I'm in a relationship with a guy who has been through a lot of trauma at the hands of his mother when he was a child. As an adult, he experiences severe depression, attachment issues, PTSD, anxiety, night terrors and dissociation (just to name a few).
When he gets close to people emotions, good and bad, get the better of him. So he tends to try to push people away to avoid all emotion all together. Now that he's let me in, he's letting himself feel everything which includes all the bad stuff too.
We love each other so much and we can be so happy together but when he has particularly bad night terrors or dissociates he immediately tries to push me away & starts saying things like "this will never last", "this won't work", "I'm always going to be like this".
I don't know what to do. He's made a huge choice in letting me in, trusting me and sharing everything that he is with me but now he's in a state where he's giving up on us and I think he's trying to shut his emotions off again so he doesn't have to feel.
How can I help him see that we can make this work? And how can I help him get through this pain that he's been dealing with for so long? He's so determined to do it all by himself without help from anyone.
He's such an amazing person, I don't want to lose him.
Am I being selfish?
