Message Boards

Topic : Communication

Number of Replies: 2339
New Messages This Week: 0
Last Reply On:
Created on : Friday, July 01, 2005, 05:06:47 pm
Author : dataimport
Good communication between partners can make or break a relationship. Share your tips and stories.

As of January, 2009, this message board will become "Read Only" and will be closed to further posting. Please join the NEW Dr. Phil Community to continue your discussions, personalize your message board experience, start a blog and meet new friends.

User Mood
Happy

Message Emote
anxious
September 23, 2006, 7:55 pm PDT

*Update*

Quote From: skwirl

Hi Amanda! It's really weird that she is his x of 4 yrs and is still contacting him. Are you absolutely 100% sure he hasn't seen her since then? And that  there is no possible way that she may actually be pregnant with his child? Because if this were true, then it all kinda makes sense. If not, then you just need to ignore her. You say she won't leave you alone, how is she contacting you guys? If she is calling him, then how did she get his # after 4 yrs? If he is talking to her then he needs to just stop all contact. As far as the myspace, how in the hell did she find out his password? I'm sorry to say this, but it seems to me that your boyfriend might not be telling you everything, but  that's just what I get from your post, you really didn't give a whole lot of information. I could be very wrong here, but something seems a little fishy to me.

i didnt put all it on there but he moved away from where we were living and i moved away too we are going to get our own place in a month and she hasnt contacted him in a long time...about her being pregnant she said that she doesnt want the baby and that she was gonna get an abortion and when he told her he would give her the money for it she wouldnt go and oh yeah  she is trying to spread a rumor about me being pregnant and she doesnt even know me we have never met she cant contact him because he wont tell her where he is!

 
User Mood
Happy

Message Emote
blank
September 24, 2006, 2:13 pm PDT

Suggestions

Quote From: snoopy67

  I am 38 and have been living with my boyfriend of nearly 5 years for the last 2.

 

From when I was 20 I had a long adulterous affair with a much older (14 yrs.) married man, it lasted initially for 8 years. He was a colleague and it was one of those classic stories where he promised me the world, love and alot of naughty sex, etc. (he said he would leave his wife and children to have a good life with me) but gave me nothing but emotional development problems and severe heartache.

 

The affair itself was somewhat interrupted  when I met another single man my age and we started a long-distance relationship for some time. I still continued to see my married lover as we were work colleagues, and we still would meet for our sexual pleasures.

 

Nearly 5 years ago I met my current boyfriend, we had met several years previous, but it was only physical. I always admired him though, he was a star athlete, and when we met again I became more infatuated.

 

We didn't immediately become too close but we saw each other and were intimate on some occasions during the first year of our relationship. I did want to consider HIM my boyfriend after some years though.

 

I did not tell my boyfriend anything about my married lover at work until just recently but I watered it down and told him it all ended completely in 1996, and that we almost never saw each other anymore.

 

The real truth was indeed another story. I did not admit that I was still seeking attention and feelings from my married lover while we have been together. I did NOT even admit that we still worked in the same building and that I was meeting alone with him whenever possible. I did not HAVE to have ANY contact, but I wanted to as he never made me feel rejected and he always wanted me near him as much as I did.

 

I DID admit that in the first three years of our relationship I was getting rides both to and from work alone in a car with my lover, and that we often had lunch and dinner in between work and when work finished. This admission came after the fact that I got caught.

 

However, the contact with my lover DID get less, but never totally ended. He happened to be transferred to another department just after my boyfriend moved in with me, and from that time we stayed in touch over the phone, but also met for lunch, in his new office, after work and office parties whenever we it could safely arranged.

 

He was present at a Christmas party last year, and I DID flirt with him when he arrived, I took his telephone and kept it from him and then looked through his telephone to see who he was keeping in touch with. I told my boyfriend I wanted to be picked up early but then I broke this agreement and stayed behind at the party with my lover. I do not remember much of what happened, so I told my boyfriend that I was with one of my best friends the whole night (thinking she would cover for me as usual). Then lied about everything when my boyfriend asked me some questions after arriving home quite late, looking very guilty, drunk, out of breath and very red in my face. My boyfriend happened to ask one of my best friends if we had fun at the christmas party, and he was told that she did not see much of me at all. I want to forget everything about that night.

 

My nightmare of lies and betrayal was revealed when my lover called me on my cell phone one afternoon in late May after I sent him several text messages during the course of that same day. I was at home with my boyfriend and when I saw his number and decided to answered the phone anyway. We talked about some different topics and then this turned in to a HUGE argument for almost one hour, with my boyfriend listenening. As my boyfriend knows me pretty well, he said I have NEVER heard you argued with anyone like that ever before. I was then asked who I had been arguing with on the phone. I lied, then continued lying for some time thereafter until I was pressured to confessed who it really was.

 

After this was then revealed, I continued lying about the exent of the contact with my lover. I did not tell my boyfriend any truth until some weeks later. By that time he had already confronted my lover in his office and was told by my lover much more than I ever dared to tell him about my past behavior, thoughts and feelings.

 

NOW my boyfriend will not believe anything I say about my past. He is convinced there has been more sexual contact with my lover and others beyond what I have already explained. He is convinced I have had more feelings for my lover and other men than him during our entire relationship and will not even believe that I have also cared for HIM the last 5 years.

 

The past 4 months have been a complete nightmare. My boyfriend has been furious, frustrated, shocked and totally devestated. It did not help my cause when I used my lover's name in bed recently either!

 

I called my lover on speaker phone to have a 'private conversation' with my boyfriend listening. He confirmed in those "private" telephone conversations that our last sexual contact dates were at least 3 years apart and he was very scared and nervous to discuss any of our sexual histroy whatsoever. He told my boyfriend that Nov. 2004 was the last sexual encounter between us while I had already admitted to my boyfriend that it was in 1996, then changed my story to March 2002 just recently. My lover also stated that the last time we have been intimate was in his car and this is not (my apartment) what I had already told my boyfriend.

 

I want my boyfriend to both believe in me, to love and trust me again!!

 

I desperately need this nightmare to end .... any suggestions?

 

I NEED SOME STRONG EXPERT ADVICE ... PLEASE!!!

You are right- you do need expert advice, that is for sure! After all of these extensive lies, it is understandable that your boyfriend would not believe much of what you say. He is feeling duped, and can you blame him?
Since your boyfriend refuses to believe anything that you say now, I wonder why is he choosing to stay living with you? There needs to be a decision made by one of you, to either make a whole hearted attempt to forgive and reconcile, or, to break up. To live with each other and have this constant tension and distrust is not good for either one of you. Yes, you lied, and what you’ve done was wrong, but nothing that you do to try to make things better will matter an ounce if your boyfriend doesn’t want to forgive or believe you.
At this point, it would be wise of you to ask him what is it that he wants? Does he want to be with you, to try to learn to forgive and mend the relationship? You need to know. If you feel that you have done too much damage and he will never believe in you again, then you need to be the bigger person and leave. It hurts, but living like this hurts, too, doesn’t it?
 
User Mood
Scared

Message Emote
blank
September 25, 2006, 1:26 am PDT

I do not know what to do next?!

Quote From: jaimie1974

You are right- you do need expert advice, that is for sure! After all of these extensive lies, it is understandable that your boyfriend would not believe much of what you say. He is feeling duped, and can you blame him?
Since your boyfriend refuses to believe anything that you say now, I wonder why is he choosing to stay living with you? There needs to be a decision made by one of you, to either make a whole hearted attempt to forgive and reconcile, or, to break up. To live with each other and have this constant tension and distrust is not good for either one of you. Yes, you lied, and what youve done was wrong, but nothing that you do to try to make things better will matter an ounce if your boyfriend doesnt want to forgive or believe you.
At this point, it would be wise of you to ask him what is it that he wants? Does he want to be with you, to try to learn to forgive and mend the relationship? You need to know. If you feel that you have done too much damage and he will never believe in you again, then you need to be the bigger person and leave. It hurts, but living like this hurts, too, doesnt it?

My boyfriend has been asking and questioning me and my motives for the past 4 months (after this was exposed) to have an explaination to exactly what I was doing and WHY I continued to seek out and meet with with my lover alone and WHY I chose to not give our relationship a chance to develop and grow. I have not been at all honest nor open with my boyfriend regarding my married lover and I have never taken on any responsibility or accountability for my feelings and behavior with my lover or my boyfriend. I do not want to hurt him anymore than I already have

 

Here is what I have been saying these past months:

 

1) I do NOT know why I was seeking out and meeting with my lover

2) It meant absolutely nothing to me

 

However, my boyfriend does NOT believe me as I have basically refused to answer or discuss any of his questions concerning my married lover.

 

Any advise? 

 
User Mood
Mellow

Message Emote
blank
September 25, 2006, 5:13 am PDT

Differences

Let us take a moment to appreciate the beauty of woman. In her non-plasticized state, she is a nurturing antidote to the mania of man for accomplishment of abstract ideas. She does not deal in concepts of what might be, but in a practical bettering of what is; where a man looks to the horizon for his dreams, woman is busy examining what is in her hands and configuring it to be as pleasant as possible. When man comes to her in a state of duress, heartbroken at a failure of some small part of the dream and yet unable to cry, she is the one who empathic cries with him, if even silently, and sings him to sleep. If his dreams become too fantastic, she is the one to nod and point out that the house needs fixing. In its natural state, this is not sabotage (as it might be today), but a reminder that if he works outward from what he has, he might be happier and also clear his mind for the task he seeks. Woman is like man except that where he is deductive, and posits responses to observed tendencies in the world, she is inductive and becomes these tendencies in a bettering form. When the world is on fire and the devil coming up the pipes, it is woman not man who will lead the tribe to prevalence.

 

Much as the penis invites its use as a probe, the man is that which launches into the world, where woman as a recessed genital organism is more focused on her sphere of influence. As a result the male brain operates from impulse to a quasi-scientific response to the world, projecting a counterpart to the natural laws it observes that, if applied, conjecturally seems a logical means to achieve an ideal formed of an ultimate archetype of that impulse. A man seeing cruelty formulates a theory of justice and then struggles to implement it, where a woman simply avoids the source of cruelty. This projective impulse is really the only use of the male, and it is the origin of all reasonable wars and defenses and idealisms; when society becomes plasticized, men lose their idealism and thus begin to seek pleasure, but must justify it and so denigrate reality as a concept in their minds and praise illusion. A man goes from hero to religious lunatic in three seconds if not properly balanced by a woman.

 

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=108886160&blogID=166467921&MyToken=538be417-e121-4302-a4ee-117de77d86b9

 
User Mood
Scared

Message Emote
frustrated
September 26, 2006, 12:54 am PDT

next step?

Quote From: jaimie1974

You are right- you do need expert advice, that is for sure! After all of these extensive lies, it is understandable that your boyfriend would not believe much of what you say. He is feeling duped, and can you blame him?
Since your boyfriend refuses to believe anything that you say now, I wonder why is he choosing to stay living with you? There needs to be a decision made by one of you, to either make a whole hearted attempt to forgive and reconcile, or, to break up. To live with each other and have this constant tension and distrust is not good for either one of you. Yes, you lied, and what youve done was wrong, but nothing that you do to try to make things better will matter an ounce if your boyfriend doesnt want to forgive or believe you.
At this point, it would be wise of you to ask him what is it that he wants? Does he want to be with you, to try to learn to forgive and mend the relationship? You need to know. If you feel that you have done too much damage and he will never believe in you again, then you need to be the bigger person and leave. It hurts, but living like this hurts, too, doesnt it?

My boyfriend has decided to move out because I will not answer any of his questions concerning my lover and other male interests I have had over these past years.

 

Do you think it is the right thing to open up and be really honest or is it too late?

 
User Mood
Silly

Message Emote
blank
September 26, 2006, 5:22 pm PDT

Communication

Quote From: siraqt

I'm 26 living in oklahoma city, ok - my gf is 20, she'll be 21 next month.  she is attending columbia in NewYork.  it's been 4weeks and things are different.  Which we expected and converting to the changes.  My question is - is there a such thing as "i'm to busy to call"???  From my point of view - if you care for someone, you will make the time to call? correct?  ex: good morning call, afternoon call, and then an evening call - which we can talk about our day.  Bascially 3x a day?  but most of the time i only call during the afternoon and evening.  In my views, i think when you call someone it shows that you are thinking about them and to hear their voice.  Her voice just makes me smile.  Her view about this is, we should talk ever few days and have indepth conversation that is meaningful.  She thinks calling to say hi is a waste of time and she doesn't have time for that.  When she was back home in, oklahoma city, she would call through out the day and have our evening talks before we went to bed.  I'm in my last year in medical school and realtor/loan processor - and this is her 2nd year at columbia.  Both of are full time students.  my question is - since we can't see each other, making a phone call through out the day, is that to much to ask? 

Howdy! I too am from OKC, good to meetcha! As far as your situation, you say that things have "changed" since she move do NY. I hate to say it, but it sounds like you are not her top priority at this time in her life. I know that when I have feelings for someone, and someone has feelings for me, then we try to talk at least once a day, if nothing else but to see how our days are going just because we care. Your girl could be different, but I don't think so, just because of the fact that you said things have "changed". Things have changed for a reason, and you just aren't her top priority anymore. Maybe she is just really excited about her new life and that is taking priority right now. If I were you, I wouldn't call her for a few days, wait for her to call you. She will wonder why you haven't called and it will start bugging her if she truly cares for you. Just let her make the next move. Don't seem pushy and eager, just give her her space and see what happens, ok? Good Luck!

 

 
User Mood
Silly

Message Emote
blank
September 26, 2006, 5:25 pm PDT

Communication

Quote From: piktorio

Let us take a moment to appreciate the beauty of woman. In her non-plasticized state, she is a nurturing antidote to the mania of man for accomplishment of abstract ideas. She does not deal in concepts of what might be, but in a practical bettering of what is; where a man looks to the horizon for his dreams, woman is busy examining what is in her hands and configuring it to be as pleasant as possible. When man comes to her in a state of duress, heartbroken at a failure of some small part of the dream and yet unable to cry, she is the one who empathic cries with him, if even silently, and sings him to sleep. If his dreams become too fantastic, she is the one to nod and point out that the house needs fixing. In its natural state, this is not sabotage (as it might be today), but a reminder that if he works outward from what he has, he might be happier and also clear his mind for the task he seeks. Woman is like man except that where he is deductive, and posits responses to observed tendencies in the world, she is inductive and becomes these tendencies in a bettering form. When the world is on fire and the devil coming up the pipes, it is woman not man who will lead the tribe to prevalence.

 

Much as the penis invites its use as a probe, the man is that which launches into the world, where woman as a recessed genital organism is more focused on her sphere of influence. As a result the male brain operates from impulse to a quasi-scientific response to the world, projecting a counterpart to the natural laws it observes that, if applied, conjecturally seems a logical means to achieve an ideal formed of an ultimate archetype of that impulse. A man seeing cruelty formulates a theory of justice and then struggles to implement it, where a woman simply avoids the source of cruelty. This projective impulse is really the only use of the male, and it is the origin of all reasonable wars and defenses and idealisms; when society becomes plasticized, men lose their idealism and thus begin to seek pleasure, but must justify it and so denigrate reality as a concept in their minds and praise illusion. A man goes from hero to religious lunatic in three seconds if not properly balanced by a woman.

 

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=108886160&blogID=166467921&MyToken=538be417-e121-4302-a4ee-117de77d86b9

I don't understand half of what you just said, but I think I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)
 
User Mood
Angry

Message Emote
blank
September 27, 2006, 10:03 am PDT

Does he want a serious relationship?

Hello everyone!  It's me again with another issue up for discussion and advice.  I am still seeing the same guy....but something has come up that I can't get him to elaborate on except for "we're just friends".  I see my guy every weekend..sometime for long periods of time and sometimes not.  Last saturday he spent all day with me and my daughter...then at night he wanted to go to the local bar and asked if I wanted to go.  He said I didn't have to if I didn't want to.  (weekend before I didn't want to go and he said he was going and would have a couple of drinks and come back to me..well he didn't come back...he said he came back but I had locked the door...at 4:00 in the morning..yeah I got up and locked the door because I figured he wasn't coming back and I can't sleep with the door unlocked...besides he did have a key...he told me he just went home becaues he was intoxicated and didnt want to disturb me...and I did drive over to his house the next day and he was there sleeping it off!) We both went to the bar and visited and talked to other acquaintenances and had a good time...until....i turned around and he was gone!!  I didn't know where he went.  I talked to a mutual friend of ours (male) and he said that he had been with him earlier at his house (2 houses down from the bar) and I said Oh ok..is he still there?  He said he didn't know so I walked to the house and he was there with two of his female friends sitting at the kitchen table talking...I was upset and left...not because of who he was talking to (they are my friends too) but because he left without letting me know where he was going.  Well...one of these friends came up to me at the bar and said that I shouldn't be mad that they were just having a discussion.  I told her I wasn't mad about that...was mad because he didn't tell me he was leaving.  He has several female friends and it seems that when its just he and I together...we are fine...but when one of them come into the bar or whereever we are...I get pushed aside and all his attention goes to them.   Anyways...he didn't come back to the bar that night ...but did show up at my house at 5:00 in the morning and passed out on the couch.  The next day I asked him where he had been and he said he would have to think about it and went back to sleep.  The following Monday he called me at work and I asked him if he remembered where he had been and he said "Yeah..I went to a friends house and we played drinking games". This friend was another one  (different than the two he was talking to before) of his female friends and her husband and her husbands daughter and husband)  I was still at the bar wondering where he was.  I asked him if he wants me along when we go out or would he rather go alone!  He apologized for that saturday nite and said that he wants me with him.  I didn't have a chance to ask him anymore questions...so last nite on my way home from work I text messaged him asking him who all was at that drinking party?  I have yet to hear from him.   In a nutshell...I think he is treating me like  his female friends..but he told me they are just his friends and he wants a relationship with me....I don't know what to do...I am going to set up a time for he and I to have a long talk this weekend!!   Thanks in advance to all who respond with some advice. 
 
User Mood
Stressed

Message Emote
blank
September 27, 2006, 10:39 am PDT

Communication

Quote From: cheryld

Hello everyone!  It's me again with another issue up for discussion and advice.  I am still seeing the same guy....but something has come up that I can't get him to elaborate on except for "we're just friends".  I see my guy every weekend..sometime for long periods of time and sometimes not.  Last saturday he spent all day with me and my daughter...then at night he wanted to go to the local bar and asked if I wanted to go.  He said I didn't have to if I didn't want to.  (weekend before I didn't want to go and he said he was going and would have a couple of drinks and come back to me..well he didn't come back...he said he came back but I had locked the door...at 4:00 in the morning..yeah I got up and locked the door because I figured he wasn't coming back and I can't sleep with the door unlocked...besides he did have a key...he told me he just went home becaues he was intoxicated and didnt want to disturb me...and I did drive over to his house the next day and he was there sleeping it off!) We both went to the bar and visited and talked to other acquaintenances and had a good time...until....i turned around and he was gone!!  I didn't know where he went.  I talked to a mutual friend of ours (male) and he said that he had been with him earlier at his house (2 houses down from the bar) and I said Oh ok..is he still there?  He said he didn't know so I walked to the house and he was there with two of his female friends sitting at the kitchen table talking...I was upset and left...not because of who he was talking to (they are my friends too) but because he left without letting me know where he was going.  Well...one of these friends came up to me at the bar and said that I shouldn't be mad that they were just having a discussion.  I told her I wasn't mad about that...was mad because he didn't tell me he was leaving.  He has several female friends and it seems that when its just he and I together...we are fine...but when one of them come into the bar or whereever we are...I get pushed aside and all his attention goes to them.   Anyways...he didn't come back to the bar that night ...but did show up at my house at 5:00 in the morning and passed out on the couch.  The next day I asked him where he had been and he said he would have to think about it and went back to sleep.  The following Monday he called me at work and I asked him if he remembered where he had been and he said "Yeah..I went to a friends house and we played drinking games". This friend was another one  (different than the two he was talking to before) of his female friends and her husband and her husbands daughter and husband)  I was still at the bar wondering where he was.  I asked him if he wants me along when we go out or would he rather go alone!  He apologized for that saturday nite and said that he wants me with him.  I didn't have a chance to ask him anymore questions...so last nite on my way home from work I text messaged him asking him who all was at that drinking party?  I have yet to hear from him.   In a nutshell...I think he is treating me like  his female friends..but he told me they are just his friends and he wants a relationship with me....I don't know what to do...I am going to set up a time for he and I to have a long talk this weekend!!   Thanks in advance to all who respond with some advice. 
It sounds to me like he is treating you like one of his female friends to and maybe you should talk to him about it.  I'd leave him be and let him go on his way, maybe he's not relationship ready.
 
User Mood
Stressed

Message Emote
blank
September 27, 2006, 11:15 am PDT

here and there

I am currently in a relationship with someone that I really care about.  We began dating not too long ago and I should have slowed things down when they needed to be slowed.  Now we have a baby on the way and I am near 6 months pregnant.  My issue is that because I didn't slow things down he began taking advantage of me and the situation we were in.  He quickly began staying at my home, driving my car, and the next thing I knew he was cheating on me.  2 weeks later I find out that I am pregnant.  He freaked out and began acting like he didn't care.  He then began a relationship with another female yet tried to hold on to me at the same it.  After all of this happened we tried to work things out and he came back just to leave again back to his home state.  He is currently at his home state to work and he calls me all the time.  He tells me how he's messed up and how he is coming back and going to be there for me and our baby but then sometimes he is the total opposite and treats me badly.  So now I am trying to figure out weather or not it is worth it to be with him though all of the things he's done because I do care about him.  The best way to describe him since I told him I was pregnant is "back and forth", he doesn't know how to show emotion and tends to portray it badly.  So in all reality I need to know how to deal with the things he is thowing at me or just to call it a day and move on?

 
First | Prev | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | Next | Last