Home→Forums→Relationships→Ghosted…..Help me seek closure.
- This topic has 37 replies, 21 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 3 months ago by A.
-
AuthorPosts
-
March 24, 2016 at 6:36 pm #100042DParticipant
Thank you so very much cocolumbine. Don’t apologize for a lengthy response – you provided some valuable insight. I have written an email to him (and rewritten it several times). I’m unsure if I’ll ever send it – what’s the point? It’s clear that he has no intention of contacting me. It was an exhausting day, but the evenings and nights are the worst! Last night, I woke up feeling panicky and anxious, and my mind was racing with thoughts of him and missing him. Of course I wonder what I did that was so horrible to deserve this treatment, but in reading your post, you helped me realize that this was his easy and ‘efficient’ way to end a relationship.
I’ll admit that I’m still in a state of denial and can’t believe that he really wants me out of his life. I’m such a mix of emotions right now: sad, angry, hurt.
I appreciate your kind words cocolumbine and will definitely try to be gentle with myself. I agree that going for a run and getting outdoors will only serve to improve my mood.
I too am sorry that you have experienced the pain and anxiety of being “ghosted”. I wish you all the best!
March 24, 2016 at 6:45 pm #100043DParticipantI wish you never had to experience being ‘ghosted’ ChristinemarieA. It’s such a TERRIBLE feeling to be left so vulnerable and with so many unanswered questions. Hmmm, it’s really a form of abuse. I hope with each day, you become stronger. Happiness will return 🙂
March 24, 2016 at 6:48 pm #100044DParticipantHi Anita, I have yet to call him. I simply don’t have the strength (or courage) to contact him right now. Who knows if he’ll even respond! I feel completely rejected and used. How long was he ‘faking’ his feelings for me? How long was he really just lying to me?
March 24, 2016 at 7:19 pm #100045DParticipantAll of you very kind and your supportive words are valued. I know it will take time to trust again and I must be gentle with myself. I am very sad and I so desperately want to reach out to him and soothe his worries about our relationship. I know having those thoughts are ridiculous, but I can’t just turn off my feelings for him.
I completely agree with Mishy that closure will likely occur from within myself, and not via a formal good-bye with him.
I’m still very much in the hurting stage. Right now, eating properly, getting enough rest, keeping active and surrounding myself with friends and family are my priorities. I’m very sad.
March 24, 2016 at 9:19 pm #100052AnonymousGuestDear D:
I looked up “ghosting” in wikipedia:
“Ghosting refers to the act of breaking off a relationship (often used in the context of intimate relationships) by ceasing all communication and contact with the former partner without any apparent warning or justification, as well as avoiding and/or ignoring and refusing to respond in any way to the former partner’s attempts to reach out or communicate…
Ghosting has been considered as a passive-aggressive form of emotional abuse and a type of Silent treatment or stonewalling behaviour by some mental health professionals, who view it as a form of emotional cruelty
Ghosting has been described as a socio cultural behavioral trend which is on the rise. Various theories have been suggested as to why, but commonly it is believed that the prevalence of social media, dating apps and the relative anonymity and isolation in modern day dating and hookup culture, has made it easier to behave poorly with little social repercussion… Other thinkers have suggested that the rise is due to the decline of empathy in society…”
I suppose I heard of the term but was not familiar with it. Now I am. My goodness! “little social repercussion” it reads.
In this case, I would deliver some social repercussion to him. Nothing violent or illegal, but some repercussion there must be!
anita
March 24, 2016 at 9:37 pm #100055GracyParticipantHello D. To someone else, a week might not seem like much. But they don’t know what it’s like to lose a best friend, a constant companion. The person who occupies your thoughts in the shower, before bed, and excites you to get up for again. Even if they don’t share the bed with you, they are attached to your emotional being like two souls that brushed. To lose that friend is to lose the light of life, to lose the everything.
Darling, I know that suffering. It’s one thing to empathize; They changed medicine. Their mom died and now they are insecure about female relationships. But to have nothing? Nothing to empathize with, no reason? Cruelty.
If you do hear back from them, can you post it? If you decide to let it go, will you post how you got through it and how you felt? I’d really like to know.
I found, myself, with a direct e-mail that was short but not too open (it’s easy to ignore open), that I would at least get a one line ‘Do whatever you want.’ Response. Open would be a question like, “Are you okay?” or “Talk to me when you can.” Direct is simply, “Are we done speaking?”
If composing a parting e-mail, I found more peace if I showed love in the goodbye than digging for a response. It makes a person feel like they gave all they could, so nothing better could have happened. “Thank you for what you helped me learn.” Sending it is an act of personal closure, if you really are done. But if you wanted a response and you’re willing to take an extra dose of pain & humility, you can still try.
Open:
“I’m really worried about you. Has something happened? If there is a problem, you can tell me, I only want to help. You’re my best friend and I miss you greatly. I’ll be here when you get a chance.”- This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by Gracy.
March 25, 2016 at 6:28 pm #100089DParticipantWell, it’s been a tough day. It’s becoming very real that I’m never hearing from him again. My heart is broken and my self-esteem is destroyed. I know I should be exercising or doing yoga, but I’m having a difficult time getting off the couch. I keep imagining that he’s happily going on with his life as though I never existed. Perhaps he’s pleased that he made such a ‘clean’ break from me after 2 years of being together.
I want to contact him one last time, but I restrain myself because of the great likelihood that I’ll be ignored (rejected) again. I’m pretty sure my fragile self can’t take any more abuse.
March 25, 2016 at 7:55 pm #100092AnonymousGuestDear D:
Do something to stand up for yourself against this abuse, this ghosting. It already happened. Don’t take it subdued, defeated.
anita
March 28, 2016 at 4:23 am #100227GracyParticipantFrom personal experience, anyone who ever invested time or connection in you at all won’t be 100% content to have you go. Yes, he left, but it probably isn’t true that he feels only happy thoughts about it. The people who ghosted me were always at least a little torn, but since they took the initiative to reject, they were already on their way to getting over it just fine. They did cry over it, despite moving on.
Maybe you should just make an attempt at that last phone call. It will work you up, and depress you, but at least you can “reject the rejecter” and make it your choice to say, “I will not let HIM define how I should be.” Think about the main point of what you would convey to him, and try to end things on your terms without dragging it out. If you drag it out, or crack and beg, it will only make you feel worse. (I’ve been there.) Make it YOUR choice to define what it good for you, to shove someone that immature into the history of what makes you you today, and try to pray pray pray when it’s still hurting. It might be the best way to find God, through suffering.
I’ve been there. I know the pain. I know what it feels like, when the light of your life goes out, and the best thing you can do, is summon allll of the strength you can, and decide you’re not going to let him have that control, because he isn’t the person you perceived him to be. The person you knew doesn’t exist, like being sad over a TV show. It seems rational watching it play out, but no one is going to hurt themselves and damage their lives over a sad program they saw on TV, because those people aren’t real.
Exercise:
Match the person you thought of him as, to the person he is right now. How far apart are they?I know you are simply mourning the memory and loss, but if you do contact, it is important to know he already is a ghost and you’re already on your own to make your own choices. Seek closure, one way or another.
March 28, 2016 at 4:25 am #100228GracyParticipantThis helped me a lot:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/getting-back-out-there/201506/when-the-person-you-love-doesnt-love-youAdditionally, when I lost the person I loved, I gave up work/school/and hid from family. Still went to gym, but it was one of the toughest, hardest parts of my life. Poor, no one, suffering, praying, crying dawn to dusk and miserable.
“Real love” did not fix all of those things, I had to fix myself, and learned just how happy I could be solo. But when the right person came into my life, it makes a world of difference. To have someone who communicates well, does their half of the work reliably, involves you in big choices, and tries to make a real home with you. It is worth sticking it all out for, to get to that point. And all of the prayer you do now, ALL of it, will be rewarded when you climb back up and realize what you really want to do. The world is more vivid and brighter than you ever could have imagined it to be, despite the problems residing. Perspectives change. I could not be here now, but God will always pull you through, and there is something he truly has in mind for you.
The person who came back to me, was the person who ghosted me in the first place, but they came to realization of what THEY wanted. We never could have worked without that change in BOTH of us. They grew as a person, by their own free will, and my patience. There was nothing I could do to make them or ask them, and neither can you for him as much as you wish he’d be different. God will bring the right one to you, if you leave the door open. It might be someone from before, maybe someone new, but that person needs to go through suffering too, to be prepared as the person who is tested and true and ready for your love.
- This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by Gracy.
May 29, 2017 at 11:38 am #151122girlHenryParticipantNot sure if you’ll see this.. Wondering how you are now that a year plus has passed. Just went through the same thing. The worst part it was my birthday. 7 years with this guy.
June 18, 2017 at 1:28 pm #153868AngharadParticipantYou may be too late for D., girlHenry, but you’re just in time for me! I was ghosted in March by a man I’ve been seeing for 9+ years, and I was searching for grieving groups that had a place for people you and me. They’re hard to find! Then I found tinybuddha.com and saw this thread. I was so happy to see that you had posted recently because of the similar length of our relationships and the crazy irony that my love left me shortly before my birthday, as well.
I too wonder how D. is doing; but how are you doing? I’m struggling–I feel like an emotional ping-pong ball. Being older, I have less temptation to try to force answers, as life has told me that there are, most likely, none that would really satisfy me. After all, what I really want is the ghosting never to have happened. But it has, and it must be accepted, however confusing and heart breaking.
If you’d like to have a dialogue with me, maybe we can help one another. Talking helps as well as anything else I’ve found–other than therapy, I guess, or a deep belief in a higher power which I, unfortunately, don’t have.
Whether we “talk” or don’t, I wish you the best of luck on this difficult journey.
August 6, 2017 at 12:12 pm #162542Chloe BParticipantDear girlhenry and Angharad,
I came across this thread while looking for articles to seek solace and to understand why do people just ghosted.
The man whom I thought was the love of my life ghosted me again just recently two days before my birthday. He did it once 2.5 years ago and came back last September. The initial reason I thought was still reasonable but it is still not right to just leave and cut contacts and after apologizing and pursuing me and showing sincerity, we got together again for about ten months until he just ghosted me two weeks back. He never respond to my text and block my number. I was numb and in denial for one week, thinking maybe he is busy and need to have space. The reality sets in now and I am really devastated and heart broken. I felt that there’s no meaning to life, nothing excites me anymore when I wake up every day.
Everyday I question myself, where did it go wrong, did I make any mistake, am I not good enough? I just can’t understand why someone who is so close to me can be so cruel and cold hearted.
Everyday, I’m still battling; emotionally, I really want to tell him how his actions makes me feels. Rationally, I should have let it go to just move on by myself.
Just sharing my own experience here, I hope we can empower and encourage each other to get better everyday. Little steps at a time.
August 29, 2017 at 5:37 pm #166152AngharadParticipantHi, Chloe!
I was just drawn back here to this conversation and saw your post.
I totally relate to what you said–the devastation, the confusion, the constant questioning yourself, the loss of interest in life. I find myself in the darkest place I’ve ever been.
You’re right that letting go is what we have to do. People who “ghost” have a level of immaturity and inability to cope with conflict, or even simply difficult conversations, which pretty much precludes getting any closure from them. Psychologists seem to agree that we–the ghostees–have to find some way to move on without answers to our absolutely valid questions. But it’s incredibly hard, isn’t it? Psychologists label ghosting as a cruel and torturous act. That’s part of what’s so hard–we wonder why we were singled out for torture…
Not that it really helps, but I think the answer is usually more about the ghoster than the ghostee. I know that Draughn really has a problem with conflict in an emotional setting. He knew how much I love and admire him and how shocked I would be by his leaving, so he took the path of least resistance for him. It’s sad and hard to understand because he is generally a very brave man. Too bad he took the coward’s way out when my heart and emotional well-being were at stake.
I’m sorry for your loss, Chloe, but I’m glad that, as you said, we can support one another as we take steps toward healing.
August 30, 2017 at 5:51 pm #166302ElianaParticipantHi D,
I’m sorry to hear you are going through this. I am befuddled as to why someone would do this after two years. He didn’t even offer an explanation, or anything. If someone did this to me, I don’t think I could ever face them again, because they didn’t care or respect me enough to even call, text, e-mail to say “goodbye, have a nice life” or anything. If they can’t say “goodbye” to me, they don’t deserve a “goodbye” in response, so in a way, karma comes back and you can “ghost” him too.
However, if he lives locally, you can go over and just talk to him and find out what happened and why he would do something like this after two years. I think what he did was take the cowards way out.
-
AuthorPosts