2025-06-03 – Health – www.theguardian.com
I told her we’d have to be in a relationship to be lovers again. So we got back together – and two weeks later she ditched me
My last relationship felt like the best sexual relationship I’d ever had. After my marriage ended, exploring intimacy with a new partner with a well-matched libido felt liberating and life-affirming. After a brief split last summer, she reappeared and said she wanted to have sex again but not to resume as a couple. I declined, explaining that intimacy worked for me only in the context of a relationship. She then said she wanted to get back together, so our relationship briefly resumed.
Two weeks later she said she wanted out again, leaving me feeling I had been duped and manipulated. The destruction of trust has eroded much of the confidence I had gained. I have found it impossible to consider starting a new relationship. How do I move on from this feeling and untangle the damage?
Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in…