I don’t even know what to do besides throw up!! 19 years poof and im not even sure why. I don’t have money for a lawyer but i don’t want to just roll over and sign anything. PA has a one year separation law so I figured I could do that but once he sees im being difficult and just not signing he will probably cut me off financially too. Ugh I’m sad, i’m sick I’m pissed
One thing that helps is to take some control back. You don't want this, I totally understand. I thought the longer I could postpone anything legal, the better chance that with time he would "come to his senses" but that was not to be.
I learned to separate the business from the emotional aspects of the end of our marriage. The legal separation divided our assets and gave me a few years of financial support and that was really important to have.
The day I signed the papers and put them in the mail, I thought I was ok...later that night I started having chest pain...eventually I went to ER, responded to nitro and they kept me in overnight to monitor and did a stress test. Thankfully, it was a panic attack that caused the chest pain so I understand the physiology of your feeling that you want to throw up...indeed I used to gag a lot and have that feeling.
It is unfortunate that you cannot afford a lawyer, because this is really important, to get this right could impact the rest of your life.
Even though I had a lawyer, I had two friends on Hero's Spouse that went through the document with me, sentence by sentence, to make sure that I had not missed anything, to make sure I understood what the legal document entailed. I was embarrassed to share it with anyone, felt this was my personal stuff and how could I share it with "strangers"? but I am very glad I did.
Most of us here have gone through the legal stuff and we can share things that you should be aware of...you are not alone.
You are very early in this time of crisis...his crisis sends us into our own crisis. In order to function, I needed to get out of the fight/flight/freeze response that my body was in. Therapy helped, exercise and yoga helped, journalling helped and I had a prescription for clonezapam, an antianxiety medication that I took when I could not stop shaking, could not calm down.
There are many triggers...example, I'd see a car drive down my street, the same make and color as his and would think it was him...just one small example of how skewed we become in our thoughts.
Minute by minute, breath by breath...I also had an 2 friends who I was able to talk to anytime...they would listen over and over again to my cries.....I will never forget how important they were to me.