Hi everyone, my name is Gary. I’ve finally hit rock bottom in my marriage. I’ve been with my current partner for almost 10 years (and married since Dec 2023). I have a son that lives full time with my ex-wife, and (currently) live with my wife and step-daughter. For the last handful years I have been overtly struggling with self confidence (admittedly struggling internally for my whole life), which ultimately lead my wife to tell me she wanted a divorce (on our 1 year anniversary). She loves me but is not in love with me. We’ve been trying to work through things to repair our relationship but I keep sabotaging things with defensiveness. She’s mentioned it in the past, but I’ve just come to terms with the fact that I am a covert narcissist. I also struggle with alcohol consumption (spending almost every night for the past 25 years avoiding my troubles with drinks). Last night she told me that it’s officially over. I am committed to trying to heal myself, and hope that someday I can rekindle a relationship with my wife. Joining this community is my first step toward recovery.

Hello Men, I am Marcus. Been a stay at home dad for over 4 years till start of this year. Been wonderful not having my 2 girls have to do any daycare. That has become my life. Beautiful, yet isolated. Moved away from family and friends when we had our fist kiddo. This was during covid. During covid I deconstructed Christianity, being an entrepreneur in the USA, and many other fundamental ideals... this put me in such uncharted area... wife was supportive, and even valued me being home so kids had the life we provided. July last year she woke me up crying saying she couldn't do it alone anymore and needed a partner... (that confused me... I thought we built a strong love and many ways we were good partners) so I stepped in thing she had complained or snapped about when she was overstemulated. Well come February she got a limerance on a guy and decided to separate while she decided if she wanted to divorce or not. As of right now she has been best friends with this guy and they finally went on a date this week. Also since February while starting a new carrier working full time, I've been the one home with girls every night, she is rarely here. So I've been carrying the home alone since February. Partially cause I see her burn out and been protecting that... When she told me about the date. I did let her know I'm still standing, that doesn't change it for me. She has autonomy, so I'm respecting that. We even talked about our spiritual journey. Both are alittle lost there, and both of us are seeking. She is leaning towards divorce heavy still and talks about how we can be this beautiful blended family. My heart, and my spiritual leading has been leaning heavy into reconsideration... I am willing to let go... but haven't gotten enough spiritual confirmation... just seems the confirmation I've gotten is God will bring her back... Since February on top of navigation of a new job, being best dad I can for girls (both special needs and youngest medically fragile requiring 24 hour monitoring and ability to give rescue meds for drug resistant seizures) and personal growth and the household. It's been rough... hit burn out often.

In one of the training videos (I forget which one because I binged watched them all,) Mark recommended this book Better Man, Better Marriage. The Audible app had a free trial offer so I signed up and picked this book for my free audio book for the month. It’s damn good and a must read/listen. One perk of my job is I get to put on headphones and listen to podcasts/ audio books all day as I install/sand floors so it’s easy for me to kill two birds with one stone and consume content. Give this a listen if your looking for help on how to be a better husband if/when we win our wives back