I have been with my partner for 9 years, and I’m afraid I can’t do it any longer.

When we met, I was 17 and he was 22. During the first three years of dating we lived separately, and he was the best thing that happened to me. I was not the happiest person back then. I was lonely, I considered myself ugly, I had problems with my studies, and my parents were divorcing, so I was always on edge. In these circumstances, my partner seemed an angel from the heavens. He was there for me, he took me out, and we’d drive for hours or just sit in his car and talk… Really my best memories.

We married three years later, and I moved in with him. By that time I dropped out of college and started working at the supermarket. That’s when I found out that dating and living together are two different worlds. My husband is a nice person, and he’d help any time I asked. But I had to ask all the time! He’d lived alone for a long time before we met, and his habits were horrible, the worst cliches about men apply. He couldn’t cook, he never did proper shopping other than ordering pizzas, his whole flat was always a mess, and he was comfortable in it. I had to enforce basic hygiene rituals. At first I forced him to help me around the house, but it was really tiresome to always command “do this” and “do that”. I hoped he’d act like a grownup, but he never tried. I soon realized he wasn’t mean or overly selfish. He was just being himself, it didn’t come to his mind to help we with the groceries, to wash the dishes, to learn to boil eggs… His attitude was “you can do it if you need it, but I’m OK without”. I was patient, and angry, but most of all I got tired. After a year of working five days a week, I decided to continue my education, and between my job, my studies and home I had no free time at all. I felt I was living with a child-adult who couldn’t help me, because he couldn’t even take proper care of himself. My romantic feelings slowly evaporated, and so did our sexual life.

I wanted to go away many times. But something always stopped me. My husband is very kind and funny, he is my true best friend. I trust him, other women do not exist for him. We click emotionally and have common interests. Both my parents like him – they don’t communicate with each other, but they both communicate with my husband more often than with me (mainly because I’m always busy)! All the women I know divorced their men because they were cheating, or aggressive, or for some other unpleasant reason. Can I divorce my husband because he turned out to be a child?

I know that I’m not happy, but I dread the unknown future and throwing away nine years of my life. I love my husband as a person, but I don’t love him as my partner.

I recently started therapy, the issue is that my mom and dad both know I am a trans girl, they got me therapy for dysorphia and apparently besides that I was also diagnosed with ptsd, makes sense, they are my adoptive parents anyways, they are actually my uncle and auntie, but they won’t let me dress like a girl or have makeup or anything cuz of “how I would impact my two infant siblings” ( one is 5 and the other is 3 years old). Just the other night I had a panic attack (* mind you I’m 14) because my mom looked through my Spotify and found an EXPLICiT songs (* mainly feminine rap abt like transphobic men and stuff) and she told me she was setting MORE restrictions! So I flipped out and started scratching myself, then my mom tried making me call the 988 hotline, (* which I’ve called so many times for attempted suicides) anyways I flipped out when she told my dad in the other room, I jumped up when he called me into his room telling me how he was going to kill my dog in front of me, and if I liked blood and hurting myself, he’d make me bleed so much I’d regret it *( by slapping me I guess idek). So i started just standing there while my mother pulled me away into the living room while my dad followed, he started calling me a bitch and saying I was selfish and ungrateful and yadadayda I kinda zoned out and started hyperventilating my mom was holding me down sitting on the coach, I was so scared cuz my dad is fucking HuGE. Anyways I thought I GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE…. So jumped up while he’s cali g me slurs and stuff, but he grabs me and wraps his huge ass hairy arms around my neck choking me “ to restrain me” at this point I got tired and remembered many other incidents like this weren’t great, so instead of trying to run out of the house, I was set on using the kitchen knife to kill myself. After all I can’t start HRT cuz I’m only 14 in NM, and my therapist just wants to make plans and I can’t tell her anything cuz of some lease or something where they share my personal details with my parents. While this dude is choking me my siblings come out and are like (DEADNAME! ) stop hurting him! Yadadada and then I start clawing my dads arms cuz I can’t breathe ( it’s funny I still have my bruised ass sore neck) so I just give in hoping he kills me himself until my mom is like “TalK (DEADNAME) talk speak!” ( even tho it’s her dam fault in the first place) so he keeps saying he’s gonna kill my mom or beat her up or something idek, if I hurt myself ever again, but yea I’m getting worse by the minute and I can’t tell my therapist shit… wtf do I do? Mind you I’m not allowed to talk to my friends about this stuff, and my counselors and stuff are dumbasses and don’t even care. HELP

Well, I feel ripped growing between me and my boyfriend of 10 years. He wants to move to North Carolina with his parents because they’re moving there to be closer to his sister who lives there, but I don’t know if I want to live there because I’ll be really far away from my family, and I don’t want that. I want us to find a place that’s an equal distance between both of our families but every time I give him an idea, he seems to shoot it down. He never seems to wanna listen to how I’m feeling. I love him and I know that he loves me and he would never hurt me but lately I feel like he has been getting way too stubborn , going on and on about money and stuff but he never looks at any place with me . I told him that I want to live on my own for a bit first since I live with my parents right now that way I can get an idea of what it’s like to live on my own, but he doesn’t think I can do it because of my emotional state since I have a lot of mental health issues But I know I can do it. I wish I could find a way to get him to listen but I don’t know how. My mom and dad keeps saying that I need to put my foot down and tell him what my plan is. Which is to find a better job that will allow me to work from home and get my own place to see what it’s like and if I want to live in North Carolina or not, but the thing is we’ve been living long distance since he lives in Pennsylvania and I live in New Jersey for the past 10 years and I don’t know what else to do. I feel like I’m at such a loss

Lately, I've been feeling off. Sometimes I notice changes in my behavior—I'll feel different, like I'm not myself. I experience bouts of depression, stress, fatigue, and disinterest in things that used to excite me. It's like a mix of negative emotions swirling around inside me. I've become more emotionally fragile too; even small things can set me off, making me cry easily.

At home, it's tough. My parents constantly put me down, telling me I'm worthless, the worst person ever, and comparing me to everyone else. They expect perfection in everything I do, but no matter how much they criticize and pressure me, I seem to do worse than before. It's like a never-ending cycle of abuse. I hear more than ten insults (mostly abuses)every single day, and it's become almost normal for me to endure this verbal on slaught. But lately, even the slightest hint of criticism or yelling makes me break down in tears.

My emotions are all over the place. I struggle to feel love and happiness most of the time. My days are filled with sadness, frustration, intense anger, tears, and moments where I just feel numb. It's like I'm stuck in this whirlwind of negativity, and I don't know how to break free. I've tried everything to cope with what's going on, really. I've read up on how to reprogram my mind, tried to change my thinking patterns, but nothing seems to stick. It's like life keeps throwing insults at me, non-stop. Sometimes, I get so angry that I end up pushing away even the people who care about me. I just isolate myself and avoid talking to anyone.

Getting out of this negative cycle feels impossible. Even though my long-distance boyfriend loves me and tries his best to take care of me, I'm starting to doubt my own feelings for him. It's like my emotions are all over the place, and I don't know what to do.

Every day brings its own set of crazy situations. Whenever someone hears the full story of what I go through with my parents, they just shake their heads and say my parents must be mentally ill or something. I try to keep my distance from them, but it doesn't seem to help. Sometimes, I wish I could just sleep forever or go deaf so I wouldn't have to hear their voices anymore. I'm getting more and more irritated, and I can't stand the sound of their voices.

Being human, we're greatly influenced by our environment. It's like they say, if you're surrounded by animals, you might start acting like one too. For me, it's like living in a world of constant negativity and abuse. My self-esteem is at an all-time low, and I have little to no confidence in myself. I get really anxious around other people, and social situations make me extremely uncomfortable.

To make things even harder, I've been stuck at home for the past six years with no chance to travel or experience anything new. My life revolves around enduring these abuses, going to school, and then back home, day in and day out. It feels like there's no escape from this cycle of negativity.