Good to have a little special support space here...
engagewithlove posted "this is exactly my issue. As soon as he walked out on me after 22 yrs I instinctively knew that there was something wrong with him.. but as time goes by the voices in my head start to doubt and question whether this is really MLC or if he really is just happier in his new life. I have to keep reminding of myself of how this has all gone down, that he really has followed the MLC script, and that he is not acting like a normal adult. "
I am often very grateful that I have been saved from some of the in your face crazy stuff I've read about here. I am sometimes a bit envious of the glimmers of connection that I read about too.
I do think that with a vanisher/distant contacter, it is much easier to doubt it is MLC and easier for other people to see it as a 'normal' situation where someone has just run off to make a happier life in a new relationship. It isn't normal healthy adult behaviour, that's true, but there are lots of reasons why people behave badly. So, do I know it's MLC? To be honest, I can't...I think so because of the scale of change from the person I knew, how long the crazy has run on and some of his self-destructive behaviour in his own life that has no link to me. But do I know for sure? No. I guess the only way to know will be looking back in a few year's time and/or if he reappears to talk about it in a way which fits the pattern. But right now, I can't know for sure.
What can I know? I know this isn't normal - not for who my H was or for normal healthy people. I know that it isn't about me because nothing I did made any difference. I know it wasn't about our marriage because there was nothing big or bad enough to warrant this kind of crazy. I know he's left me, my marriage is dead and I'm pretty sure he's never coming back so I can only move forward on my own with no answers. I know he doesn't want to talk to me, explain or show any interest or concern about me, even if I don't know why. I know that, right or wrong, healthy or not, he thinks is best for him and his life...and he's ok enough with the collateral damage to me and anyone else to keep doing it. And he does have the right to shape his own life, even if I don't like it, agree with how he's done it or feel frustrated by how much it has affected me. I have no idea if he is happy or not, feels guilty or not, loves me or not, has regrets or not. But his actions look like someone who does not want to be with me and does not care about my wellbeing at all, and with silence, I can only go by his actions.
So where does that leave me? With a husband who ran away from me and his life for unknown reasons. A mystery story. A dead marriage. A lost husband. On my own dealing with the rubble. Protecting myself from someone who does not care about my needs and is a risk to my wellbeing while I have any link to him. Moving forward from here regardless. Free to make my own choices about what I think happened, why, how I feel about it/him/the past and how I let that shape my future. Feeling a bit hurt, lonely, humiliated, resentful and bewildered still. Accepting what I can't know. Expecting to never see him again. Open-minded that time will tell and I may someday know things I can't know now. Sad. Missing my beloved H sometimes but not sure if that H still exists or how to reconcile old H and this H. Divorced. Still here. Battered but not broken. And it took me two sloooow years to get here!
T: 18 M: 12 (at BD) No kids.
H diagnosed with severe depression Oct 15. BD May 16. OW since April 16, maybe earlier. Silent vanisher mostly.
Divorced April 18. XH married ow 6 weeks later.
"Option A is not available so I need to kick the s**t out of Option B" Sheryl Sandberg