Dear Neil: I left our house because my husband of 14 years did not want me there, and he was treating me very badly. He now treats me like an outcast, like I have done a great wrong, and has a great deal of anger toward me. In the past year, I discovered he was […]
Too Close for Comfort
Dear Neil: The two year relationship I had with my girlfriend ended a few months ago. While at college, we were best friends and lovers. But after graduation, she decided to move back to her home town. It was then she began withdrawing emotionally and cutting herself off from me. She held all of her […]
Breaking Up Requires Effective Closure
Dear Neil: I was in a two year relationship with a fifty year old man who asked me to marry him. But Bob had both second thoughts and anxiety attacks, and eventually he ended the relationship saying: “I don’t want to talk anymore, and I don’t have to tell you why I don’t want to […]
Rejection Can Be Hard to Deal With
Rejectors and Rejectees Have Different Dynamics Dear Neil: On meeting my ex-partner eight months after our short but intense relationship ended, I found that although I had worked through the cycle of shock and bitterness, she was still mired in anger and insult. I was given no explanation at the time of our break up […]
Woman Puzzled by Men Not Calling Back
“I’m 39, attractive, nice body—I’m told—friendly, helpful, yet when I find someone and we go out, the night ends with the usual line, ‘I’ll call you,’ and they never do,” writes an anonymous woman from Denver. “Then I rehash the night’s events in my mind: was I overbearing, too independent, etc. I have a good […]
When Your Relationship Fails
The following questions, gleaned from Daphne Rose Kingma’s book Coming Apart (Fawcett Crest Publications) are designed to assist you in gaining greater awareness of why your relationship failed. These exercises are designed for you, not for you to send to your ex-partner. On paper, tell the story of how your relationship began. Where did you meet, what […]