologising for hurting me.
Saying she was freaked out and was f'ed in the head etc.
I accepted the apology and gave her a big hug and said thank you I needed to hear that for a long time.
She asked if we could be friends and I said sure.
So that was that, I got a few friendly texts over the following months nothing serious.
Of course I did not tell my GF at the time.
So everything was going great until we had the last major lockdown.
We were cut off due to her being in another county.
The girl that I was dating was really questioning things I said in the past.
Like not wanting kids, getting married etc.
Which is not true, I am a very cautious to the idea of having a family due to my messed up upbringing.
My line of thinking was if we could just get out of this lockdown we could work on that, like moving in together first etc.
We could sort out future plans when everything's more stable.
I was wrong.
She dumped me in late Feb out of the blue.
So over the next couple of months, I spent time just try to love myself again and try not to hit the bottle too hard.
And I was doing well, keeping in contact with everyone over whatsapp and zoom, my mates were very supportive.
Over those couple of months those the texting with my ex got more constant where we were getting to the point of saying good morning and good night..
So she started asking me if wanted to meet for takeaway pints during April, I couldn't due to work and I was honestly quite anxious about the idea.
So we agreed to maybe do a chat on skype.
So we th following week we have the video chat and we are having a great laugh getting drunk reminiscing.
She brings up the question:
Do you still think about us?
I replied yes of course, I always wondered what might have been if things did not end.
She says would you consider another try?
I said of course and we talked a bit more about it.
She told me that her relationship with her then boyfriend was ending and said she needed some time to sort that.
She came over in a taxi that very night and we slept together.
Then the next day we woke up chatted and had sex again then she went home.
We met up the next day, went for a walk and had takeaway pints.
I asked her since it was her birthday and mine within a couple of days of each other would he like to spend the night before with me.
She came over, I had a cake for her and a present .
We then got some pizza,beer and then we slept with each other.
The next day we spent the afternoon with each other and she went home.
So over the next few days I felt like she was withdrawing and getting a bit cold.
I tried to make sure I didn't push and get too intense.
She did ask to meet for takeaway pints, so we did, had a great time and I thought that any notion things going bad was unfounded.
Fast forward a couple of days later that the contact is becoming less frequent and I am getting a lot of short answers.
So I did not have much contact her for a couple of days as I knew she had plans.
So she gets back in contact we are chatting away and asked if she wanted to come over to my apartment the following weekend.
She shot me down saying it would be a bit weird.
Me being confused of course asked why and said she could not put it into words.
And she said I think we should be just friends, I think you are quite awesome, don't want to lose you as a friend and you are a great drinking buddy.
I said that's fine, talk to you later.
I was confused, disappointed and honestly felt like I got kicked in the nuts.
So we text each other for a few days then it fizzled out.
I have not spoken to her in nearly a month.
So the other day I had a nosy on her insta (I know stupid idea) and found she was tagged in a photo with some chap.
It had the tag #couple, my heart sank and I looked at the date it was a week after she decided to going back to being friends.
Since then I have been feeling used, lost and lonely.
I'm 35 years old and feeling like time is getting shorter to find any happiness.
Barely getting through the day without having to take a deep breath and hold back tears.
I have cut myself from everyone and living alone and so far does not help.
I kind of feel like I have no one to talk to as all my close friends and family would go ballistic if they knew.
I am considering counselling again.
Any advice or perspective would be appreciated.