Relationship and family issues

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Chris_B PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: 3 important tips to get the most out of this section
  • replies: 0

Hi everyone, The Relationships & Family Issues section is one of the busiest here on our forums. It's also one of the areas where we find members can get themselves into trouble! Before posting here, take a deep breath and be mindful of the following... View more

Hi everyone, The Relationships & Family Issues section is one of the busiest here on our forums. It's also one of the areas where we find members can get themselves into trouble! Before posting here, take a deep breath and be mindful of the following 3 tips: 1. Do you really want to share this with the world? This is a public forum. Are you thinking of posting something that could identify you to a friend or family member? Once you've posted, you can't delete what you've written and we don't take posts down from here unless they've broken one of our community rules. This is because our members spend a lot of time composing replies, and there is a much wider audience that gets a lot out of reading what has been written. It's not fair to ask the community for support, then ask to have it removed once you've read it so others can't also benefit. Use discretion when posting here - think about the level of detail you are sharing, and think also about who might know you are posting here. Also, please keep it clean: this is an all ages forum and explicit discussions about sexual problems are not permitted. Threads and posts of this nature will be removed and your account placed on a moderation hold. 2. What do you want to get out of posting here? Relationship and family issues are stressful. Members sometimes post here seeking advice about a relationship that has broken down, but find themselves getting upset when they don't agree with the response they get. This is a peer support forum, meaning we are not mental health professionals. We are people of all ages and backgrounds, with a wide range of life experiences. While we aim for our discussions to be conducted respectfully, people here will respond with the truth as they see it, from their own experiences and perspectives. We are not here to take sides. Offence is almost never intentional, but it can be sometimes taken. The advice you will see here is not intended to be a substitute for professional counselling. 3. What other support do you have? Most people posting on our forums (about any issue) use this space as a supplement to other supports. This forum is not and cannot be a substitute for offline supports, but it is often a good place to start the ball rolling and find the courage for seeking help. If you are relying solely on an internet forum to resolve your relationship or family issues, you are likely to be disappointed. Check out the Healthy Homes section of our Healthy Families website for further information and resources.

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Trixta Seperating after 20 years of marriage
  • replies: 10

Hello, Havebeen with my wife for 20 years,this year was to be our 17th anniversary, we have 2 beautiful children one 19 and the youngest 15, I work away fifo, 11 days on 3 off, I thought we were travelling fine, left home monday afternoon for work, g... View more

Hello, Havebeen with my wife for 20 years,this year was to be our 17th anniversary, we have 2 beautiful children one 19 and the youngest 15, I work away fifo, 11 days on 3 off, I thought we were travelling fine, left home monday afternoon for work, great day excellent morning with the wife before I left, I recieved a phone call tuesday afternoon from a close friend saying he saw the wife going to the airport, I rang her 4btimes no answer, 5th answers lies to me after I asked what she was doing as I could hear her on Bluetooth, she was pick8ng up her mother whomhad flown in from nz, 2 hours later I get a message, I'm sorry, I ask for what, I'm sorry, I finally get through on the phone, I get, I can't do this anymore, I don't know who I am, I can't make any decisions, I love you and care for you but that isn't enough, I fly home jext morning and get the same answers, I love her so much, she works, I call her during the day, I ask whos in the office as I can hear other voices, I know all the staff my wife works with and I ask and ask her to say hello for me, he thinks im not trusting and checking up, now taking my son tomnz with her

Miss_Anxious Porn addiction and the isolated partner!
  • replies: 12

Hi, My partner struggles with porn addiction, we have discussed this and it always resurfaces. It's how he deals with stress and 'has nothing to do with me' but I can't help feel it is dividing us. I he asked him to talk to me if he has worries but h... View more

Hi, My partner struggles with porn addiction, we have discussed this and it always resurfaces. It's how he deals with stress and 'has nothing to do with me' but I can't help feel it is dividing us. I he asked him to talk to me if he has worries but he never does. I feel as though I'm losing it. Does anyone have any advice?

Leigh_17 Just don't fit in but husband does
  • replies: 4

My husband is a very sociable person everybody likes him. And now he has made some new friends and the wife is everything I'm not, she's smart, travels a lot for her job, very sociable and funny and nice etc etc, I have heard from my whole family how... View more

My husband is a very sociable person everybody likes him. And now he has made some new friends and the wife is everything I'm not, she's smart, travels a lot for her job, very sociable and funny and nice etc etc, I have heard from my whole family how wonderful she is, and now I have to go and have dinner with them. I know it's not a big deal to most people but I feel like I would rather die then go to dinner, but if I don't go, my husband would resent me he already does and blames me for our lack of social life. It's easier just to die sometimes.

chan stressed and overwhelmed mum
  • replies: 2

Hi im a mum and im beyond stressed ill give you a bit of a background into my mental health history and then bring you up to speed about what is almost tipping me over the edge of insanity now. i have suffered from depression, PTSD, PND and anxiety d... View more

Hi im a mum and im beyond stressed ill give you a bit of a background into my mental health history and then bring you up to speed about what is almost tipping me over the edge of insanity now. i have suffered from depression, PTSD, PND and anxiety due to multiple things happening in my life. fast forward to the brith of my first son lets call him j. it was a traumatic pregnancy as i was told there would be something wrong with my child (microdeletion of chromosomes) and was given the option to still abort at 18 weeks! i was mortified. but chose to continue with the pregnancy, and after a painstaking and stressful 43 hour labour i got j. i ended up with PND. treated and councelled, for about a year until symptoms subsided. J was BF until 8 Months and developed normally, reaching all milestones early, his behaviour was normal until he hit about 1.5 years. Now j is almost 4 and although highly intelligent he has some serious behavioural issues which im am finding overwhelming and sending me into daily panic attacks or crying in my room. he will sceam, hit, bite, cry and break things when he dosnt get his own way. Demands things of me ' i want my breakfast ,NOW' is how i am woken every morning. he hits his younger brother (whos is a so different to j) all the time. no form of punishment or discipline seems to work! i cant go out in public due to his meltdowns, and dont want to go to anyones house as im constantly appologising for his behavious! he is angry and rude all the time and i feel so isolated. i have changed his diet and am in the process of a behavioural assessment thru the RCH, but i feel like im going insane in the mean time. his father (my husband) dosnt think there is anything wrong with him and its all me overreacting (which im not multiple people see that j is out of control) so i have no support from him, i send him to daycare 1 day a week as that all we can afford. but i feel as if i have lost control of everything in my life all because of j. i am finding myself starting to resent him and questioning if i made the right decision not to abort him, which is a horrible thing for a mother to question. i mother shoud love her children unconditionally but when he is always acting up its hard to see the good in him at all. im at my whitts end to see the good in my own child and its bringing me to tears. i find myself wanting to spend less time with j as his so horrible to be around the last 2.5 years.

fox81 Separated recently
  • replies: 6

Hi, I'm not sure how to do this since I've never really shared but I know I need to in order to heal. I moved with my family just over a year ago to support my wife's family with health issues. We've been married ten years and she's my best friend bu... View more

Hi, I'm not sure how to do this since I've never really shared but I know I need to in order to heal. I moved with my family just over a year ago to support my wife's family with health issues. We've been married ten years and she's my best friend but somewhere along the way we've become just that. Just friends. We have four beautiful children who mean the world to us and they were at the forefront of our decision. We felt we owed them to show them the importance of happiness by separating. We had begun to grow apart. Arguing about silly things. Going to bed separately, often angry and waking up with nothing resolved. Our communication broke down to when we had to and even then we'd rarely agree. We seemed to be getting further apart. I spent my time looking for distractions in sports while she spent hers wrapping herself in her family's business. We were seeing less and less of each other and getting further away. We blew up into a big fight one day which eventuated in us asking what are we doing here? We decided to try some time apart and I moved out early this year. I see my kids plenty. My wife and I seem to be able to be happier around one another but it barely seems real. I miss her so badly but she seems so far away now. I struggle to be near her because my soul aches without her but I know how unhappy she was when we were together. I don't have any real friends. I had a lot of buddies but nobody I feel like I can share my feelings with. Not honestly. I feel so lonely and that's about the only thing I feel now. I have no dad. My mother is to involved in her own world to listen and my sister is an apple not so far from that tree. I have nobody apart from my amazing kids and this is no burden to share with them. I guess I'm looking for advice. What to do next. I find it difficult to share because I've never done it. Just bottled things up all along because it made it easier on everyone around me but I can't keep doing that. I need some help. Thanks for reading.

Looshy the cause of my depression and what to do?!
  • replies: 4

So i dont want to get into too much detail so ill try my best to keep it short. I am a 34 year old married man with a 4 year old boy and 6 month old twins. 3 year ago i had was under fair amount of pressure with in job which resulted in a terrible me... View more

So i dont want to get into too much detail so ill try my best to keep it short. I am a 34 year old married man with a 4 year old boy and 6 month old twins. 3 year ago i had was under fair amount of pressure with in job which resulted in a terrible mental break down i was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. it resulted with me seeing 2 doctor's a therapist and i ridiculous amount of medication. I was determined to get better and worked real hard on doing so not for me but for my wife and kids. I faced a few issues that i had been avoiding which hellped with my recovery and i did come out of it a better version of who i was. I stop my medication about a year ago (which was horrible to go through) and stoped seeing my therapist, like i said i have 3 kids and a career. What i learnt though was how to identify what makes me anxious and or depressed. And the cause of all my depression even prior to my melt down is my mum and sister, they are just terrible for my mental health and creat a toxic environment that leaves mentally exhausted. Do i just not vist and leave when they come to see the kids? Which is a different kind of stress all together? Do i confront them and cause an argument and divisions between the rest of my siblings and dad? Im at a loss... and feel like im slowly sinking to were i was 3 years ago

Matt13 Depressed and Alone
  • replies: 1

Going through a tough time at the moment back on 5/2/17 my 10-year relationship was ended. I have been suffering from depression and Anxiety for a very very long time before my 10-year relationship I was on Disability Pension because of it. I met my ... View more

Going through a tough time at the moment back on 5/2/17 my 10-year relationship was ended. I have been suffering from depression and Anxiety for a very very long time before my 10-year relationship I was on Disability Pension because of it. I met my ex online and we kicked it off right away she suffers from depression as well but not as bad as me she works full time now for 20 years. My anxiety gets in the way of me looking and holding any sort of work. My ex knew all this when we started seeing each other I then moved to Sydney to be with her leaving my only home and friends and my 2 children from another relationship/marriage. Everything was great for awhile I was going TAFE I but when I lost my pension because my ex-was earning too much $$$ I started to fall into my deep depression as well. We had our ups and downs my ex's father had to come and live with us again because he was dying so both he and my mother in law moved back in. This caused a lot of friction but I became a full-time carer for my ex's dying father. After he, unfortunately, passed away I went back into a deep depression I did another TAFE course in community services but with the rising costs if TAFE we could not afford me to do any more study (I did not want to be in any form of debt not trusting the current govenment. My ex's brother then had his marriage fail and he himself moved in as well. Everything was fine for a bit I did most of the housework while trying to find work. Then my mother in law started saying she wanted it out because I could not find work. I noticed her talking to my ex behind my back and one day she just walked in on me and said "get out" that was the 5/2/17 far as I know my ex did discuss it with my mother in Law but I was busy trying to pack my stuff at the time. I flew out the same day back home in Adeleide with my mom at the house I grew up in. My ex is very cold to me in texts she said she misses me and she loves me but that's not enough. Because I could not get a job our relationship is over poof! 10 years. I'm finding it very hard to understand because I was not, not doing nothing I was cleaning, washing etc I was doing what I could to show I was and wanted to help my ex and her family. As well as looking for work but I suppose being unemployed for so long was too much of a burden on my ex and her family.

Mznicole Feeling lost and alone
  • replies: 2

I'm 28 years old and about to have my 3rd child in about 2 weeks my other 2 children are 2yrs old and 3yrs old... I don't have many friends and i don't have a supportive family.. my fiancé is basically my friend, my love, my family he is my everythin... View more

I'm 28 years old and about to have my 3rd child in about 2 weeks my other 2 children are 2yrs old and 3yrs old... I don't have many friends and i don't have a supportive family.. my fiancé is basically my friend, my love, my family he is my everything. But I'm starting to feel lost when I feel like our relationship is more or a friendship then anything else and I don't have anyone I can talk to, in a nutshell we feel pregnant 3 months of dating and he was just the type of guy who stayed because he felt he had to even though he would never say that I've always felt that. I believe if I didn't keep our first child we wouldn't be together.. I cry all the time when I'm alone because I never thought I would be 28 years old and feel all alone and I rely on my fiancé for everything. I was always so independent and now I have nothing. I feel like he has that over me and he also knows if I didn't have him I would have nothing.. I just want to feel like I'm worth something, feel important. I see a lot of mums having lunch with there friends and children and I'm always on my own with my babies.. am I just being selfish? Should I just continue living this life where I'm just so lost and lonely??

Thetormentofexistence Struggling to move on..
  • replies: 12

Hi all, I've never posted anything like this before but I think it would be good for me to get my feelings out. On New Year's Eve things ended between me and my on again off again boyfriend. I'm sad to say that everytime it was off it was my decision... View more

Hi all, I've never posted anything like this before but I think it would be good for me to get my feelings out. On New Year's Eve things ended between me and my on again off again boyfriend. I'm sad to say that everytime it was off it was my decision to end things. I was a selfish girlfriend, my reasons would be things like "we are too different" and "you deserve better". I still do believe these things, perhaps it was my constant negativity instead of rationally working things out that led to the final outcome. It has been 2 months and I still miss him so much. I think about him all day everyday, I dream about him nearly everynight. I know we will never get back together - he has told me not to contact him again. I don't blame him as I have constantly manipulated him in the past. I just wish I could go back to the start, be happy with him and work on our problems instead of throwing it away whenever things became difficult. I know that he would have already moved on from me, I just can't seem to let go of the love we had. I look at our pictures and old conversations, I cry uncontrollably at the fact that I ruined everything. He honestly treated me like a queen and I treated him like dirt. I have read stories where people cannot move on from their ex for at least a year or longer... I don't want to be like that.. I want to let go and be happy. It breaks my heart that I wake up and feel this constant pain everyday. Does anybody else feel this way? Has anyone else been through this? How can I be happy without him?

Matt13 lost my 10 year relationship
  • replies: 2

I'm a 44-year-old male and just over a month ago I was kicked out of my mother in laws house because I could not find work. I suffer from depression and anxiety with massive panic attacks when it comes to finding work and joining the workforce as wel... View more

I'm a 44-year-old male and just over a month ago I was kicked out of my mother in laws house because I could not find work. I suffer from depression and anxiety with massive panic attacks when it comes to finding work and joining the workforce as well as social anxiety even though that has been getting a lot better for me thanks to psychologist help. It all went down in hours my ex's mother walked into our bedroom and told me to leave then my ex booked me a plane ticket and I flew back home in hours. When we got to the airport I could not even hug her goodbye I just walked away. When I got home (my mother's home where I was brought up). Since then I have gotten on welfare gotten to see a psychologist and got my stuff together as best I could. I have not talked to my ex by phone since only text she's very cold she says she still loves me and misses me but that's not enough. The thing is we did break up before like this before but it was 2 years ago and I was visiting my mom and dad (since passed away) and my ex's mom rang my mom and said she did not want me to return. But after awhile my ex and I made up despite never getting any apology from my mother in law. Has anyone else found it hard to find work and it leading to a long term relationship breaking up and has found a way through?