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How to feel safe without a saftey net?

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Are you sure that it’s safety you want, and not stability?

I have a total sh!t sense of safety. I carry pepper spray and a whistle to make my mom feel that I am safe. My boyfriend is concerned about my safety now that I’m selling a lot of stuff online and meeting people, so he constantly reminds me to not meet people alone.....he knows I don’t think about safety issues.

Throw instability my way and I can spiral down faster than you can blink.

Safety and stability may be related, but they are two separate concepts.
 
The more I work on formulating a plan the more guilty I feel, because I don't think he will take it well. Actually afraid it might break him because he depends on me for so much too. It goes both ways but con dependence isn't healthy and we grew beyond a healthy balance. Arggg! This back and forth thing my mind is doing is driving me nuts know matter how normal it is.
Really relate to this, reading Lundy Bancroft - why does he do that, has been the most effective tool I've come across at getting my head straight about being abused. Hope you can get a copy. And despite any claims he might make about falling apart without you I'm betting he'll be just fine. Prolly find a new partner rather quickly if he's anything like past abusive ex's.
Best to you :)
 
I will look at that book, always open to book recommends. I will say he is very different in regards to relationships. I don't see him finding someone new for a long time. Its the same reasons that used to make me feel safe. Same reaskns I don't expect to find someone new for years to come, and that's always Bern fine for me.

*been not burn proof my autocorrect can't predict a thing, I have never used that term.
 
To me it seems like you’re stuck in learned helplessness and trauma re-creation which prevents you from getting what you truly want—safety.

It also seems like you want the reward without putting in the hard work. You don’t get to feel safe until you work hard at healing. That’s just how it is.

You’re in a bad marriage and have no intention of getting out of the marriage, but you want to feel safe? Life just doesn’t work that way.
 
I give up, can't figure out how to quote on a phone. @EveHarrington, I think you missed a few posts that's OK, going back I see I missed some on the first page somehow. I am trying to process a crap ton of stuff. Leave vs. Fix? Is a new development yes but it took me realizing things were unrepairable because 2 months ago I was opting not for a way out of my relationship but life period because I couldn't handle the grief of too damn many deaths.

I am frustrated I am screaming out for help in the real world and feel I have to defend myself here. Total acknowledgment that the defensive ess rests 99% on my shoulders
 
It's like unknotting a big ball of tangled thread.

I wonder if you are becoming overwhelmed with the enormity of what you are considering doing? And that's cutting off your belief's, hope and confidence that you can emerge from this intact and with a future?

You have to remember who the real Fadeaway is. She's resilient, capable, intelligent and completely able to live independently of another person - regardless of who that person is. That's you! :hug:

You are tangling up your emotions about what and how you husband will cope and respond with what and how you will exit.

Except to avoid any physical danger I don't think they belong together.

I understand your husband might not take you leaving the marriage too well or even very badly. But remember he's now in a place where he can get support, has friends and acquaintances and family? It's a place he feels comfortable at least. And he's not your responsibility to keep happy etc., etc., Especially now that you recognise the relationship is well and truly over.

At some stage you must consider yourself separate from your husband and not try to manage his emotions as well as your own because you cannot do that. Nobody can. He needs to deal with himself. Even in great marriages both parties view themselves and value each other as separate even when very close, happy and in love.

If you have decided you have to leave the marriage (for any reason) then that is sufficient for you to leave. You don't have to give us all of your reasoning's on why you want or need to leave.

I think if I was you I would start off with one single thing and that might be as simple as making a list of what you need to do to make an exit.

In a safe place, that he won't find, record all of the steps necessary for you to leave. Write them down, move them about till you get them in the right order of priority and then sleep on it. This may take you days to complete and if you are safe then that's ok. It's simply a list that you can change as you proceed or circumstances allow.

Some women must just run out of the door with nothing but the clothes on their back and work from there. They make a list of things to get done after getting away from the danger. That's really exiting with no safety net.

Other's can work quietly in the background preparing for their exit - up to a point and then make the next step. They build the best safety net they can and hope to land on their feet.

And still others can stay in the home until all legalities are finalised because they are not in any danger. They create a rock solid place to land. But even then things go wrong but make provision for that too.

Or it's a variation of any of those. But eventually they all walk out of the relationship deliberately.

I know you are crying out for help irl and nobody is running towards you to pull you out.

When I think of DV I often wonder what makes women stay or even return to violent marriages. I think one aspect is because of the familiarity with the partner. The cycle, even of violence is predictable, whereas facing up to every day where things are really extremely random is unnerving and destabilising.

But the longer a woman can get out and stay out the less random and destabilising life becomes. It's probably akin to breaking a really bad habit.

So, back to the list.... What do you think are the first steps to making it out unscathed physically?
 
I have no support right now, and can't even put into words what I am feeling, just that its like reaching out and not being able to grab on to anything. I feel a desperate need for a sense of security. Something familiar something reliable

Have felt the same way. Really scary. But we are here. Please post frequently.
 
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It has been a struggle to reply to certain posts. I want to, but I haven't had the mental energy. My immune system is in f*ck you mode, and kidney stones on top of that. The pain meds in the hospital didn't do much besides make me feel sick.
 
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