I got divorced like 5 months ago after a 9 years with this girl who cheated on me, emotionally abused me, etc etc
I’ve been suicidal since the split, getting worse by the day still, and literally nobody ever asked if I was OK, aside from my mom. Even when I begged close friends for support they basically just ghosted me. My ex is surrounded by support, from the same people who I thought were my best friends.
Do I just have shitty people around me or is this just what guys deal with? The attitude towards me is just “get over it”. I’ve lost almost everyone I’m close to because of this and I’m starting to think there might actually be one viable option of getting over it because existing is simply torture. All of 2025 felt like just a bad dream but it’s unfortunately real.
Edit: Yes I have a counselor - a very good one I see weekly.
Do I just have shitty people around me or is this just what guys deal with?
Those “two” possibilities might actually just be the same thing. This is what guys deal with BECAUSE people are shitty.
People generally don’t go around looking to help others. People look for ways to make themselves feel better. People with a mantra of helping others may or may not be doing so, but they continue because it is helping them fill a hole in themselves.
I’ve never divorced, but I have had breakups, and I got over them by embracing the hobbies I had before (in my case, programming). That might not be a lot but it’s a start.
Bro. We’re men. No one cares about us or our feelings. When you come to grips with that. You can explore more self healing directions to go. No one wants to hear about our problems. Also. Your friends are not friends. Find new people if you can.
Trust me. After my ex cheated on me and left me. I felt like death for years.
BUT! It definitely will get better one morning. Just keep your chin up. Brush off the anxiety and go out and see the world.
Because Men aren’t allowed to feel any emotion, and it’s always our fault no matter what. Like how any type of masculinity is toxic and chivalry is considered rude or borderline SA.
And it’s only getting worse.
Honestly, I think you got to kill yourself on the inside or be a republican. And its better to die then be a republican. I keep being told the left cares about my feelings, but they only care about the ones they want me to have and not the ones I do have.
Reps and Dems are so far gone that neither care about each other. I was a conservative when I was in the Army, but watching the left and the right battle each other recently, I’ve been slipping towards the moderate side.
Just don’t want to affiliate with either and just live in the middle of nowhere.I know I troll a lot on here but I just want to get these emotions out and get a different perspective on things.
My psychiatrist tells me that I need to open up more, but I feel that if I do, I’d just explode.
Oh well. No need to spill that on here. Whoops.
*Also, Republicans aren’t that bad. Democrats are just as bad from a different direction. At some point, they’re just Nazis pointing at each other with how far apart they are.
Because women get support for things like this while men don’t. Because equality = modern rights + old world preferential treatment.
Every time I read about male loneliness, see it in my life in other men, I can only relate, as a woman.
I left a DV situation myself, and found no support anywhere. I ended up starting over in a town bout two hours away from where I knew, and it was literally just me and a baby for four years. Some weeks the only conversations I had with another adult were at work, ir standing at a cash register buying something. I had made one friend, but then she had to go and die. I just had no one to rely on or vent to.
One of the hardest times of my life. In '16 I remember messaging my brother, who at this point I honestly think just lost respect for me for being in a DV relationship, so he didn’t talk to me much, we had once been close. I remember asking him to come over one weekend, I had a grill and some food and beers, offered him money for gas as he lived an hour away. He told me weekends were girlfriend time (7 year relationship). So I explained I was really low, and no one I knew in my life had known me more than a year, I just would really like to laugh with somone who actually knows me, like my brother, and be like we used to and have a fun night.
He told me bluntly, he does not feel pity for people and he couldn’t make it. So cold. I cried like you would when a close family member dies.
I’m watched my husband win the battle with his alcohol addiction. He had a low tolerance socializing before, it’s only gotten worse with sobriety. He’s picking up a hobby now, and after four years sober, maybe not making friends, but sharing a hobby with other dudes. I encourage him as much as I can to continue this.
I’ve met many men who keep social, but I’ve also seen many recluse themselves as they age, and it’s nothing new.
I’m a woman, and I have felt gut wrenching loneliness for so many years of my life. My 30th birthday I tried to work overtime, but ended up leaving, going home to an empty house. When you can only spend $15 on frivious things, I chose vodka, cried myself dry on the bathroom floor, alone, for my birthday. No one messaged me. The guy I was dating didnt even know it was my birthday. I’ve had so many friends pass away too young, and yeah, I protect myself from hurt by not putting myself out there. Im greatful for my husband and son. Loneliness may appear in different ways in different genders, And the media may take that to the extremes. But loneliness is a human thing, it is not gendered
Im sorry OP isnt getting support, I for sure know that sucks. But at least you know whats real and whats not now. Fresh starts are liberating. This is your liberation, and a chance to remake your life in the way you want. I wish OP health and happiness
That reads very incel-ish…
Yes, we don’t have true equality yet, and your analysis seems correct at first glance. However, women still have it worse, believe me. A lot of medical research focuses on men and ignores women, they still don’t get taken seriously in many fields of work, they still are the main victims of sexual assault, etc. All negative things applying to men that I can think of are things we are doing to ourselves. Like the ideal msculine image pushed in media is entirely due to men. No woman ever designed a stoic superhero with pure muscle and a sixpack.
Your assessment isn’t incorrect, it just ignores why things are the way they are.
That being said, the situation sucks for OP and they deserve better friends.
Go try telling people about your experience with being an SA victim. My experience is basically a bunch of people telling me about how women have it worse or even accusations of lying. Your counter argument is focused on the past or around conservatives. Liberals should know better.
I’m not trying to dismiss any experiences. All I’m saying is us men can’t blame women for being in our current situation. If I misread what you were getting at, I’m sorry.
Well when that most of that comes from women. I just want to stop having to pretend that women are entirely innocent and men are the sole cause of alm the problems
It really depends on what exactly you mean by “the cause of all the problems”.
If you’re talking about your personal problems, like having your experiences dismissed and social expectations of stoicism etc., women are absolutely also part of the problem.
What I’m trying to say is that those women didn’t become like that because they chose so consciously. Their behavior is the result of the very same social norms you are struggling with, which have largely been created by men for men.
So they get a free pass.
Same here. My ex husband told everyone that I cheated on him. I mean, considering the fact that nobody ever asked for my side of the story, I suppose they weren’t really friends anyway.
I told everyone she cheated on me too which backfired amazingly lol
She told everyone I requested an open relationship so it didn’t count
Master manipulator
I mean, basically you failed to cultivate deep and meaningful relationships with other people is the problem. Did you ever open up to your friends about anything before your break up? Did they ever open up to you, or come to you with their problems? Did you have friends who were “your friends” who you often hung out with while she didn’t?
I’m a guy. I have male friends. I would support them in an instant if they were going through a breakup. I would expect my male friends (and my female friends) to do the same. Is this rare or weird? I dunno. I’m just me. I don’t have experience living anyone else’s life. But I’d recommend finding some friends who can form a support network for you whether or not it is “normal”. If it’s normal, be normal. If it isn’t, fuck being normal. Go be weird.
That’s messed up. I can’t stand people who lie, I’m mad for you
Well at one point i did suggest an open relationship but she didn’t agree to it haha
…the plot thickens lol
Yeah it doesn’t really matter now though haha
We learn from our mistakes don’t we? Hows it go, it’s only truly a mistake if we don’t learn from it.
It’s still your liberation day, and I still wish you the best in finding what you need in life. Love a good fresh start, be kind to yourself out there, stay genuine to your heart.
I was in a similar situation about 8 years ago. Married my dream girl, she seemed perfect for those years of flirting and dating. Didn’t really notice that she’d slowly separated me from my support network. After we got married it was like a switch was flipped, I was always on the defensive, everything I did was wrong, I was always the bad guy. Woke up one day feeling like it’d be better if I just wasn’t around anymore. Stewed in my misery for months before realizing one evening that there was a source of my misery. Spent another couple of months feeling too embarrassed to do anything. Then one day she was giving me shit over some nonsense and I just blurted it out. It wasn’t easy, but things slowly got back on track. I focused on myself and what was in my control, got back in shape, found time for hobbies I’d left behind, brought myself the joy that was missing. Now I’m happily married to an amazing woman who’s provided me with an equally amazing child and it’s hard for me to even remember the anguish I was going through.
Obviously our situations aren’t the same, but I just wanted to share and let you know that things get better. Some friends will filter back in, some won’t. Any mutual friends I had with my ex are just gone, she made sure to put barriers between us with shit talking and lies; fuck them too, they weren’t true friends.
Thank you for the words man
hey man, I’m so sorry this is happening to you.
some people in here are taking the view that society is less kind to men than to women. everyone’s entitled to their opinion, I guess.
I wanted you tell you though that I share your experience to some extent; I went through a breakup maybe 6 years ago and I lost almost all of my closest friends in that breakup. I’m not even on bad terms with my ex, lol. but it did just shake out that way. I’ve needed to build new roots, and I’ve had to do some introspection and learn how to go about building roots (partly since I’d moved to a new place).
hang in there. I don’t really want to say “let yourself move on” because your story is part of who you are, and right now that breakup and that rift with those friends is such an immediate and intense part of your story, but I promise it will become much less immediate and less intense with time.
Thank you!
First : sorry you are going through this.
Second : yes most guys won’t get the support they need. It sucks.
Third : yes you have shitty people around you
The people who you thought were your friends aren’t. Forget about them. Forget they exist. They aren’t worth your time.
Figure out what you like to do and join a club or group and move forward. Not just get over it. In that new group look for support there. Look for better friends there.
Thanks.
Yeah I’d be there for my bros if they went through this.
Yea, I have been there for several friends that went through this. If it really is how you say then those people kind of suck atm. Maybe ask one why before you write them off though. Better to know for sure vs remaining angry with people.
OP mentioned in another comment he went alt-right for a bit and came back.
I wouldn’t be there if a friend went off the deep end. I would however call him out for his views and tell him to fuck off vs just ghosting.
Ahh well if that’s the other shoe dropping. I’m always skeptical of folks that never bring up their flaws in the history. OP if that’s true you should own it, and apologize for those beliefs. It’s possible these people were done with you before the divorce.
He commented below with it. Might wanna reply there.
Good on you. In my experience no matter how much you’re there for bros, as soon as shit hits the fan for you it’s “sorry, I’m not really good with that stuff lol” and then they just kind of disappear until you’re magically better.
It’s also not easy to just write people off from your life for being shitty when you’re down and then be left with nobody. People act like “find better friends” is easy. Finding friends at all is hard for most people.
The quality of your life is the sum of the quality of the five people with whom you spend the most time.
five people with whom you spend the most time
To shreds, you say?
Do my dogs count?
I’d like to strongly challenge your third point. As others have said, there are many reasons people don’t provide emotional support besides “they’re not your friends.” They might not know how to be supportive, they might be afraid of saying the wrong things and causing more hurt, they might have an avoidant attachment style with a deep fear of having others depend on them. We all have moments when we fail to show up for people we care about, and if we respond by ending those relationships, we’ll be left without any at all.
I’m not saying it’s wrong for OP to end those friendships, and I think making new friends is usually a good move. I am saying that - when both parties are willing - being able to name and repair those hurts is part of having healthy relationships.
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I wouldn’t say his friends are just shitty people. You really have to work with bros to foster a relationship where talking about emotions is acceptable. As men, we are really just ill equipped because of broad ideas about masculinity and its hard cycle to break.
Im willing to bet, if you surveyed his friends, there might be some who are heart broken they didnt know they should have stepped up.
Fair enough
Without knowing more about you, it’s hard to say anything for sure. I can make a bunch of guesses.
One possibility: you didn’t cultivate your relationships as well as you thought. A lot of guys sink all of their “intimate relationship energy” into their partner, instead of spreading some out to friends and family members.
Maybe your ex ran a successful long-term hit campaign on you. That would fit with the cheating and the emotional abuse.
Maybe it’s due to the period of life that your friends are in. If everyone’s in their early 30s, they’re probably dealing with climate change, economic stress, children, etc. Doesn’t leave a lot of emotional bandwidth for someone you don’t already have deep ties with.
Maybe it’s a broader cultural thing. Guys tend to get the short end of the stick in general with breakups. We still don’t teach boys and men to explicitly emotionally support each other. We still don’t, as a society, emotionally support boys and men in general. Single dads get custody far less often, etc etc.
I’m not blaming you or exonerating you. Your situation sucks and knowing all the possible whys and wherefores probably won’t help you as much as figuring out what to do next.
I just want to say that this was a really well written and thoughtful reply.
Thanks.
Bro. I am gonna be real with you.
I was in an abusive relationship too. She cheated on me at 30 and blamed me. I am not going to sugar coat this.
It will fuck you up for a great long while. This all happened to me in 2020. I’ve been through intensive outpatient therapy. I’ve lost 100 lbs.
It still hurts when it comes to me. You are grieving. This ain’t depression. 40% of men who experience an unfaithful long term marriage commit suicide. You are heartbroken. You are realizing this ain’t you.
It will get better. Little by little. And I still have a long ass ways to go. I’m not even officially divorced yet.
I’m not going to give you advice, because the only thing I understand, is that I finally found me again, and I like that dude a hell of a lot more than I like who I was with my ex.
But it’s going to suck the entire time. The entire 5 years has sucked. But I finally see a light. There is a pinprick of light. I’m heading towards it. You can’t see it yet. I understand. But it’s there.
That statistic seems awfully high. I don’t suppose you recall where you read it?
You know, I can’t seem to find it right now.
It was in a paper discussing “Immediate effects of Post-Infidelity-Stress-Disorder”.
I was also given a similar number after my attempt (1/3rd of men)
It’s probably attempt suicide. There is generally an order of magnitude between attempt and commit. But I’m not downplaying how shitty it is tho.
She’s lying to your friends just like she lied to you. I know this from experience. Sucks and it’s not your fault man. Sorry to hear.
Yep.
Everyone in my life was done hearing about my divorce LONG before I was ready to stop talking about it. But, I just had to shut up and carry on, or risk driving them away.
I resonate with this a lot. I wished I stopped talking about it with certain people sooner.
I don’t blame them, some people have enough shit they are dealing with and they simply don’t know what to say.
I do think that this is partly what therapy is useful for, talking about something you’re not done with yet
I am turning 50 this year and laying in bed next to a woman who just cheated on me again.
I wish so fucking hard I could turn back time.
I parked my car in the garage, rolled down my window and went to sleep. I was shocked/disappointed I woke up when the car was running out of gas.
It sucks so fucking hard that you love this person and you have given so much, but then you realize they don’t feel the same about you and then realize you don’t even know who you are anymore.
Are you even someone without this person?
Take it day by day. You need to find out who you are again.
I’m sorry you don’t have support. No one to validate how you feel, help you heal.
Please stay strong. Please keep looking.
Please find yourself again.
It’s not too late to change your life and live better. You can still get a happy life.
People tend to side with the woman in a separation. Its the side effect of a patriarchal spciety: Toxic Masculinity. Men are just expected to have no emotions and can handle everything on their own, which isn’t true at all.
I feel the same. My parents tells me I need to “stop crying because I’m not being ‘manly’ enough”. Like, bruh I have a fucking existential crisis and disagnose depression and really wanna kms right now. So I get it.
The Left hasn’t doen enough to address the issues that men are facing, which is why the alt-right pipeline is so ripe for picking off boys to their fascist agenda. But please, remember, fascists aren’t your friends, no matter what they say. Plese don’t fall for the alt-right pipeline, my friend.
I think the left just needs to recalibrate their priorities. Society issues can only be solved with true Egalitarianism that supports both Men and Women.
I fell into alt right when she started abusing me which helped destroy the relationship. I got out of that shit.
I fell into alt right
That might have contributed to your friends ghosting you, depending on the friend group. You may have been legitimately grieving due to various reasons, but it might not have been perceived that way by your friend group.
I don’t know the full details of your interactions, but I could easily see that being a red flag for some of your friends.
I got out of that shit.
Good, because a lot of the alt right influencers prey on people like you were in your predicament. I’m sorry you went down that rabbit hole.
I place a lot of blame on myself for how things turned out but I’m pretty sure the reality is that I am not that person at all and would have never made said mistakes if she wasn’t so mean to me.
I’m glad you got out of that but I think we figured out why your friends stopped supporting you. You have reaped what you’ve sewn. Your actions had consequences.
Now that you’re free of both the relationship and the toxic mindset it would be a good time to pick up some hobbies that would encourage meeting and making new friends.
Lol in real life people dont care about politics that much
A leftist response to the alt-right pipeline starts with men. It would take a ton of emotional labor, but at-risk boys simply aren’t going to listen to women the way they will listen to men.
This brings a conundrum, as women are generally much more practiced at emotional labor than men are. They aren’t naturally better, they don’t choose to take it on, but they are conditioned to deal with it in a way that most men aren’t. That’s why women tend to have support networks that are there for them in times of difficulty, but many men don’t. Again, it’s not inherent nor a choice, but a complex result of society and circumstance.
Point is, if you’re a man and you’re waiting around for someone else to start lifting up men and boys, you’re going to be waiting a long time. As cliché as it is, you have to be the change you want to see in the world. Have some male friends you haven’t talked to in a while? Message them, ask them how they’ve been, and don’t be scared to get deep about things.
A support network starts with connecting two points, and if you don’t make the effort to build and maintain it, it’s not going to happen.
I feel like it’s weird to say “the left isn’t doing enough for men” when the left is full of men who are struggling with the same thing. They grew up in the same society, filled with the same outdated “suck it up” mentality.
So I appreciate you calling out the issue of younger men not being in a place to listen to women, and the issue of men in general not being in a place to emotionally support their fellow men. It’s not a left vs right thing, it’s that most men are simply ill-equipped to handle emotional labor due to these outdated cultural norms, and yet those same men are naturally the primary providers of support for other similarly ill-equipped men.
Just because the alt right is pretending to care about the needs of men doesn’t mean the left is worse at this. The alt right isn’t standing up for men, they’re using vulnerable men as a means to an end, and replacing “suck it up” with “blame women and leftists”. They’re not telling you how to truly process your emotions with patience and care, they’re just shifting the blame.
There’s plenty of men on the left that serve as excellent role models, they just don’t spend their time constantly talking about their gender, because a large part of evolving past these outdated cultural norms about gender is actually moving past these cultural norms about gender.
This means viewing people and their problems as human first before viewing them as <insert gender>. The majority of people who constantly fill the airwaves about “what it’s like to be a man” are actually just men who are still desperately clinging to those same self-destructive norms. They perpetuate this divide between genders, and leave their fellow men feeling alone and misunderstood and vulnerable to manipulation.
It definitely is not a left vs right thing. The context of my comment was simply “a response to the alt-right pipeline.” That’s the most that political alignment matters in this situation.
Is the advice in my comment wrong? I’m a woman who’s been watching the alt-right chew up and spit out boys for a while. My power to do anything about it is limited, because (if online) as soon as such a young man learns that I’m female, they have a ready-made reason to ignore everything I say. If in-person, they would dismiss me before I even speak. I do a lot of activism and speaking to build community and support local causes, but this is one arena that I can’t even enter. The nature of this issue invalidates me from the get-go.
What else can I do except encourage men to step up and do the activism that I wish I could do?
Not at all, I meant it when I said I appreciated your comment! I was just adding my own thoughts to the conversation.
It’s really hard for most people - man or woman - to make any headway in this arena precisely becase of the points you made. These poor men are very effectively primed to only respond well to traditionally masculine role models and talking points, and yet it is that very same traditional masculinity that is holding them back.
I just wanted to clarify in the context of the OP why they might feel like “the left isn’t doing enough,” and why that is actually just a part of the alt-right pipeline working as designed.
Ah, I see. I appreciate the clarification!
Same here man, it was many years ago. My ex was crazy - I don’t mean the kind of crazy like “everybody has a crazy ex crazy,” I mean literally crazy. I never knew whether I was coming home to someone weeping uncontrollably with her face buried in the couch - or bleary eyed with rage, screaming - pulling knives on me in the kitchen and threatening to kill me in my sleep. I am not exaggerating.
Five years of this shit getting increasingly worse before I finally said “this ain’t living” and pulled the plug. She tried desperately to get me to change my mind, but I was done. Then she turned on me in earnest, lying to everyone I knew and telling them all sorts of crazy shit. They should have known better - these people grew up with me, they knew I was a good guy.
But here’s the thing (and it still bugs me to this day) - when you’re the one doing the divorcing, you’re the one who gets blamed, right or wrong. There’s this sort of unspoken rule that the partner that wants to keep the marriage around must be the one that’s blameless. Nevermind if they’re abusive, manipulative, gaslighting pieces of shit who fuck around on you - they only want to make the marriage work!
But there’s a silver lining. People always get the truth eventually. She won’t be able to hide her true nature forever, and eventually people will come around. When they do, they will come to you and they will apologize. In the meantime, get your counseling, know it isn’t you, be good to yourself, and find someone who will treat you like you deserve to be treated.
I am married to my second wife now for over 15 years. She is, was and always will be: NORMAL. Thank goodness. Sometimes you can wonder if it was maybe somehow partly your fault. A good woman will disabuse you of that notion.
