# Angry, depressed, unhappy and I want out...I think



## black dog

Background: Married 12 years. One 6 year old girl. First marriage for both of us. We both we married late in life (we are early to mid 40s now)
Things were good (not never great) for the first 6 years or so. I was, unfortunatley a drug abuser though most of that - which for the most part I successful kept hidden from my wife somehow) When she got pregnant I got a brain and kicked the drug habit. I thought my life would get better after I kicked but it didn't really. A little clearer perhaps but I'm thinking that might not be such a good thing now.

We have been talking about seperating for a few years now. I seem to suffer from crushing depression which I've been on meds on and off for 5 years now - nothing really seemed to work. Except for one thing...which I will detail now.

Please no-one lambast me for this because I do know how horrible this is. I have had several affairs (with women) in the past 5 years. Two were long term (not at the same time) and I was deeply in love with them. When they ended I was heart broken. Which is a special type of hell since you have no one to lean on in your heart break since the affairs are all so secretive and friends/family would be (quite rightly) disgusted with me. I know I have dug my own grave here.

The time between the two major affairs, I tried to put things right with my wife but problems always existed. I'm concerned that they will never be right and I have of course complicated things with these wretched affairs. She did NOT deserve this from me. With all her faults, she has been faithful and I have not. Both of the women I had affairs with I could see myself being with them in a LTR. It was not just for the sex.

After our daughter was born was when the troubles began. Somehow everything came together. My quitting drugs and my daughters birth. Something inside me changed. I am no longer in love with my wife and I'm not even sure that I like her particularly much at times. She changed too - bossy, stressed, not interested in sex, resentful, angry, whiney. This is not a happy home at all.

We have talked about me moving out - which will be difficult, financially and morally (like I have any morals it appears). 6 months ago my depressed and frustration ended with me being in the hospital treated for abuse of anti-depressents and jsut general being "messed up". She was supportive of me during but nothing has really changed.

If I stay I worry that i will cheat again. Apparently (and i didn't really know this before) I seem to have some kind of animal magnitism for women and they seem available and willing...where were they when I was single??? Of course when I was single I was high all the time, and now that I'm straight, I'm an engaging person. Whatever...

She wants me to stay if I become the person I used to be when on drugs - I was happy, carefree, calm, relaxed. Unfortunely I was also unambitious, overweight and lived in a fog most of the time. I must have be a genius in order to maintain a house and job etc in the altered state I was in 24/7.

The ironic thing is, I have a big heart, I am a genuinely nice person. I don't fit the profile of a cheater at all. I jsut didn't see this in me one little bit. I come from a stable middle class religious family. I am a decent person - which is why none of this makes sense.

I don't know what my question is. I am wretchely unhappy at home. Still heart broken over my previous affair ending (I was incredibly happy during it - ironically and in a twisted way, it actually improved my homelife) 

I'm worried that I'm throwing away something but I jsut know I'm not happy here but I fear I wont be happy there either...
I'm afraid of guilt, loneliness, poverty, not seeing my daughter (who I dearly love).

Please no lectures about unsafe sex - my wife and I haven't had sex in over 5 years and it was all safe sex with the affairs - they were not skanks at all. Single women even - so they wren't "burning" their husbands.

I also don't have many friends I can talk to. I find it easier to talk to women about this but after a spell, they just want to sleep with me...

God I'm a wreck...


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## draconis

SInce you have beaten yourself up enough I will not go into most of your post other then to say this.

Drugs ~ Stay away from them now that you are clean. Your daughter deserves this. Find other things that make you happy instead of masking the truth.

Affairs ~ If you put the same energy into your wife maybe she will return the love and the sex will follow. Maybe she guessed at it or worse knew and never said anything.

You will always have people here willing to talk to you. It might not always be right away or what you want to hear. We mean only the best.

My question for you is do you want out of the marriage, see if you can fix it, or want to save it?

draconis


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## SoOverWhelmed

Hello, my question to you is, if you were so in love with the other women, why do you reaaaaaly want to be married to your wife? 

Is it because of shame? You say that if you get a divorce, you'll be lonely, you seem to have a lot of faith in these affairs; so it doesn't seem that you will be lonely. I feel so sorry for your wife and daughter because they don't deserve your selfish behavior. Your wife has a right to be bossy and so on...doesn't she??? The person that she has been loyal and faithful to has mistreated her by having multiple affairs, been emotionally abusive, lying and God only knows what else. 

Ask yourself, could you give your wife all the respect, faithfullness, devotion and loyalty that she has given you under these same circumstances? Most often, the men would have been gone a long time ago.


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## donquix

Hi,

I'm going through something similar and I think I understand what you're going through.

First of all I don't agree with Draconis at tall when he says "If you put the same energy into your wife maybe she will return the love and the sex will follow". I just doesn't work that way at all. You can't choose who you fall in love with, and if you somehow force yourself to love someone you're not being true to yourself or that person.

I think you should leave. Dont mess her head with the affair stuff, just say you don't feel comfortable in the relationship and try to be as honest as possible about everything else. If you tell her you cheated, then that's the only thing she'll see and you bust the opportunity of a "positive" break-up.

You've obviously given this a lot of thought, and if by now you didn't realise this is the one you wanna spend the rest of your life with, then she probably isn't. I think you're just scared of the consequences of a break-up.


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## martino

Well affairs aside and your former drug habit aside, and depression aside, and your "animal magnetism" aside.....Do you want to make it work and become faithful or not. Are you still in love or not?


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## martino

Draconis is right on. Affairs take work, if he is still in love and channeled all that energy toward her, things would be much clearer and normal.


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## confused*unsure

Honey, you aren't happy with her. She liked you on drugs! That doesn't sound like a happy relationship at all. Question is, do you open up completely and see if she will accept all of this about you and want/try to move forward with you, or do you just move on. Either way, you owe her the truth.


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## lifeistooshort

donquix said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm going through something similar and I think I understand what you're going through.
> 
> First of all I don't agree with Draconis at tall when he says "If you put the same energy into your wife maybe she will return the love and the sex will follow". I just doesn't work that way at all. You can't choose who you fall in love with, and if you somehow force yourself to love someone you're not being true to yourself or that person.
> 
> I think you should leave. Dont mess her head with the affair stuff, just say you don't feel comfortable in the relationship and try to be as honest as possible about everything else. If you tell her you cheated, then that's the only thing she'll see and you bust the opportunity of a "positive" break-up.
> 
> You've obviously given this a lot of thought, and if by now you didn't realise this is the one you wanna spend the rest of your life with, then she probably isn't. I think you're just scared of the consequences of a break-up.



What a load of crap. You most certainly DO choose to put yourself in situations that are inappropriate, then the "falling in love" thing happens. I quote that because it's fantasy land. He'd be doing his wife a big favor to leave, let his affair partners deal with his train wrecks and see if they still want him. OP, tell your wife everything and let her decide for herself if she still wants you; right now she doesn't know you.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## mablenc

Why 5 years without sex? I think thats one of the main problems.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## mineforever

Drugs ....affairs.....depression....sounds to me like your trying to make yourself happy? You know happiness really isn't found in what you can do for yourself its in what you can give to others. Drugs and affairs are quick fixes/highs that allow you to avoid dealing with what ever the real issue is that you don't want to face. So what is the issue you don't want to deal with...it goes way back....the drug use was it looks like the beginning if not prior to the marriage.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Jane_Doe

I don't think you ever quite kicked that drug habit - sounds like you just changed your previous drug-of-choice to a habit of 'falling in love with' women and abusing anti-depressants.

Your affairs seem to be giving you a high that has replaced the high from the drugs you used to take. I suggest serious counselling for addiction, to see if you can get to the bottom of the drugs/women thing and work on yourself for a while.


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