New to Polyamory, Uncertain, and Jealous.

SimpleSimian

New member
I'm 22. I'm married. No kids. I'm male.

So my SO and I met in our martial arts classes. We knew each other casually for a couple months before we started going out. We were really attracted to one another and it was blindingly obvious, so it was only a matter of time.

21 March 2009 - we started dating

June/July 2009 - I moved in with her

10 August 2009 - We got married

The whole relationship moved at light-speed, compared to what I was used to, but I really don't regret anything. I am happier than I have been in what I can remember of my life.

I married her knowing she was polyamorous, but not really *knowing* what it meant, and never expecting it to come up. For me, marriage is a huge deal. I didn't want to get married at first because of how huge a deal it was to me. I eased into the idea, we had a quiet, small marriage, and we've had a great life with one another, adjusting to one another, growing, learning, evolving, being in love, being best friends, dreaming about and loosely planning our future together.

We grow together, and we start seriously building our lives. After a bout with unemployment, the two of us manage to find pretty decent jobs. She's going to school part-time (moving to full-time), and working in a kitchen, and I'm working full-time as tech support at the company I used to work for before. Together we make enough that we can afford to take our next step: moving into the city together in a new, bigger, better apartment.

While she's in school, she's shy. After much encouraging to start making friends, she slowly becomes comfortable with the idea, and she starts making new friends at school. One of these friends is a great guy who is in her kitchen classes with her. He shares a sense of humour and everything with her, and the two of them get along great. She talks about him all the time.

I meet him. He's really cool. I'm glad she has such cool friends.

Slowly, I start to realise she's in love with him. Even more slowly, I start to realise he loves her too.

He has a girlfriend (she's nice, I'm sure, but I don't get to see the nice side, only the results of fights between her and her boyfriend). They're stuck in a lease together. It seems to me like she's controlling; if she thinks he might be hanging out with my wife, even if I'm there, too, she's jealous as fuck, gets pissed off, and sometimes drops class at her school to make him stay with her instead of going out with his friends. From what I understand, they don't exactly have a stellar home life, either. I'm sure their situation reflects my situation very strongly, and I'm sure she's just stuck in a similar situation to me and unsure of what to do about it. And maybe less willing to change to allow it to continue instead of trying to stop it.

So anyway, my wife meets this really great guy and they fall in love and they're great friends. I have friends like that too. Only one or two to that extent, where I really do love them romantically, but I have them. I'm very happy for her, actually. I'm so glad she has friends who she cares about THAT much, to which point she is able to fall in love with them. It makes me so happy to see them together.

But it also makes me jealous.

Back to the story: so after several things I won't post here (they're private, and in my previous incarnation of this post, they were here, but they are irrelevant to this situation, so I got rid of them), I ended up broaching the topic to my wife. She didn't even realise she loved him, because we're crazy and blissfully ignorant and dense like that. Seeing her come to terms with loving him is kinda cute, because she's all head-over-heels with him and stuff, and it makes me feel good to see her like that, even if it's not about me.

But getting in the way of the joy I feel for her is my jealousy. First I was afraid she would end up leaving me for him. That is, after all, how my last long-term relationship ended. My ex left me for another man after becoming his friend and watching it grow into more than just friendship. As a result, I have serious trust issues. My wife may tell me a million times that she won't leave me, and I might start to believe it. As I have. But that doesn't help me not feel insecure about this.

The feelings I have are so distracting that I almost killed myself yesterday on the way home from work because I ran a red light. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't even see the physical traffic light. Not just the colour, but the whole thing was gone.

She and I already talked about my fears of her leaving me, and gradually, they faded. Now I'm jealous that she has sexual feelings that she seems to want to go to any end to express.

I understand loving somebody and having sexual feelings for them. I have a close friend like that, too. But I could/would never ever actually go through with it. I can't. It's like it's contrary to my very nature. Instead, I take those sexual feelings, detach the emotion from them, and kind of re-route them back into my core sexuality. I don't really know what else goes on inside my head with them, but that's the basics of it. I detach it and turn it around to be put to good use in something legitimate and ok with me.

So right now, we don't really know if this guy my wife loves is bisexual or polyamorous. I can't deal with that. Not knowing is killing me. The possibility that my wife would still have a relationship with this guy, but have to keep it separate from me is not ok with me. I wouldn't do the same thing. I asked my wife if she would be okay with me having a relationship with another woman who was not polyamorous and who was not bisexual, and she said no. So if she's not okay with it, why should I be?

Question: am I justified in expecting her to behave like I would in this situation? If he turns out to be 100% heterosexual and not polyamorous, is it ok for me to be upset? I don't want my wife having a second relationship, I want her to bring this all together into one big relationship.

I am at the point where I would do anything to get this resolved. I want to arrange a meeting and talk things out, the three of us, and come to a resolution of sorts. It really doesn't help that he went out-of-state this weekend to visit his hometown, besides the fact that his girlfriend wouldn't have let him go out anyway.

So I've accepted that my wife is polyamorous. I think I'm coming to terms with it, and I think I can be okay with it, so long as I'm involved. I don't think I will be able to stay sane in this relationship if this continues like this, especially not if it ends up being a second relationship thing, rather than a three-party relationship. If he's not bisexual, or at least polyamorous, I don't think I can be just the guy my wife comes home to. I want her body and her mind, but I know I can't have those, even though I do my best to give her mine. I wrap myself up in her and focus on her and keep my sexuality pointed at pleasing her (and therefore pleasing myself), but if she's going to split herself, then I'm only getting half of her. And this other guy might be getting a bigger half. And I'm not ok with that. I'm so jealous.

I'm not okay with being jealous. I want to be open to it all and just let it happen. I want to relax and just be happy. I need help.

I married a kitchen people. Apparently this kind of shit (kitchen affairs) is really common. Working in close quarters with a person has a way of creating tons of sexual tension, and instead of just holding on to it and bringing it home to their husbands/wives/boyfriends/girlfriends and unleashing it in a hot, sweaty night of brilliant mind-blowing sex, they unleash it on one another, in the kitchen, in a hot, sweaty night of brilliant mind-blowing sex, and then go home to their normal lives, living a second life in the kitchen, and not sharing their whole self with the person they love at home.

I need help.

So simple facts to break this down:
I love my wife.
My wife loves me.
My wife also loves another guy.
My wife wants to share her sexuality with another guy.
I want to be understanding and open, but I'm finding it very difficult.

Questions:
What can I do to be okay with this? I just want to let go and be ok.
What other questions should I be asking? I need help, I typed out everything once already, and then the post got deleted before it even got posted due to an error in my browser. I'm so drained at this point from unleashing my soul on the internet, that I don't even remember what I need to ask anymore. Please just help. I'm desperate to make the woman I love happy, but I'd prefer not at the expense of my sanity.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

SimpleSimian

P.S. - I told my wife about this post and where to find it, in the interest of being 100% open with her. She's ok with me posting about this, but afraid that people will judge her negatively. As far as I know, I have already talked about all of this with her, but at times, both she and I tend to accidentally tune things out when we can't deal with them anymore, so some of the details might have been missed. Since you'll be reading this: I love you.
 
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P.P.S. - I need to clarify something. I don't necessarily expect this guy to love me, or for me to love him, but I'm not okay with the idea that she might one day choose to spend time with him instead of with me. She says she won't, but again, my trust issues are telling me otherwise, and the fact is that the future will change, and she may feel differently in the future than she does now. I think the most hurtful thing that cold happen would be for her to be in love with this guy, and in a romantic relaitonship with him, and make a choice to spend the night with him instead of with me, or something similar. That would utterly crush me. After reading this post and talking to me about it, my wife made sure to ask me if I portrayed that situation correctly. She is right. I painted it wrong. To the community: please accept this correction instead of the original

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I have problems expressing my true feelings without having somebody to bounce ideas off of. Another reason why I love my wife so much, she helps me understand myself by making sure I'm really saying what I mean.

Also, I might point out that she never spends time with any of her friends to the exclusion of me. If I'm available, she and I either go together, or not at all. This, as far as I am aware, is by her decision, and not by any pressure I put on her. I certainly hope that's how it is, because I would feel like a dick if I was making her do that. Even though this is true now, that doesn't mean it won't change in the future, and that uncertainty is part of what's nagging at me. Fear of The Unknown. Fear of The Uncertain. Fear of being hurt because I have trust issues that throw up red flags at things that should be small.

I just don't want to feel like I'm holding her back from openly loving this guy and spending as much time with him as is appropriate and she is comfortable with. Even though she may not want to spend time with him when I'm available, I will still feel like I should have done something to be not-available so she can enjoy her time with him.

Sorry for the double-post, but I hit the character limit.

Also, I came here because I have no friends or family who would at all understand this, afaik, and therefore, the only person I can talk to about it is my wife, and she already has enough on her plate dealing with her emotions. I don't want to overburden her with mine.

Also, I really don't like the idea that having relationship troubles with one of us can affect the other one, and that having sex with one of us could impact her drive to have sex with the other. I really am interested in sharing her with him, because he's a great guy and I trust him not to hurt her on purpose, but I feel like I'm competing with him, because that's what society and my biology tells me.

I've been really feeling spring hitting pretty seriously. I feel the need to be combative, I feel a huge leap in my sex drive and territoriality, and I feel the need, almost literally, to butt heads with other men. I need to fight. I need to defend my territory.

But what I *need* for those reasons and what I *want* for other reasons are incompatible. I just want to be able to relax and be happy and ride on this energy with her. And once the NRE fades, I just want to be okay with the whole thing. And I might even someday be okay with not having to feel like the primary all the time, but I really want to feel like I'm the primary right now. Dunno why, I just do. I don't want to feel like he's distracting from me or taking energy from her that should be reserved for me. I'm selfish, yes, but I married her. She's my wife for a reason, because I want to focus on her and spend time with her for the rest of my life, and I don't want to feel like I'm not getting the same in return.

I can see this wreaking total havoc on our relationship, and that's why I'm so afraid and why I want to make it go the f**k away and leave me in peace. And I'm afraid that if this relationship with her friend doesn't work out, then another one will happen and it will just happen all over again. Or maybe even worse, that she'll have me and her friend from school, and fall in love with another man (or woman), and it will get even more complicated. I'm so irrational, but this is what I need help dealing with.
 
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Whew. You're smart and perceptive, but you're really into a complicated emotional situation.

If I understand correctly, you're hoping to build a poly marriage in which both you and your wife can be secure and have outside relationships.

I suspect strong confidence in yourself as a man and husband is essential, and also strong confidence that your wife is completely committed to your relationship as her first priority.

It's good that you feel her happiness from the new relationship energy. But jealousy might be a sign that you are uneasy about it underneath. And the combative, competitive stuff is probably difficult to reconcile with poly? The poly husband I know is very smart, very competent and accomplished, but also extremely gentle and generous. He's the only model I have for a poly husband, and as he and his wife are strikingly successful at stability and happiness I tend to think they've found a viable attitude and outlook.

Might a strong and seasoned sense of mutual confidence be hard to achieve in a relatively new marriage? If so....

  • How do you manage your primary relationship in order to make both of you feel, at the basic human emotional level, that your love for each other is indestructible?
  • How do you each establish with your outside partners that they are never to imagine that they could move in on the marriage and break it up?
  • How do you structure your time and responsibilities in a conscious, aware way to make the situation viable long-term?
  • What can you do, personally, to strengthen your ability to cope psychologically with the inevitable ups and downs of changing secondary relationships, and with the consequent tidal pull on your primary relationship?

I dunno any of the answers, incidentally. But you might find them. I think you're really starting out at a smart, conscious level already.

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Edit: You wrote, "I really want to feel like I'm the primary right now." I think, personally, that as the husband you can reasonably expect to be the primary all the time. Again, the model I know of is explicitly and completely based on an unshakable primary relationship. In a sense, us outside partners are in a position in which it's in our best interest to contribute to the strength of the primary relationship: I date L and adore her, but without D's support she would not be a woman with whom I could expect to have an ongoing relationship. (For instance, our lifestyle needs are very different...) So: you ARE the primary, bud. IMHO, you don't have to expect to give that up.
 
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EugenePoet,

Thank you for the reply and the kind, welcoming attitude.

First and foremost, I must say this: I tend to be gentle. Overly-so, in fact. So gentle that only now, after a year of being together, has my wife gotten me comfortable with the idea of being even remotely dominant in the bedroom. So gentle that I am almost never the first one to initiate anything in a relationship, for fear of coming off as overly-aggressive, rough, manly, impulsive, unstable, pushy, needy, or an asshole.

I was raised by a woman who claims to be a feminist, but seems to be a little bit more on the manhater side of things. Or maybe that's just how I absorbed it and I completely misinterpreted my feminist upbrining. This might explain some of my misconceptions about life, in general; but it definitely explains my timid nature.

So in any case, yeah, I'm not used to feeling combative. This is unusual and new for me. I think it might even be unrelated to this problem in particular, and just a mating season kind of thing. Or (gods forbid) maybe this is my prime and it's all downhill from here. :p

Confidence is something we are working on building, and there's plenty of time before this relationship with her friend will have any opportunity to go anywhere, anyway, so I have time to become accustomed to my varied jealousies and find solutions to them and/or uproot them entirely. For this I am very thankful.

I might also mention that I've only been "dealing with it" for a couple of weeks. This is a relatively new development in life, as I mistakenly expected it never to come up.

I must further clarify, though, that I do not intend to begin another relationship. I've never been able to properly manage one, let alone two. How exhausted that would make me, I cannot even begin to tell you.

I've been spending most of my workday doing research on this topic, since I'm the only one in the office right now, and the phones have been next to dead. Thank the gods for small favours. I needed today (though I would have preferred to spend it home with my wife, talking through this stuff in-person as it comes up).

I think one part of this for me is that I have invited my wife to talk openly about how she feels in this situation, and though she has taken me up on a few small opportunities to make individual comments, any longer serious discussion or requests from her end have yet to happen. I hope it's just because she doesn't feel the need to and/or that she's handling them fine by herself right now, and not because she doesn't feel she can be truly open with me about them. More underlying jealousy and trust issues there; I feel awkward when there's radio silence, even when it's normal. I feel like I have done something to make her not trust me. Knowing myself and my haphazard habits of accidentally hurting people's feelings without realising it, that's a definite possibility.

So to your questions:

How do we manage our primary relationship...?
I don't know if I can answer that. That's a pretty big question. I don't know how we manage it, but I definitely felt like our relationship was pretty indestructible before this situation began stirring. I think the only remaining issues have to do with me overcoming my jealousy and just believing and trusting in our relationship and its solidity. That, and making sure she imparts the knowledge that a secondary relationship is never to break up the primary, unless she and I ever hit that crossroads (which I don't expect we ever will. We worked too hard to build this and grow to give up now, or ever).

I kind-of already touched the second question in that first answer. I don't really know, but I think that one's largely up to her. I will certainly discuss it with her, though. I'd be happy to lose the concept of primary/secondary, because what I've read of them, it is largely either destructive, or it leads to short-term secondaries, neither of which is desirable to me.

How do we structure our time and responsibilities...?
I think we will definitely have to work that out. For now, there's an understanding that she only spends time with a secondary when I'm not available. I will have to work to make sure that if I'm available by surprise I manage not to interrupt her previously-allocated time with the secondary, and also to feel okay with being alone for that time.

What can I do, personally, to strengthen...?
I am not really sure if I can handle an on-again-off-again thing, but I'm sure that once I become comfortable with one, subsequent relationships should be easier to handle, and I'm sure that I'll eventually reach a point where it's altogether okay and I can just be happy.

Thank you for your helpful commentary and the questions you gave me. I will definitely be using these as talking points next time my wife and I have a serious discussion about polyamory and her relationship with her friend from school.

Best Regards,

SimpleSimian
 
You're welcome...

Those questions, and others, may be things you think about for years. It's a process, I think.

The couple I'm involved with have been poly for about a decade, and we're all in our "mature" years, ie over 50. Still, despite long and solid experience L is having trouble understanding how D's current girlfriend fits into the relationship -- she feels that the GF doesn't really want to acknowledge that L is the wife and always will be.

So in a sense L and D are still facing things they have to work out.

And even with these very stable, thoughtful, and generous partners I had considerable emotional whipsawing in the first few months. It's to be expected! Very deep and primitive drives come into play.

I think poly is aesthetically and ethically beautiful, but as many people on the forum write over and over, it isn't necessarily easy. (But neither is monogamy.)
 
Hi SimpleSimian,
In poly, people are free to negotiate what ever rules and guidelines that they want. It is pretty typical for the person who is least easy with poly to want to make a bunch of restrictions and rules to protect themselves. This is natural and perfectly understandable. Sometimes one or both partners have veto power over potential lovers.

But if your wife loves this other man and the set of rules and restrictions that you place effectively mean that she can't see him (or can almost never see him), then she will resent these rules, as surely as if you simply insisted she becomes mono. If she really loves this guy, and you want to do the poly thing, I think you will have to make time for them to be together.

You want the Other Significant Other (OSO) to be a source of joy in your relationship with your wife, and not a breeding ground for resentment.

It is true that there is a chance that she may decide the OSO is the guy for her and leave you. There is also a chance that if you put too many restrictions on their relationship she will get frustrated and angry and develop a real reason to want to leave you.

One advantage of poly relationships is that they are stronger because they better meet the needs of the parties involved. My wife is LESS likely to want to drop me for greener pastures because she can have me AND the greener pastures.

A lot of threads in the 'new to poly' category discuss these issues. I suggest you read a bunch of them to gain a bit more perspective.

Best of luck to you and your growing poly family.
Warm regards, Rick.
 
Hey Rick...?

Speaking as the wife in this picture, and as someone intimately aware of what was said here (for obvious reasons), I feel like you glossed over a lot of what my husband had to say. Most of it, actually. I feel like you saw the words 'uncertain' and 'jealous' and responded from there.
For example...

the set of rules and restrictions that you place effectively mean that she can't see him (or can almost never see him)
Considering that my husband said the following...
It makes me so happy to see them together.
I just don't want to feel like I'm holding her back from openly loving this guy and spending as much time with him as is appropriate and she is comfortable with.
I feel like it was kind of an unfair statement (almost like an accusation) to make. He's never made any "rules." We've talked about what we're comfortable with, and shared our thoughts and feelings, but he never tried to regulate me in the least. In fact...he ALSO said...
First and foremost, I must say this: I tend to be gentle. Overly-so, in fact. So gentle that only now, after a year of being together, has my wife gotten me comfortable with the idea of being even remotely dominant in the bedroom. So gentle that I am almost never the first one to initiate anything in a relationship, for fear of coming off as overly-aggressive, rough, manly, impulsive, unstable, pushy, needy, or an asshole.
I would think it'd be clear that he isn't the type to make demands, unreasonable or otherwise.

Furthermore, I find the statement (again, close to an accusation) suggesting he read more also perturbing. I mean, all details (
I've been spending most of my workday doing research on this topic
) aside, he used the term 'NRE' in his very first post (okay, TECHNICALLY second...damn character limits...). That implies that he actually DOES know what he's talking about, and has worked really long and hard (and continues to do so!) at his personal growth.

I feel like cookie cutter responses like the one you gave, especially ones with a sort of "RTFM n00b" flavor, are unproductive. I know a whole metric ton of words were spewed loose in this post, and you didn't exactly show up with just a brief paragraph to skim, but if you're really interested in helping, please listen to what's being said before you chime in?

And to Eugene...
Thank you. Thank you very much. Your perspective is helpful, both to my husband and myself. You've done a lovely job expressing yourself and a lovely job helping my husband open up and communicate. Thank you again.
 
So since my wife took care of that, I'm not going to.

Instead, I'm going to post an update. I'm sad.

My wife talked to the guy's girlfriend, and the two of them hit it off pretty well and talked about some really big, important things that were driving a wedge into their relationship. They are pretty much the same things that were nagging at me, but I talked about them with my SO, whereas the guy my wife likes did not talk about them with his SO.

They were all due to hang out yesterday and talk about things, as set-up by the guy's girlfriend and my wife, but the guy lied and told my wife he couldn't, and told his girlfriend that my wife said she was busy, when, in fact, they were supposed to be talking things out all afternoon yesterday.

My wife was completely crushed by this, and has lost all faith in her relationship with this guy. And I've lost a lot of faith in it, too (though not as much because I understand where he's coming from -- I just think he's immature for not standing up and addressing problems he knows are there). She is so heartbroken. The air around her feels depressingly dark, and it's really sad. It's as though all her energy and happiness has been drained out of her. She isn't sleeping, and she isn't eating, and she's falling into a huge depression.

Also, to make matters worse, she met another guy who she really hit it off with. Yesterday, during the time in which she and the guy she liked and his girlfriend were all supposed to be hanging out. It's clear he's smitten with her right from the start by how he's willing to go out of his way to make her feel better and how he's willing to drive out from the city to the suburbs tomorrow evening so they can hang out. It's also clear that my wife really likes this new guy and really wants to give him a solid chance. I've okayed this hanging out, because I know my wife needs some space, and I know she's unable to relax appropriately lately at home, though I don't know why. I'm hoping maybe this will take her mind off it some and allow her to chill out a bit. I'm making a huge leap of faith. I'm letting her spend tomorrow evening and night with a guy she barely knows, while I'll be home alone doing nothing and worrying about her. I don't think this is a good idea, and I really don't want to let her do it, I really want to demand that she spend time with me when I'm available, and when I'm not available, she can feel free to spend time with whomever she wants...but this guy's schedule almost exactly mirrors my own, meaning he's only available when I am. And I don't want to invite myself along, because I can sense that my wife really wants to be alone with this guy.

The reservations I have with my intended course of action is that she's smitten with this new guy already. She barely knows him. She's in rebound mode, and I need to help shake her out of it. I don't want her to make a big mistake and start rebounding back and forth with people she barely knows in order to use the NRE to feel better, because I know that's what it's about at this point. She likes to feel like people can fall in love with her, and she can't get that from me, since I'm already in love with her.

So I'm really worried that she's about to start into a destructive cycle that will end up leaving her even more drained than she is now. I'm worried that I need to demand that she not pursue a relationship with this new guy she met yesterday and that she take some time to sort things out and get through her feelings and accept things as they are. I feel like I should demand she and I take time to focus on us and fixing the problems that have come up between the two of us. I feel like this has all gone terribly wrong and there's nothing I can do to stop it, and all I can do is watch in horror.

She promised me she wouldn't fuck on the first date, but since she and I only managed to wait until the second date, I really don't feel good about how this will turn out. I'm really worried about it. I'm almost positive, inside my head and inside my heart, that she will end up either kissing him, giving him head or something, or getting otherwise physically close to him. And I doubt her self control to stop at that, especially right now because of how she's feeling. That, and a previously-stated unwillingness to stop at anything short of full-on sex. She and I jumped straight into it, too, so I know how it works. In fact, most of me is completely positive that she *intends* to fuck on the first date. I don't know if she intends to keep the relationship with this new guy going past that, or as anything more than "love at first sight" (lust), or if she plans to make it a one-night stand. Part of me wants to tell her to take some condoms with, put my number on speed dial (just in case he turns out to be a creepster) and just go have the fucking time of her life with this guy, so she can get it out of her system and come home and fix our relationship that I feel is broken. And I know I can look forward to helping her get through more needless heartbreak, when if I just stop her now, she only has to deal with her current heartbreak, and her discomfort at being held back for a while. Maybe I should just encourage her to have a ponn farr and go on wild fuck-a-thons for a week or two every year, to get it out of her system, and then have her come back and be monogamous or something.

And I don't understand how the two of us process things so differently. She doesn't have jealousy, and feels resentment at me for even being able to feel that particular emotional mix in the first place. She doesn't connect sex with love like I do. I love her and I try my best to show her how much through sex. She tries to communicate her love through words. She discounts the validity of sex as a method of communicating love, and I discount the validity of words as a method of communicating love. To me, talk is cheap, and you can lie so easily. To her, sex is free, and everybody wants it and does it, so how can it be an expression of love? When I have sex with somebody, I need to be in love with them, or it feels empty. Not only that, but it *hurts*. Not physically, but spiritually and emotionally. When I have sex with somebody, I remove all my social masks and emotional and spiritual protections and I'm baring my soul, and I expect my partner to do the same and connect with me through that moment of perfect unison. I don't think she feels that way about sex, and that must be why it's so easy for her to fuck other people, or even want to in the first place. I wonder if that's a common difference between polyamory and monogamy. Maybe. Though I think that's probably overgeneralising.

I am not okay with this. Let's be clear. I'm not at all okay with it. I want it to stop. I want her to stop and to take a LONG time off of polyamory until we're stable enough and she's stable enough to try again. I hope to find a way to convince her that she doesn't need to look outside our relationship for energy, because it's all right here, waiting for her to tap into it, but her depression has blinded her to it. I'm just here to support her, now, I don't think there's much romantic interest, much less any energy left to feel good on.

I'm hoping that today and tomorrow help her chill out and feel good enough that she can start tackling our problems and climbing on top of them and shouting in triumph.

But I really worry about it. I really worry about my wife. I really worry about my relationship. I really worry that she's going to become addicted to NRE, and rather than sorting through her problems and growing, she's just going to boyfriend-hop for the foreseeable future. Like she and I had both done before, and like she was doing when we met one another. I was a rebound relationship. She had just broken up with her previous boyfriend, and our second date happened the next day (I didn't know, because she didn't tell me until long afterward. I didn't know she had a boyfriend when I met her and asked her out. To be honest, that kind of behaviour is something I abhor, but I love her, and I got to keep her, so I let it go and it was no big deal.). Our second date took it all the way. I'm afraid this cycle is about to start again. I am not okay with any of this and I want it to stop. I want to close off all thoughts of polyamory until our relationship is stable and secure enough to handle it, and most of all, until *I'm* stable and secure enough to handle her being with other guys without it bringing up all kinds of jealousy and fear and insecurities and stuff. Really, if our relationship was solid, 90% of my fear and insecurity would go away. But it isn't, quite frankly, and I intend to fix that. The only problem is securing her cooperation and interest, and keeping her focussed, and keeping her depression from putting us at a stand-still.

So does anybody here have a perspective for me on this? Am I incorrect in my judgements? Am I unreasonable in my expectations, wants, and needs? Am I totally overreacting and just need to shut the fuck up and let her do whatever she wants? Am I totally irrational in my belief that happy monogamy is possible, even for polyamorous people? Am I full of shit for believing that we need to focus on us and that our relationship needs to be solid before polyamory can work and not put the relationship through so much stress that it ends up breaking?
 
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I just want to go back to the way things used to be. I want to be monogamous and feel normal for expecting such from my mates, and not feel like I'm suppressing their potential for happiness. This just doesn't feel right to me. It doesn't feel right to not be jealous. I want her to be happy, but if she needs to be with other guys to feel happy, I feel like there's no need for me in this picture, and she can go be happy with those other guys and without me. I'm so crushed, I'm so confused, I'm so depressed, and all I want is for the pair of us to find happiness and stay there. I'm tired of this back-and-forth bullshit.

Also, I think it's kind of unfair for her to be able to fall in love with and fuck other people, when I cannot. She would let me, but I am fundamentally unable to. If I hit it off with somebody, or I find somebody really attractive and am turned on by them, I redirect that energy into my already-existing relationship, because I feel it would be a waste to leave it hanging there, unfulfilled, and it would be a waste to spend that energy on the person I find attractive, when I already have all I need waiting for me at home. She wants us both to start exploring polyamory, but I actually cannot. Why can't the two of us just come to a middle ground and be happy with one another and not need anybody else. I feel really inadequate that I cannot meet her needs that way.

Please help me. I'm so overwhelmed.
 
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Sorry you are going through this. She does sound somewhat addicted to NRE and you definitely do not sound healthy in this. If you really want to be monogamous, feel normal, and that you are not surpressing her, I think you should do what is best for your personal health.

You are young, no kids and have lots of time. Perhaps it is best to find some one more suited to how you love. Immediate short term pain now instead of possible long term, roller coaster of pain in the future? Can you really imagine going through this for the rest of your life with her?

Take care of yourself the same way she is taking car of herself.

Best of luck.
 
@MonoV:

The thing is, while that may be what's best for me in the long-term, I really don't feel like it is. This whole thing is pretty recent, and pretty new, and we got along pretty well for a very long time before this, and we still get along pretty well, just being depressed while getting along.

I really don't want that to be the answer, especially not now, especially not just after we got a brand new apartment together, in the city, and are moving there April 15th. Especially not after she has found a life she can be happy with, for the most part (provided she keeps it free of this kind of drama), friends she can trust, and is doing what she loves. Especially not after I've supported her through all her growth thus far. Especially not because she and I plan on building a spaceship together someday.

There is so much more to lose by leaving her than I could possibly gain. I really think she is the best person in the world for me, and I know I won't be happier with anybody else, I just need to work some things out with her and learn to accept her for who she is, the person I love, instead of trying to change her into somebody else.

I really don't know. Oh boy, is there ever going to be a huge talk about all of this. Big talks have pretty much been the order of the day for the last week. Until yesterday, when big talks became too tiring to go through, and so they happen in pieces instead of all at once. And I feel I should make it clear that I'm the one starting the big talks. This isn't a nagging wife sort of thing. It's me deciding I have too many conflicting emotions and thoughts and am perceiving too many problems with the way things work, and that I need to talk about them, or else I'll just sit there, building a huge depression, becoming irrationally angry at work when on the phone with customers, and all sorts of other things I would like to avoid. I'm talking so I can avoid further problems. I'm attacking what I see as the cause of particular emotions and trying to root them out so they can fade away, and I wish she would introspect like me and do the same, so we can both heal. But I need to do it for her, because she is tired of having feelings and spends most of her time dissociated or trying to dissociate so she doesn't have to deal with the overwhelming soul-crushing pain.

I think maybe after some reorganising and after we get settled in our new place and get a new, better schedule going, maybe we can figure things out and make this work. I really do appreciate your advice, and I do feel it. I agree with your ideas, as they are what I would tell anyone else in my situation as well...but I just can't leave her. We got married for a reason. And she promised me I would never have to go through a divorce, which was the one thing keeping me from marrying her -- the fear that I would end up just like everybody else who gets married: divorced. I wanted to avoid marriage altogether, but to be honest, the benefits are great enough that combined with the promise of never getting divorced, I feel pretty secure. I know she won't leave me for other guys, but she might leave me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and that's what I'm afraid of. She might still come home to me on occasion, but I'm afraid she'll grow away from needing me and find her happiness amongst the shared admiration of several other men and women, and no longer need me for the purpose of anything other than physical stability.

I am so full of fear. I would make a horrible Jedi trainee.
 
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I'm afraid she'll grow away from needing me and find her happiness amongst the shared admiration of several other men and women, and no longer need me for the purpose of anything other than physical stability.

I am so full of fear. I would make a horrible Jedi trainee.

You sound committed to making this work :)That is admirable and an indication of the love you have for her. Just stay healthy my friend. And please make sure your fear above does not become your reality. I can't imagine anyone being happy or developing good self esteem when they feel ( or are actually being treated) simply like a safe, comfortable, steady place to return to for a partner to use a safety net for ongoing adventures. The concept makes me a little ill actually although I'm sure that it is fine for many.
 
Not gonna lie, the concept is making me ill, too. I've been ill for a couple weeks over it. Every day, I sit at my desk at work, unable to connect to my wife and talk through stuff with her, and I feel sick. And I work. And I just keep going because I know eventually we'll hit something big and something good will happen and we'll get to feel good. We hit that a week ago, where we both felt at ease and comfortable and good. This was during her spring break. Then, the stress of yesterday tore everything up again. I spent all of yesterday nursing a ten-and-a-half-page angry letter about how I was feeling, and spent all that time trying to figure out how to change what I was saying and feeling into nice things and into "I" language. And it worked. And I felt better, until I saw how chummy she's getting with this new guy already. Then it started all over again.

I hope she's willing to talk to me about all of this tomorrow while I'm at work, because she has the day off, and her only plans tomorrow are with this new guy, and only tentative, and only even close to reality because I let her.

She was all like "oh crap, but his schedule matches yours. That means he's only available when you are." And I told her to go anyway. She thanked me. I feel kind of manipulated, but I don't think she was consciously manipulating me, so I'll forgive it. But I really don't know how to handle it. Maybe I should just put the brakes on all the way and be like "No. Not right now. Now, we need to talk, we need to heal, and we need to be stable and comfortable and okay for at least a couple of months before we consider any of this shit, or before you even start trying to set up any other relationships."

On the contrary, part of me just wants to fuck it and let it go to the winds. I am actually considering telling her to take some condoms with and fuck his brains out. I think it would be easier and far less painful just to do it than to fight it like this. And maybe the outcome would be good. Maybe she wouldn't feel fulfilled and decide to take it slow. Maybe she'd love it, get the need out of her system, and be able to focus on healing. Or maybe she'll love it, and do it again and again, and maybe I'd keep just letting her and let her spend the night away and then I'll spend all my time alone so I don't have to deal with it.

The only real problem for me is that I pretty much killed my social life around the time when I married her, partially because of time obligations, and partly because I needed to focus on her and help her overcome some problems she was facing early on in our relationship. Now I have no place to go but to her or her friends, and that whole situation is filled with nothing but painful reminders of my social life past, and of her exploration into territories I cannot follow her into. So I have no choice but to either spend all my time with her and/or her friends, or to spend all my time alone. For now. I'll make new friends, and I'll rekindle old friendships, and I'll be okay enough that I could get by spending time away from her to allow her to spend time with her friends and spend time fucking other guys/girls. Maybe I'd even become comfortable with it. Maybe I'd even encourage it. Maybe I'd even do it myself. I don't know. Always in motion is the future.

Maybe I'll tell her to fuck him and to make it a one-night stand, just to get it out of her system. Tell her to fuck him all she wants for the rest of the week, and then cut off all communication after that. I think that might insult her, though. I'm fucked if I know what to do or say. I just wish I could let go, find somebody else, have her find somebody else, and have a nice poly double v going on. Or a four-way. I dunno. Whatever the case, I just don't know. I just want her to be happy, and I want to be happy, and I'm tired of this bullshit drama.
 
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Wow man, this is brutal. I'm at work and can't give you an adequate response and honestly this type of situation blinds my logic and makes me respond emotionally which is never productive :eek:
Hopefully others will jump in with better advice....it will certainly be different than mine I can guarantee you that LOL! I just talked to Redpepper about this and she has a much more balanced approach with broader ideas to figure things out.

Stay healthy my friend...I can't stress that enough.

Take care and I'll check in later.
 
Thank you. I'm sorry if I put you off. Under any other circumstances, I keep my cool really well, but I've been avoiding problems and my wife has been avoiding problems for so long that they're finally catching up to us. That, and we're still coming off our winter depression. We both suffer from some degree of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Combine that with her being ordered off birth control for three months by her doctors (and now she's finally going back on it), and you've got one hell of an emotional roller coaster, propelled by unbalanced chemicals and shitty circumstances, built on a foundation that has been left slightly in disrepair.

Also, once I get started, I tend to ramble.

Your willingness to listen and your intelligent, concise replies have been more than helpful. I'm still panicked, to be honest, but the sick feeling is ebbing a little bit.

Thank you.
 
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No worries my friend. I get triggered sometimes and just have to step back. Instead of using my words this time I'll try something different. I sent you a friend request so you can take a look at my chosen family. There is a lot of happiness that can be found in the world of non-monogamy and pictures say it best a lot of times.

Now I seriously need to do some work :)
 
Understood wholeheartedly.

And I should also be working, but apparently nobody's computers are broken this morning, so I guess I get somewhat of a break. Which is good, because now I'm relaxed enough to handle the calls appropriately.

I accepted your request, and I looked at your photos of your chosen family. The dynamic is not clear, but the fact that you're all smiling naturally and looking generally at-peace is reassuring and provides me with hope that maybe I can do this if my wife can be patient enough with my learning curve and my rebellious moments.

But, quite frankly, if she wants this for real, she will be patient, or she won't get what she wants the way she says she wants it.
 
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I hope she's willing to talk to me about all of this tomorrow while I'm at work, because she has the day off, and her only plans tomorrow are with this new guy, and only tentative, and only even close to reality because I let her.

Maybe one of the things that needs to happen is a set schedule. So you know. The thing I hate most (in life, not just relationships) is just not knowing...If something is set and scheduled, I feel better...

She was all like "oh crap, but his schedule matches yours. That means he's only available when you are." And I told her to go anyway. She thanked me. I feel kind of manipulated, but I don't think she was consciously manipulating me, so I'll forgive it. But I really don't know how to handle it. Maybe I should just put the brakes on all the way and be like "No. Not right now. Now, we need to talk, we need to heal, and we need to be stable and comfortable and okay for at least a couple of months before we consider any of this shit, or before you even start trying to set up any other relationships."

ok my take (and I haven't read the whole thread) is that you guys really need to sit down together and figure out what is going to happen moving forward. Discuss what you want, what she wants and hopefully find something you can work with. If you are mono, and want a mono relationship and she isn't. Then you really need to figure stuff out.

Everything reads as really chaotic and tumultuous. I think you two need to bring things down a few decibels if you get my meaning.

On the contrary, part of me just wants to fuck it and let it go to the winds. I am actually considering telling her to take some condoms with and fuck his brains out. I think it would be easier and far less painful just to do it than to fight it like this. And maybe the outcome would be good. Maybe she wouldn't feel fulfilled and decide to take it slow. Maybe she'd love it, get the need out of her system, and be able to focus on healing. Or maybe she'll love it, and do it again and again, and maybe I'd keep just letting her and let her spend the night away and then I'll spend all my time alone so I don't have to deal with it.

Playing with fire here. Physical connections can really, especially in NRE, throw things into a tailspin. I still say you need to take a few days and talk. Read literature and figure out exactly what you both want. If you don't have that clearly decided then everything will continue to be confusing and painful.

The only real problem for me is that I pretty much killed my social life around the time when I married her, partially because of time obligations, and partly because I needed to focus on her and help her overcome some problems she was facing early on in our relationship. Now I have no place to go but to her or her friends, and that whole situation is filled with nothing but painful reminders of my social life past, and of her exploration into territories I cannot follow her into. So I have no choice but to either spend all my time with her and/or her friends, or to spend all my time alone. For now. I'll make new friends, and I'll rekindle old friendships, and I'll be okay enough that I could get by spending time away from her to allow her to spend time with her friends and spend time fucking other guys/girls. Maybe I'd even become comfortable with it. Maybe I'd even encourage it. Maybe I'd even do it myself. I don't know. Always in motion is the future.

All I can say to this is, shitty. I did this with my first wife and vowed never to do it again. Your friends are there to help you, if you are married and there are health problems, for example, they should be there to prop you up while you are helping your wife.

In fact I am...working with my wife on this. I was her first serious relationship and she relies on me exclusively for good friendship. She really needs to have a strong base of friends around her, I truly believe in friends. I don't run around grabbing people and making friends, but I do believe in friendship.

My only...warning to you rekindling old friendships is how they may react to your situation. When you first rekindle you will be inclined to talk about stuff. Unless your friends are aware of how open relationships work you may not have a support crew in the direction you want (obviously depends on the direction)...

Maybe I'll tell her to fuck him and to make it a one-night stand, just to get it out of her system. Tell her to fuck him all she wants for the rest of the week, and then cut off all communication after that. I think that might insult her, though. I'm fucked if I know what to do or say. I just wish I could let go, find somebody else, have her find somebody else, and have a nice poly double v going on. Or a four-way. I dunno. Whatever the case, I just don't know. I just want her to be happy, and I want to be happy, and I'm tired of this bullshit drama.

Fire...Fire...Fire...

if you partially give her what she wants and then you cut her off, who is she going to resent?...talk first...then decide what you both want, then move forward with whatever you figure out.

Oh and as for finding a poly rebound for your emotions...and trust me, I wanted to find a new third to rebound from my ex...badly...I am glad I didn't. Imagine another set of emotions coming into your relationship muddling the already muddy waters. Wow...all I can think of is explosive. KISS...

Good luck :)
 
Sorry you are going through this. She does sound somewhat addicted to NRE and you definitely do not sound healthy in this. If you really want to be monogamous, feel normal, and that you are not surpressing her, I think you should do what is best for your personal health.

You are young, no kids and have lots of time. Perhaps it is best to find some one more suited to how you love. Immediate short term pain now instead of possible long term, roller coaster of pain in the future? Can you really imagine going through this for the rest of your life with her?

Take care of yourself the same way she is taking car of herself.

Best of luck.


I have been feeling the same way. I agree that you need to do what is best for you. Reading your post was like reading something I could have wrote myself.

HUGS HUGS HUGS

I wish I knew what to say but I am right where you are!
 
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