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General Cold/Distant with me, totally normal and happy with everyone else. Is he being honest?

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Thanks for sharing @Butterfly64
So great to know other people’s stories, definitely makes me feel less alone!

It’s not often that he isolates, but I think it really got to him to see a very similar event to what caused his trauma, right infront of his eyes. He’s told me that he’s isolating from me first and foremost because he finds our relationship stressful right now.
Things were going quite well recently, and we were planning our wedding. I think that, coupled with GAD which he already has since he was a teenager, and PTSD has really stressed him out.

He’s told me he is isolating from me first and foremost because our relationship is the hardest, and deepest and because ‘you’re the only one who sees and knows the REAL me’

So yeah right now he isn’t able to maintain our relationship..
You are definitely not alone! I found this Forum at the end of May, just after I had decided enough is enough. Even when you know that when they disappear for e.g. a few days, a week or two, that it has nothing to do with you, that their feelings for you are still very much there, for me it still felt like it could be over....that I was losing him, and that was hard. I hope it works out for you?
 
Planning a wedding and having ptsd?
Oh ya -- that makes me run for the hills

Getting triggered on top of it?
gotta get away from hubby because if I end up going off on him our relationship won't survive

Isolation = leave.me.alone.

Has nothing - NOTHING- to do with my supporters
Has to do with ptsd
Chances are high you will never understand it.
So the question is -- can YOU live with it?

Because if this is his go to? He's going to keep doing it -- probably forever
 
Just to clarify, for him to say ‘I’ve been feeling better because we are having space, I’ve been feeling more relaxed.’ And him saying ‘I feel like that cause I don’t owe anything to anyone’
makes perfect sense to me. The pressure is off. And yes. Loved ones = constant pressure and expectations. You can tell yourself you don't all ya want, but the reality is....pressure and expectations
 
How long have you been together?
Can someone please explain this to me, cause I found it devastating to know that he feels better without me
While he explained that you are the one he shows the real him as the explanation, and yeah that can fit with the relationship patterns that sometimes happen with PTSD... what he said still had to hurt to know he is more relaxed not around you. Ouch.

There is a way to say, "I’m too overwhelmed right now to connect” without saying, “I’m more relaxed not being around you or worrying about about you.”

Are there any other issues in the relationship?
 
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Thanks @Kubash16 and @Freida for the responses. Again, makes me feel loads better to hear it from a sufferer perspective.

@Butterfly64 wish you all the best as well ♥️ This forum has been a great comfort for me for a while now, due to the sufferers on here that are so helpful with providing insight. I hope we both get whatever it is we wish for! It’s hard to not take stuff personally but it’s definately a lesson that need to be learned.

@Justmehere thanks for your response. A little bit of backstory is that, we’ve both had to work really hard to get to the stage where he was mentally and emotionally ok with getting married. We’re both from cultures that put a lot of emphasis on getting married and as we are both reaching that age due to the cultural norms, it’s getting stressful and it needs to happen. While I don’t agree with this AT ALL, we have been together for nearly 9 years now, we both want to settle down and have kids (this is something he’s spoken about many times)

However, I believe the stress in regards to this comes from a variety of things. Firstly, he’s grown up in family dynamics that have been very toxic (a lot of his trauma comes from this). He hasn’t seen his parents be loving to one another. He often states that they don’t love eachother and never have. His relationship with his dad is really bad, he’s never had true acceptance from his dad who have constantly and consistently called him a failure, and many other derogatory names. He has often said in regards to his dad and his older brother that they just don’t love him. His sisters were married and in really bad relationships so they got divorced. His friends are married but they’re not happy in their marriages or divorced.

Due to all that, he’s developed this fairytale fantasy on love and how it’s supposed to be. He truly believes that two people who are meant for eachother should be head over hills for eachother at all times and at all stages of life. He doesn’t believe relationships or marriage require work, he thinks if you are meant for eachother then it’ll flow naturally whatever happens. We’ve many times have the conversation about ‘choosing to love’ where I have said that love is a choice. Loving someone through good and bad times is a choice, you chose to stay. He disagrees, he thinks the feeling of love should always be how it was in the beginning of the relationship and if you’re right for eachother it’ll stay that way hence it will be easy to work through any issues.

All his past relationships prior to me have been very toxic, he’s always been attracted to women who’ve treated him really badly. His friends have commented on how he seeks to people that give him validation especially women, but he’s denied this. However this is quite true cause he is always in need of a challenge.

He’s the type of person who always wants to be distracted, challenged, busy, he always wants to do something or meet someone that makes his adrenaline rush. If he isn’t doing that, he will complain that he’s bored and that he feels awful and will start feeling depressed.

Due to all this, our wedding has stressed him out, his fears of it breaking up and him not being happy like he’s seen with other people’s marriages, along with the fact that we are 9 years down the line and don’t have the newness in our relationship left, he doesn’t have that ‘feeling’ and it bothers him. But what we do have is a beautiful solid loving relationship full of trust, a great friendship, a real bond and knowing that ‘you’re my person, you’ve got my back!!’
Our friends always say that we suit eachother really well cause our dynamic is great.

He just can’t see it right now. His PTSD is through the roof at the moment and he’s happier not thinking about me, the wedding and everything else that is stressful. He says he wants space and alone time.

Right I hope all this makes a little bit more sense now?

Love to you all!
 
Due to all that, he’s developed this fairytale fantasy on love and how it’s supposed to be. He truly believes that two people who are meant for eachother should be head over hills for eachother at all times and at all stages of life. He doesn’t believe relationships or marriage require work, he thinks if you are meant for eachother then it’ll flow naturally whatever happens

That's called distorted thinking.

Maybe give him some stuff to read about relationships? There is loads out there. Just normal, non-PTSD relationships.

Challenge him with "the honeymoon phase" which is about the 6 first months of a relationship where things typically are as he thinks. But, then after those 6 months you are out of the honeymoon phase and into a different phase all together.

There's loads on here about distorted thinking that can help too.
 
@lostforgottensoul @Freida
Thanks for your kind advice.
I’ll try speaking to him about distorted thinking.

However honestly, so many people have tried to explain to him that relationships grow out of the honeymoon phase and into something more solid. Although it isn’t as exciting, It’s more meaningful.

We’ve worked hard on him and him being comfortable with things between us being settled, it’s gotten to the point where majority of the time he accepts it however when he’s at his worst mentally he will bring it up again as a way to push me away.
He hasn’t seen many or any at all successful relationships. He hasn’t experienced what ‘love’ is. Like I mentioned previously, his ex girlfriends have all been really awful and manipulative cause that’s the type of woman he finds intriguing.
With him and I, we’ve honestly been through heavens and earth together. Life threatening illness, financial issues, death in family, problems at work, as well as the many happy memories like holidays and all the things we’ve done and experiences together. He calls me his best friend and his ‘angel’ lol.

It’s sad that he doesn’t see that what him and I have is just a completely normal relationship, and actually a relationship that is WORTH it. Right now he’s totally isolating, he doesn’t want us anymore and it hurts really bad at the moment.
 
@lostforgottensoul @Freida
Thanks for your kind advice.
I’ll try speaking to him about distorted thinking.

However honestly, so many people have tried to explain to him that relationships grow out of the honeymoon phase and into something more solid. Although it isn’t as exciting, It’s more meaningful.

We’ve worked hard on him and him being comfortable with things between us being settled, it’s gotten to the point where majority of the time he accepts it however when he’s at his worst mentally he will bring it up again as a way to push me away.
He hasn’t seen many or any at all successful relationships. He hasn’t experienced what ‘love’ is. Like I mentioned previously, his ex girlfriends have all been really awful and manipulative cause that’s the type of woman he finds intriguing.
With him and I, we’ve honestly been through heavens and earth together. Life threatening illness, financial issues, death in family, problems at work, as well as the many happy memories like holidays and all the things we’ve done and experiences together. He calls me his best friend and his ‘angel’ lol.

It’s sad that he doesn’t see that what him and I have is just a completely normal relationship, and actually a relationship that is WORTH it. Right now he’s totally isolating, he doesn’t want us anymore and it hurts really bad at the moment.
My heart goes out to you....I recognize the pain you are in...the two years with my ex tore me apart...I felt that each day, I died a little inside. I still miss him....some days more than others...today is one of those days. I had to leave him though, he is not in therapy and is not ready for a relationship....we are just bad for each other now.
I am sure, he will come back to you. He is going through a rough patch now and when he feels better he will return. You just have to take care of yourself first and foremost....don’t loose yourself??
 
We’ve worked hard on him and him being comfortable with things between us being settled, it’s gotten to the point where majority of the time he accepts it however when he’s at his worst mentally he will bring it up again as a way to push me away.

That makes sense to me. We aren't this which is what a "good relationship" (in his distroted view) and we aren't that so you must go away now.

Maybe he thinks he deserves the manipulative and abusive. Maybe he craves that as a way to reenact his past. Maybe.
 
Due to all this, our wedding has stressed him out, his fears of it breaking up and him not being happy like he’s seen with other people’s marriages, along with the fact that we are 9 years down the line and don’t have the newness in our relationship left, he doesn’t have that ‘feeling’ and it bothers him. But what we do have is a beautiful solid loving relationship full of trust, a great friendship, a real bond and knowing that ‘you’re my person, you’ve got my back!!’
Our friends always say that we suit eachother really well cause our dynamic is great.

He just can’t see it right now. His PTSD is through the roof at the moment and he’s happier not thinking about me, the wedding and everything else that is stressful. He says he wants space and alone time.
Reading up on attachment patterns might also lead to a little more understanding of other factors that may be going on in the relationship. People with and without PTSD can sometimes have attachment patterns that are not secure, but rather ambivalent, and will really fall apart as commitment levels rise. The closer one gets to exclusive dating or getting engaged or getting married, the more one might push the partner away or otherwise sabotage the relationship. Trauma histories and PTSD in the mix can super charge these patterns.
 
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