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44 yo guy who has lost everything in the last year

User Profile: NothingLefttoGive518
NothingLefttoGive518 February 23rd, 2021

Last year my wife left me amd took my kids while I was battling an addiction. I was getting help and I've been staying clean. She did not give me a chance to try and salvage the situation, and never even sat down and had a real conversation. She only talked to me on the phone so she couldn't even see how I was doing. The first month she acted and even said we could try marriage counseling and live apart. Then all of a sudden she changed her mind on that. The first 3 months she didn't let me see the kids at all, then the first time she let me see them I was so excited. I got to see them and play kickball with them for about an hour. When they left I started to walk home and some guy comes up behind me and asked if he could talk to me for a minute, I said sure and then he served me divorce papers. The divorce papers had so many demands on it that it was crazy. Now she does let me see the kids but only outside and she has to supervise. She won't let them even come in my house, and we can't do anything indoors. I live in Upstate NY so it's cold outside and in order to see them it has to be outside. Even on Xmas eve she made me give the kids their gifts from me outside my aunt's house because I was staying there for a while while I recovered from a serious back injury that happened in a car accident. I shattered my whole sacrum and pelvis, and the cold just made the pain worse but I dealt with it, and I still deal with it to see the kids. I was also basically bullied into signing divorce settlement papers where she got full physical and legal custody. Her lawyer knew at the time that I didn't have the money for a lawyer at the time because I had an 18% pay cut temporarily because of covid. I won't get into the list of demands, but basically it would have been 60% of my income would go to her for child support which I have no issue with, then the rest was "maintenance support" for her even though she left me at a time when I needed her the most. We were together for 20 years and married for 13 of them we were married. She knows I was a good father, and so does everyone else that knows us, but now I can't even talk to them on the phone without her sitting right there on speaker. I am heartbroken and lonely and dont know what to do anymore. I cry myself to sleep every night, and talking to them on the phone I have to hold back tears. I'm hoping here I can meet some people I can talk to that have been through similar situations because this is so hard. It has been almost a year and it gets harder every day. They say time heals everything, but for me time heals nothing, it just keeps getting worse. I'm just lost.

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User Profile: ouiCherie
ouiCherie February 25th, 2021

Hi @NothingLefttoGive518

That sounds like a rather challenging situation where you're overcoming addiction and losing sense of belonging to your family at the same time.

I'm so sorry to hear that but I'm glad that you are getting over the addiction. One step at a time I guess...

What do you feel that is within your control to change and safe the situation as much as possible?