My empathies: that happened to me about 6 years ago (though thankfully without as much visible vacillation).
My sister, who had some Cognitive Behaviour Therapy training, reminded me that relationships are forming and breaking all the time, and given I wasn’t unattractive and hadn’t retreated into monastic seclusion, it wasn’t rational to think I’d be alone for the rest of my life (she turned out to be right). That was helpful at the times when my feelings hadn’t completely got the better of me. I suppose we can be haunted by stuff that is real.
Thank you. I’ve been struggling with that haunting myself. I think part of the problem is that when you’re in a relationship long enough, you wind up with a term in your utility function for that person. And even if you know you could wind up with someone objectively better, better suited, the outcome doesn’t seem like good news to your mind. A job for self-modification, I suppose, even if it’s the slow, manual kind.
My empathies: that happened to me about 6 years ago (though thankfully without as much visible vacillation).
My sister, who had some Cognitive Behaviour Therapy training, reminded me that relationships are forming and breaking all the time, and given I wasn’t unattractive and hadn’t retreated into monastic seclusion, it wasn’t rational to think I’d be alone for the rest of my life (she turned out to be right). That was helpful at the times when my feelings hadn’t completely got the better of me. I suppose we can be haunted by stuff that is real.
Thank you. I’ve been struggling with that haunting myself. I think part of the problem is that when you’re in a relationship long enough, you wind up with a term in your utility function for that person. And even if you know you could wind up with someone objectively better, better suited, the outcome doesn’t seem like good news to your mind. A job for self-modification, I suppose, even if it’s the slow, manual kind.
Very glad to hear she was right =)