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I Live In a Sexless Marriage

Sexless Without Progress

By: manfromamsterdam
Written on December 19th, 2012
Late 2011, I decided to end our counseling after a dozen sessions. My reasoning, to very surprised wife and therapists, was that we made no progress, mostly (in my opinion) because there was no improvement in our closeness - see my earlier posts here.

I had no expecations whatsoever of what I could expect. It still has not been a good year between us. Can low expectations lead to disappointment?

My wife has withdrawn completely and stopped sleeping in the same bed. No kisses, no touching, on a good day however, she will verbally state that we are a nice couple, but she leaves it at that.

December 2012, it is nice to re-read my past here, nice but not fun! It helps me understand my motive, does it help though?

A few women in my life seem to understand my predicament: give up and accept or keep fighting. Usually this leads to them feeling sorry for me and comforting me. The physical nearness makes me sadder, it tells me what I miss most.

We stopped talking about us about a year ago. Not only makes this her feel uncomfortable, it does not get us physically closer when I just complain. Darn. I am a (very!) successful business person but cannot manage my private life!

I really really appreciate your recommendations comments ramblings. It helps me through and gives me strength.. Several thousand of us, helping each other.

However, I am a bit stuck now. Always thought I would pull through, make it work, "revive her drive". It is terrible for me to admit failure, and funny enough I will not give in yet. I love her so much and I want us to continue together. How to tread the fine line?
By: manfromamsterdam
Age: 51-55 , Male
321 people have read this story

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5 responses
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    De12
    De12

    The big problem that will blind side you, should the stars align in the correct way, when she does wake up and come back to you emotionally and physically, will you be able to cope with it.



    It has been mentioned before and it happened to me kind of, it just struck me that even though I was starting to get what I had so wished for, I just didn't believe in it. Could not accept it as real.



    It isn't so much that you need an apology or an explanation, I doubt anything would be able to justify a refusers (in)action(s) over xx years. But without something similar it can be hard to meet the new them when they get around to demonstrating it.

    Dec 20, 2012
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    ulae
    ulae

    Even if you are loathe to admit your own failure, what keeps you from admitting other people's failures? Next thing you know, you won't be able to give up on Obama failing to implement gun control...

    Dec 20, 2012
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    GibbySan
    GibbySan

    It's not that you cannot manage your private life, it's that you cannot force someone else to change into what YOU want them to be.

    Dec 19, 2012
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    zsuzsilowinger
    zsuzsilowinger

    "It is terrible for me to admit failure"

    AGree with mvcmvc below, and if you had asked me throughout the decade of my marriage I would have told you we just have to try harder to make it work...

    you CAN burn yourself out with that. Being successful at work, I am sure you realize you cannot do everything yourself - you have people to do different things for you, and some people are very good at one thing but not another.

    You just picked the wrong "employee" for the role of "wife". Sure she may make a great "friend" or "admin assistant" or "co-parent", but not "spouse" in your case.

    Although I'm sure if you made this mistake in your business you would say "oh yeah, learned something", correct the problem (hire someone new, shuffle people around or lay off), and move on to be more successful, for some reason in our personal lives we say "oh we see it's not working, but we can't let it go!! We MUST fix it OUR WAY!"

    Dec 19, 2012
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    mvcmvc
    mvcmvc

    Sometimes our own egos keep us stuck. We cannot fix everything.

    Dec 19, 2012
    3 likes