u/Zesty-lucuma4

After a year and a half of being with him, and following several incidents of anger and violence on his end, I decided to break up with him for good. At first, I was scared to do it, I was afraid I’d regret it because there’s always a voice in my head telling me that I’m the one overreacting. Until the day he became physically violent with me. I told myself that a line had been crossed and that I didn’t want to wait for things to get even worse. I broke things off a week ago, and since then he’s been trying to get me back by making grand declarations of love. I know it’s manipulation because I never got those declarations of love when everything was going well. Right now, I’m feeling sad but mostly ok, but I’m afraid the negative emotions will catch up with me and make me forget everything I’ve been through, and that I’ll start missing him. For those of you who’ve made it through this, what helped you avoid falling back into the cycle ?

I have some long-time friends and some newer ones. All women. But no matter with who, I almost always seem to be the one who suggests getting together. I find it really draining to almost always be the one reaching out and making plans to see them. I recently went through a toxic and abusive relationship, and my two closest friends knew about it, but neither of them ask me how I’m doing. Is this normal? Or am I just expecting too much? Friendships like this make me feel very lonely, and when I’m in a relationship, I tend to throw myself entirely into those relationships, since I feel like I can’t count on my friends. Now that I’m single and everyone else is in a relationship, the loneliness feels even heavier. I’m certainly not the only one going through this. How do you handle it? Do you have any tips for distancing yourself a little without cutting yourself off emotionally entirely?