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Note from Dr Matt: I do NOT recommend reading all of what follows — just read the highlighted words to get the jist of the Story in which this woman is Stuck. After this long explanation (which I have edited down substantially), I give a short answer with an important and applicable point. We can learn from those who get Stuck in their Stories, like the lady who tells this tangled tale: Hello Dr Matt, Mostly at about 6 to 8 week intervals, she will email or leave voicemail messages declaring her undying love and that she wants to return to look after him. He usually doesn’t respond at all and if he does its in a cold manner. She now has British nationality. Since our re-meet we have been on a couple of holidays together and had some nice times, lots of laughter, good conversation and fun time’s, we get on well for the most part but there are certain things I do not like which make me suspicious of his character. Another reason I think this about him is his mother is aging and has him at her beck and call so he can’t really go off on the boat he recently bought and when I was there visiting last she had care workers ringing him all the time for him to go over or to do various things for her. I spent a lot of time on my own at his house or wandering about town on my own which was quite boring. I live in Belgium and he lives in the UK so I can just as well do that here. He mailed me a couple of days ago and said he hoped his situation with his mum wouldn’t stop us being together but he’d understand perfectly if I decided to delay my next trip over till things were settled with his mum, so I said that’s a good idea I won’t come over as planned but will come later. Then he mailed saying he was disappointed and for me to let him know when I could go over so he could work to that time. I told him I didn’t have a time so to let me know when things were settled and to take his time and do things in his own way so he didn’t have regrets about his mum later on. Then he mailed me saying if I were to ask him to put me above his mother he would and would be as grateful for that as he was for my understanding. To me this came over as manipulative and I told him so and that I wouldn’t suggest that as I’d find myself manipulative and I’m neither a manipulator or enabler and that he’s already entangled in one situation . . . so why ask for more of the same. By that I meant he asks to be manipulated by his wife and when I think about it the same is happening with his mother. Or he was reserving the school holidays to take his daughter and grandkids on trips. The funny thing is I don’t want to go on trips with him and his family so why he’d not be straight forward baffles me. I did go on a holiday abroad with him and his kids and grand kids and the only thing we didn’t do was to go to Feurta Ventura together which is the only thing we agreed to do before I went on holliday with them. We were going to go off on our own and do things and that didn’t happen either so I would not bother again. It was the same with the house he recently bought, he asked which house I liked then chose the one he and his daughter liked, which was the only one I would have never chosen. He had his son deliver her things to her in November, 3 years after she left and to this day still sleeps in their marital bed in his new house. She used to send him birthday presents which may still happen and he wears whatever she sends, he was unable to reciprocate as she didn’t give him her addres till he wanted to send her things to him. Then there was the fact that he told me he was getting a divorce from her and would not be in contact for much longer, that was in 2007. In 2008 when he went to see her that had changed to getting a divorce in 2 years time and the contact being of little significance yet the next day he mailed to say how nice it was to have seen her and she mailed that he could then phone her again, which he didn’t do. Then by the august he told me that he would always be in contact with her. This "moving the goal posts and not doing what he says but doing the opposite" quite often means I can’t trust him so I have a sort of half affair with casual sex, with a married man, who I can’t trust because he doesn’t do what he says and because I think is manipulative and who enables his wife and mother to manipulate him and wants me to manipulate him as well. Related Article: Justifying: A Tell-Tale Sign of Betrayal
Dear Audrey: You ask: "What does this say about me?" By the length and complexity of your story, and the fact that you HAVE a story that you yearn to tell, I know you are inwardly conflicted. Both the Story and the Inner Conflict are tell-tale signs that you . . . are not living true to your own sense of Truth. To put it bluntly: You are lying to yourself. As for the choice to have sex with a married man, your sprawling story and your inner conflict tell the truth about this choice — they expose the lie you are living. People who live true to their inner Truth, do NOT have, and do NOT tell, this kind of complex and sprawling story. Here are excerpts from my book that will help you discern between an “honest” story versus an “anxious” story — the latter being a twisted tale that people tell when they are NOT being true to their own sense of Truth. Curiously, you already know part of the Truth about this situation: You write "he just wants an accesory to his life." You need to read what I wrote to a woman who suspected she was just being "used for sex." If your man is Manipulative . . . then you are Manipulate-Able. If your man is Using You, then You are being . . . Use-Able. Blaming others for your miserable life does not make your life better: Only when you own all the thoughts, words, and deeds that come out of you — own Response-Ability — can you change your life, and make it better. Sincerely, Matt Moody, Ph.D. * * * * * * * The Journey For this is the Journey that men make: The Greatest Prize The book, "Changing Your Stripes" presents principles for getting out of "Mastering a challenging situation "Changing Your Stripes," teaches you the principles that lead to lasting change, If these principles resonate and ring true,
Changing Your Stripes is a |
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