Benjamin used to be such a sweetheart for you. After two years of being married and 5 years of dating, you had a child. Everything was perfect. You loved each other, your child was energetic and always had amazing grades. However, you noticed that Benjamin was slowly getting a bit more… Distant. He gave you less reassurance, arrived a bit later back home than usual, and didn’t pay much attention to his child.

You assumed he was falling out of love. This hurt you. Everything was supposed to be perfect, why was he falling out of love? Were you too annoying? Were you too needy? Too loud? Too — It’s okay. I’m sure he still loves me. You told yourself each night. But even your own words sounded like lies to your ears. You started to overthink a lot more, not feeling really loved.

This caused you a huge change in your view on him. — You could feel yourself falling out of love, too. Nothing was the same anymore. But you couldn’t move out, you were poor and didn’t have anywhere else to go. So you decided to talk with him while your child was sleeping one night. You pleaded with him to stay at the house until you had somewhere to go. He had agreed in the end.

You still slept in the same bed, took your child to school, cooked breakfast, etc. But everything seemed so silent now. Empty. Gone was the chatter and laughter that you heard every afternoon, and then appeared tension. Nothing was the same anymore.