HopeGrows wrote:
OP, for the love of God, talk to your therapist about this. You are self-handicapping the hell out of yourself, and I hope you'll stop before you destroy this relationship.
Here's the deal: you were raised in a dysfunctional family, where abuse went hand-in-hand with caretaking. Your parents taught you that there is no love without pain. When your bf provides love without pain, it doesn't feel "authentic" to you - it doesn't feel real or right. You've been through a string of abusive relationships where your parents' original message of love and pain was reinforced. You keep expecting this guy to follow the same path, and when he doesn't, the dissonance created doesn't go unnoticed by your conscious or subconscious, and anxiety starts to build. You want to relieve the anxiety, and you turn to the dysfunctional methods of relieving stress and anxiety that you were taught as a child: fight, yell, scream....causing the storm to find the calm after.
Oh, and yes, you also don't believe you deserve happiness, a functional relationship, a nice guy, security, blah, blah, blah, because you were taught that you weren't worth that as a child. Good news: this is exactly the kind of stuff your therapist can help you with - and she will not judge you, or think that you're stupid. If she's a decent therapist, she already knows that you need to address this issue, and will be eager to help you with it. Go forth and heal, OP - you'll be glad you did.
Brilliant post. I wholeheartedly agree.
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...at play amidst the Strangeness and Charm.