I know the way I grew up is affecting how I handle relationships as an adult.
Growing up, I constantly watched my parents argue. There was never physical abuse, but there was a lot of verbal conflict, criticism, and communication problems. I also never really saw them show affection toward each other. My dad wasn’t absent, but he left for work around 7 a.m. and often didn’t come home until 10 p.m. because he owned a business, so in many ways he felt emotionally unavailable. I also fight a lot with my dad like a lot he never understood me.
Now I’m almost 31 years old, and I’ve never had a boyfriend. The closest I’ve had are situationships. Usually things seem to be going well, I get attached, and then the guy disappears, ghosts me, or pulls away. When that happens, I have a very hard time moving on. If I dated someone for two months, I might spend four months thinking about them afterward.
The most recent example is a guy I dated for about a month. After things seemed to be going well, he stopped reaching out. It’s been about three weeks now. We’ve had some communication, but only because I initiated it, and his responses are very minimal. He’s clearly not meeting my emotional needs, yet I still find myself attached and thinking about him constantly.
I feel like I become very clingy and emotionally invested, and I don’t know if that comes from my childhood experiences or something else. I genuinely want a healthy relationship with someone who wants to be with me and is excited about building something together.
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