Building communication strategies with my partner

[GingerMan505]

Hi all,

First time poster here 🙋🏼‍♂️.

I have suffered from anxiety and depression for most of my life, stemming from physical abuse as a child, and this has manifested itself in relationship issues.

Over the last 6 months I have been seeing a psychologist to help me overcome these issues, but 2 months ago I had a breakdown and broke up with my partner, who I have been with for the past 2 years.

It was a huge wakeup call for me that I need to really double down on my efforts to overcome these crippling demons and I've added things like practicing mindfulness and journalling into my daily routine.

My (now former) partner is incredibly understanding and supportive and we have agreed to once a week catch ups to see if she's willing to try again (I certainly am), but a huge thing for her is to build an effective communication strategy so as I don't bottle things up in future and we end up in the same place again where I just flip and call things off.

My question is, has anyone got any particular strategies they use to openly and honestly communicate with their partner to help them? I'm really determined to beat this and be with the woman I love so now matter how left-field you think a suggestion may be, I'm keen to hear it. I'm just trying to find out how we can stay strong in the future.

Thank you 🙂

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi GM,

I had a couple of days off so it looks as though I've missed a bit of the convo, and honestly I was going to let it go and have you all chat away but in the theme of vulnerability here I thought I'd jump in anyway.

Thank you for sharing this with me, and for all that you've shared in these forums. I wasn't rolling my eyes when I saw that - actually I was kind of nodding because I get it. All of the questions I give you (and post on the forums) never have to be answered. I know that people don't reply so I'm grateful for your thoughts. For what it's worth, I believe in disney movies and moments and I have had a couple like that - just moments where I know things could have been so differently and the risks that come along with it.

I was also having a wooo hooo moment when I read your response to Tim 🙂

Anyway, I'll leave it here for now as I do my inner battle whether I'm wanted/needed here after all these posts.

rt