March 11, 2025
Rare Opportunity to Speak Directly with a Husband in MLC

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In this podcast episode, John shares his personal experience with a midlife crisis that began in 2017. As he approached retirement, a loss of purpose led him into an online emotional affair, which acted as an addiction. Despite being married for over 40 years, John found himself entangled in a web of guilt and deceit. His online relationship escalated to include purchasing a house with his new partner, further complicating his life and leading to significant personal and legal challenges. John's story provides a raw, inside perspective on the psychological turmoil of a midlife crisis.
Transcript
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Foreign.
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Hello there and welcome to our show today, Midlife crisis, bomb drop
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and beyond. I'm going to start with a little background on what we call midlife
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crisis. We're going to refer to it often as mlc,
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which stands for midlife crisis. You're going to hear about the
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midlife spouse and then you'll also hear about the left
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behind spouse known as the LBs.
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You'll hear words like bomb drop and tunnel.
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And I'll give you a little background on those
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too. Midlife crisis is often
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dismissed as a cliche, but the reality is actually far more
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serious. During this period of midlife crisis,
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the individual undergoing that experience, they have a
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profound psychological and emotional upheaval. It often
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leads them to make impulsive and self destructive decisions.
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Despite the clear signs of instability, MLC individuals
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are still currently allowed to like, file for divorce, sell their
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family homes, make irreversible financial and legal choices,
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often to the devastation of their long term spouses and families.
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I'll tell you a little about bomb drop. The bomb drop that we're going
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to be talking about in almost every episode is actually the moment
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when a person, often the spouse, unexpectedly announces
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that they want a divorce, a major life change, or they suddenly adopt
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an entirely new personality. There's some
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symptoms of that, such as going from a loving
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spouse to all of a sudden committed
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to being cold, indifferent, cruel. They rewrite
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history. They can claim they've never been happy despite years of
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apparent contentment. And I mean even 20, 30,
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40 years being happily married. And then all of a sudden you wake
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up one morning and they say, you know what honey, I, I haven't been happy
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for 40 years. So you can see where I'm going. It's a
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little, little disconcerting to
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the left behind spouse. And you know, you feel like you're,
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the rug's been pulled out from under you. There's horrendous discard you
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to be hearing about because it's just not like a normal breakup.
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It's pretty different. Many bomb droppers
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become infatuated with a new partner. This is known as limerence.
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You'll hear that word every now and then as well.
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I already mentioned, they often file for divorce. Suddenly they liquidate
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assets. Let's see,
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for the spouse on the receiving end, it often feels like their world
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has exploded. Hence the term bomb drop.
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Many struggle to reconcile the sudden change as the MLC person appears
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almost unrecognizable. Some later regret their
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choices, but by then the damage is often extensive and
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irreparable. So thank you
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for joining us today because now you're going to hear from people from
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around the world as they tell their story from Bomb Drop
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and Beyond Limerence.
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This is the obsessive fantasy driven infatuation with
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another person often mistaken for true love during
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a midlife crisis. The stories
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and events discussed in this podcast are based on our guest
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experiences and are intended for informational and entertainment
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purposes only. They should not be considered legal, medical or
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professional advice. Any names, locations or identifying details
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have been changed to protect privacy. Any similarities
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to actual persons, living or dead, or real events are purely coincidental.
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The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily
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reflect those of the host or the podcast creators.
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Listeners should consult with a qualified professional regarding
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their own circumstances.
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Hello, dear listeners, today I have a really special guest for
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you. We are going to be speaking with John, who has been married for
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over 40. But John is the one that went through
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the midlife crisis. He's not a left behind spouse
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or a forward moving spouse. John is
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the one that experienced the crisis in his
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head. It started in 2017, it's lasted
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about eight years. He feels like he's starting to come
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through this and you're going to hear from him. He knew
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really right when it started and also when
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he started to come out of it. So we are going to be speaking
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with John. This is a really important guest for us to to
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meet with today to see the inside look at what it's like from
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their perspective. My midlife Crisis
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started in two late to I believe late 2017,
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somewhere around there. It was when I
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had retired a few years before,
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quote unquote retired. I didn't really retire.
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I ran a farm. I sold my cows. I had surgery on
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my neck because I had vertebrae that were in very bad shape.
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I still kept my farm and I raised corn and hay.
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So I was still actively involved in a job.
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Just it wasn't as demanding. But I did lose self
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focus, I lost purpose a lot in
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doing that. And I think,
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I mean I didn't notice depression. I think I'd been
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depressed my whole life. I really do. The job I
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had, it was a job that I was expected to
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do. I knew I was going to do it when I was five years old.
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So I think after I started and became a farmer
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it was, I mean I looked at it like this.
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There were a lot of nice things about it, but there were a lot of
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bad things about it too. So I the bad things
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or the good things outweighed the bad things. So Was
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it your, your family that had a farm and
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so you. My father's farm. And I was the only grandson. Gotcha. Okay.
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So that's how that. And I came here every. I came to my
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grandfather's farm every summer since I was five years old and spent
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two months here. So I think that contributed
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to it some. I didn't know. I was depressed and when
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I got out of it, I lost purpose
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of my life. My wife retired that year,
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which I didn't agree with the retirement.
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She was a teacher. She could have worked another year. I felt she should have
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worked another year, built her retirement a little more.
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We just saved on insurance. There were a lot of issues with, with it,
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but I didn't, I didn't voice my opinion. It's her,
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her choice. It's not my choice. So she,
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she retired and then it went along. It was
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probably. I mean, I did things. I didn't
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have a great beard. I didn't have a great beard. Six months ago.
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Yeah, six months ago. And I, I always had
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people work for me and they were always like
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most of them were. I had a full time guy that worked for
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me and he was in his mid, he was
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in his 30s and we were like friends and that was
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probably a lot of it too. I was more
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adept to his, his age and.
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But anyways, that I didn't,
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I didn't. I had an online emotional affair
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and. Can you tell us, can you tell us how it
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started? It started just as messaging
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online as a friendship. Was it
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somebody that you actually knew? No, it wasn't.
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Wow. Wait, did somebody just message you out of the blue? I can't
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remember how it actually started.
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If I think I messaged her and she
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messaged back. She lived about an
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hour away from my house. We.
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We never met till last six.
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My timeline, because we've been set. My wife's been separated
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from me for four months. So we never met for. We met
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for the first time in August of this year and
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it had been going on for like three and a half years online.
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Yeah. And that's a lot of the issue with my wife.
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And it is like. It is an addiction. I will tell you.
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It's an addiction. Right. And the person that I
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was with was a lot younger than me. She was
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pretty smart in knowing how to control
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that addiction, if you know what I mean. There were
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times where we didn't speak for or message for two
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or three months. And of course it built the anticipation
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and that and the addiction. It built an addiction.
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Do you know if she was married. She was not married when I
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met her. She had a boyfriend. They did
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have a baby. I mean, when my wife found
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out, she wanted a paternity test, and we
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never had physical contact.
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It. It was. It was a weird relationship.
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There was limerence, and that contributes to
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the addiction. And let me ask you, did you know, like,
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in 2017, did you even know the word limerence? Did you know that that's a
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thing? No, I didn't even know. Midlife crisis.
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I didn't all knew for you. I'll tell you something.
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I joined the support group,
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the community, or the hero spouse community.
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The only reason I joined it is because I was on this marriage
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site and I told my story, and a lady said, there's a
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test you need to take. And I took the test. And she goes,
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how many of those things did you have? And I said, like,
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80%. And she goes, you had a midlife crisis?
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And I said, what. What are you talking about? I didn't
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even know it till it was over. Right. And I.
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My rationale wasn't right. I didn't. I mean, I have
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a business partner. We buy and sell bankrupt properties.
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I told him about it,
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and he couldn't believe it. He goes,
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and there's more to this story. I haven't told
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the whole thing. Thing. This girl, this summer,
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her and her boyfriend broke up, like, in April
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of last year. And it got more.
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She got more attached.
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And there was a house that she.
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She had worked for. The person cleaning the house.
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The person had died. Died in the house.
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The house came up for sale. It came up at a very reasonable price.
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She knew what I did, and she wanted to buy the
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house. And her mother actually called me
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and said, well, why don't we buy the house and flip it? And in the
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process, she decided she wanted the house. And I ended
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up owning the house with her, and I
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ended up owning it because when I wanted to stop,
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she threatened to. My wife's birthday is August.
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She's threatened to come to the house, on my house,
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and expose us of what was going on.
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Wow. Yeah. And that actually was a
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good thing because that actually brought me
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to my senses, if. If that. That's a good term
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to use. I knew that what I was doing was wrong.
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I had extreme guilt. Extreme. Like me
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and my wife had started walking a mile every day on
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our property. We own a lot of property. And I had a hard
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time doing it with her. I. It was
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because you felt so guilty. It was agony. Yeah.
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And I was a little Different. A lot of men
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say. Apparently they say,
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I love you, but I'm not in love with you. That wasn't me. I wasn't.
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I didn't have that mindset. I was in love with my wife the whole time.
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My. My thinking was, how could I feel this way
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about two different people? And it was.
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Was terrible. I mean, it. It. When the guilt started,
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it was. I mean, I knew
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from what started happening with the house that what
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I was doing was wrong, that my wife was
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the best person for me. She was.
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You know, how could I do this to somebody like that?
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It was very difficult. And I
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actually prayed for it to end, and it ended,
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but not. Not the way I wanted in that.
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The consequences that I have to
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deal with. Wow. So really, you had that emotional
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affair for about three years with. Yes.
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And. And you didn't meet her for the first two or two and a half
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or three years, it sounds like. Yeah. And during that
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time, did you feel ever guilty about texting or calling?
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Not as much. It went through my mind. It went through my
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mind that what I was doing was wrong. It didn't
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stop me, though. Yeah. It wasn't enough guilt to
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stop me. The house was enough guilt to start the
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process, to stop it. I was still addicted,
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though, during that. Time, because that behavior of
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that woman, the house woman, that's sort of
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like. Sort of blackmail kind of thing. Oh, yeah. We're in a lawsuit
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right now. Really? Oh, my God. I went.
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I went to the police, and the police said, if you hadn't
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closed on the house, we'd have arrested her.
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We closed on the house was the problem. I ended up signing
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a paper in the attorney's office that I wouldn't sue them.
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Yeah, that's. It's not a good thing.
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I mean, I tell people my story because
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hopefully someone can learn from it, but I'm pretty embarrassed.
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Well, we'll get to that. I mean, it's like a
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disease, and it sounds like, you know, you couldn't really control it.
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Disease. It's an addiction. It's different than taking drugs.
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Yeah, exactly. You know what? When I first, you know,
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started understanding how MLC works, I equated
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it to somebody that's like a heroin addict, you. Know,
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like, it almost.
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There's a lot more that I've learned, and I've been
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on the site and commented some, and everybody
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wants to know why. And I thought, I know why,
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and they don't want to know. There's. There's.
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I talked to one guy called me up because I
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had just gotten on the site and I was telling about it, and I told
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a little bit about why. And he called me and he says, you don't want
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to say that on here. You'll be. You will.
250
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They. These women will tear you.
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Well, can you tell us why? We're not going to tear you apart.
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And we don't use names. You are not going to want to hear it.
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You know, marriage is two imperfect people trying
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to. And they are. Yeah. And what I
255
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did was wrong,
256
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and I know that. But there were a lot of reasons why. I've been
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in counsel. I'm in. I have a meeting with my counselor tomorrow.
258
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I've been in counseling every week. It's gone
259
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to two weeks now. I'm in Christian counseling. I'm in regular counseling.
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And I don't mean with a coach. I mean with.
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With a counselor from a hospital. So they're,
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you know, they're professional people.
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And I was very insecure.
264
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We. Me and my wife have been married 43 years.
265
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There is a pending divorce. We have
266
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had a hard marriage.
267
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Yeah. And this was a long time ago.
268
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I know that. I know that she's very
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upset about being separated and
270
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the way our marriage is ending up if it ends up that
271
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way. I know that she basically said when she left, you ruined
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my life. And I feel the same
273
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way, too. But there. There is. There's.
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There's things on both sides that cause it. And really
275
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what people need to do when they. You can't.
276
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The problem is. And I've said this to people that have contacted
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me. I said, I wish I had a magic phrase that I could whisper in
278
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the person's ear that has this and they would come out of it.
279
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Yep. I wish I did,
280
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but there isn't. And so you started to
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see yourself going in that direction of being addicted.
282
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Like. I didn't really.
283
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I knew it was. I didn't equate it to an addiction
284
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then, but it was. I couldn't control myself.
285
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I've made terrible decisions.
286
00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:07,856
Wait, what? The terrible decisions even outside of the relationship,
287
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sort of like just in general.
288
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Well, I couldn't. I'm very
289
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anal. And I. I pay a lot of bills.
290
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I write my checks. I put a date on the envelope
291
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five days before they have to be five days before they're due.
292
00:18:26,264 --> 00:18:29,570
And they get mailed five days before they're due. And then three
293
00:18:29,610 --> 00:18:32,802
days after that, the money is transferred from my savings account to
294
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my checking account. So it draws interest. During that whole time,
295
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I got. So I was forgetting to Take the letters out and mail.
296
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Wow. So. So I hear this a lot, that people describe it as
297
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a brain fog. Did you feel that way that you're. You were just a little.
298
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But I knew looking back,
299
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I just thought, mine is different.
300
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I'm 66 years old. This started in the late 50s.
301
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And I'll tell you, I know the day.
302
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Not the day, but I remember the day very distinctly
303
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that it started. I sat in a chair right over
304
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there, and all of a sudden I started thinking
305
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about dying. And it was like a panic
306
00:19:17,228 --> 00:19:20,620
attack. It felt like time and space was compressing,
307
00:19:20,780 --> 00:19:24,748
and it lasted for about an hour, and it would come and go, and I
308
00:19:24,804 --> 00:19:27,880
had it for, I don't know, six months or a year.
309
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And it did leave after a while,
310
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but I changed, too. I became a midlife crisis person.
311
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Wow. So that's sort of how it started. You started having that
312
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feeling of. Yeah, it was. It was an.
313
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I have anxiety pretty bad. I always have.
314
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And it was worse than any anxiety that I've ever had.
315
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Like I said, it was like a panic attack. Wow. Did you
316
00:19:54,494 --> 00:19:57,830
actually. Did you talk about that with your wife or did you. I didn't talk
317
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to her. Go back.
318
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If I could advise somebody. I mean,
319
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I don't think anybody that is going through. Somebody going
320
00:20:09,710 --> 00:20:13,198
through that might listen to somebody and say,
321
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if they said, hey, you're having a problem. You're having a mental
322
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problem. It is a mental problem. It's mental.
323
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It's. It's. You're. You have a mental
324
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deficiency. It's. It's. I don't know why it's
325
00:20:28,590 --> 00:20:32,318
temporary, but it is a mental deficiency.
326
00:20:32,494 --> 00:20:36,046
I don't want to say it's mental retardation, because it isn't
327
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like that, but it.
328
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It's. It's something your brain isn't.
329
00:20:41,788 --> 00:20:44,972
Right. Right. I know you want to know why I
330
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know it. And. And this is one of the things also
331
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that started more guilt is.
332
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I have a knee problem pretty bad, and a back problem
333
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because of what I've done my whole life. And I.
334
00:20:59,876 --> 00:21:03,918
I go to a specialist for it. And they said,
335
00:21:04,044 --> 00:21:07,402
why don't. There's a reservation near us. And they said,
336
00:21:07,426 --> 00:21:10,538
why don't you go to the reservation, buy some gummies and see if it helps
337
00:21:10,554 --> 00:21:13,770
you. I took a little piece of that gummy,
338
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and it made me terribly paranoid, so I didn't do
339
00:21:18,146 --> 00:21:22,154
it anymore. When it also took the midlife crisis
340
00:21:22,202 --> 00:21:25,626
away, I was. I knew
341
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what I was doing was terribly wrong. I felt guilty.
342
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I felt. It was like.
343
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And that was late it was like a
344
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year ago, maybe not even a year ago, 10 months
345
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ago. But it affected my brain. So the chemical,
346
00:21:44,572 --> 00:21:48,572
whatever chemical is in marijuana affected the
347
00:21:48,596 --> 00:21:52,012
midlife crisis, Whatever the midlife crisis was doing to my brain.
348
00:21:52,156 --> 00:21:54,320
Wow, that's amazing.
349
00:21:58,830 --> 00:22:02,102
Yeah. Thank God it's temporary, you know. You know,
350
00:22:02,126 --> 00:22:05,734
I had mentioned something to a doctor and they, they said that they're,
351
00:22:05,782 --> 00:22:08,822
they can do blood test or hormone. It might have had something to do with
352
00:22:08,846 --> 00:22:12,294
hormones, you know, as people age. So I
353
00:22:12,302 --> 00:22:16,678
don't know. I guess they say. And that's the male menopause andropause
354
00:22:16,854 --> 00:22:20,850
that could be. Yeah, probably. I'm sure it probably is.
355
00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:25,824
I don't, you know, I don't know.
356
00:22:25,992 --> 00:22:28,976
But I didn't know I had medlike crisis.
357
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I didn't even realize the severity. There could be a severity.
358
00:22:33,024 --> 00:22:36,576
Yeah, I don't think there's enough people
359
00:22:36,648 --> 00:22:39,900
don't. You know midlife crisis, you go
360
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:43,760
and you get a tattoo like that, you go buy
361
00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:47,136
a car. Actually, I planned
362
00:22:47,168 --> 00:22:50,496
on getting that tattoo long before I got my midlife crisis.
363
00:22:50,528 --> 00:22:52,960
It just. Oh, okay.
364
00:22:53,120 --> 00:22:56,272
Yeah. So let me just. Let's see. Okay. So she
365
00:22:56,296 --> 00:23:00,100
was your limerant object, basically, that gal.
366
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:05,712
Do you feel like she may have sought you out kind of thing after.
367
00:23:05,816 --> 00:23:09,420
She found out more about me? I think she did.
368
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:13,100
I mean, she,
369
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:17,870
she. I'm trying to think how old
370
00:23:17,910 --> 00:23:21,838
she was. She was 22 or 23.
371
00:23:21,974 --> 00:23:25,470
Oh, wow. When we first started talking.
372
00:23:25,550 --> 00:23:28,767
She's. Well, no. 25,
373
00:23:28,993 --> 00:23:32,158
24. And she lives in America.
374
00:23:32,334 --> 00:23:35,614
What? Yeah, she looks not far from here.
375
00:23:35,782 --> 00:23:38,702
Wow, that's crazy that somebody's so close by.
376
00:23:38,806 --> 00:23:42,266
And did she ever come and how did your wife find out?
377
00:23:42,358 --> 00:23:46,610
Like, so obviously she didn't come on. The birthday, but no,
378
00:23:46,650 --> 00:23:50,306
my wife asked to see my phone because we had had an issue
379
00:23:50,378 --> 00:23:53,938
two years ago and I gave it to her and she said, what's this?
380
00:23:54,074 --> 00:23:58,114
And it was actually a phone call from the. There was a text message,
381
00:23:58,242 --> 00:24:01,122
I believe the girl's mother on my phone. And I said,
382
00:24:01,146 --> 00:24:04,530
well, that's something you probably aren't going to want to see. And that's how she
383
00:24:04,570 --> 00:24:08,210
found out. And I, I immediately told
384
00:24:08,250 --> 00:24:12,434
her that she called the woman and started talking
385
00:24:12,482 --> 00:24:16,050
with her. And after all of the commotion
386
00:24:16,130 --> 00:24:20,162
stopped, I went and told my wife that there was a house involved.
387
00:24:20,226 --> 00:24:24,434
And apparently she had already been told that, but I wanted
388
00:24:24,562 --> 00:24:27,842
to be upfront with her from here on.
389
00:24:28,026 --> 00:24:31,698
Yeah. So it sounds like from your wife's perspective,
390
00:24:31,794 --> 00:24:35,212
that might have been the bomb drop. Oh, it was, yes.
391
00:24:35,356 --> 00:24:38,636
Yep. And what happened after that?
392
00:24:38,788 --> 00:24:42,348
When this. Did it happen? Oh, you said it was pretty recent.
393
00:24:42,484 --> 00:24:45,484
October 20th. It happened. Okay,
394
00:24:45,612 --> 00:24:49,388
right. Months ago. Yes. Four months
395
00:24:49,444 --> 00:24:52,040
ago. Wow. Half months ago.
396
00:24:52,340 --> 00:24:55,788
And there were two days we didn't speak after
397
00:24:55,844 --> 00:24:59,560
that. We spoke. I don't know.
398
00:25:00,030 --> 00:25:03,398
I think she was just making plans at the time.
399
00:25:03,454 --> 00:25:07,650
We did, actually, the day before
400
00:25:08,510 --> 00:25:11,910
and the day. Two days before. We walked both
401
00:25:11,950 --> 00:25:15,542
days, which I was shocked, but I think she was just
402
00:25:15,566 --> 00:25:19,574
doing it to put up a sense of normalcy.
403
00:25:19,702 --> 00:25:22,774
Yes. So. Because she left the next morning.
404
00:25:22,942 --> 00:25:26,664
And when she left, was it sort of immediate
405
00:25:26,712 --> 00:25:30,100
or sort of like, you know what? I'm. I'm out of here.
406
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:34,296
It was covert. She never told me. Oh, I haven't spoken
407
00:25:34,328 --> 00:25:37,880
to her since that morning. Wow. So you have not spoken to your.
408
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,112
So your wife is almost like what we call. What do we call
409
00:25:41,136 --> 00:25:44,440
it? Nlc. The. The. The spouse that doesn't come back.
410
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,180
The. Yeah. Yeah.
411
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:50,940
Like a runaway wife. Yeah. Okay.
412
00:25:53,660 --> 00:25:57,140
Election day was the last day, full day. We were
413
00:25:57,180 --> 00:26:00,852
together the next morning. We didn't know who had
414
00:26:00,876 --> 00:26:04,372
won the election. She woke up. I think the last thing
415
00:26:04,396 --> 00:26:06,480
she said to me was, trump won the election.
416
00:26:07,660 --> 00:26:10,320
And I had a doctor's appointment that morning.
417
00:26:10,620 --> 00:26:13,732
And when I came home, oh,
418
00:26:13,796 --> 00:26:17,220
it's a long. There's so much involved. We own
419
00:26:17,260 --> 00:26:20,360
a farm. She has horses.
420
00:26:20,970 --> 00:26:24,594
Very expensive horses. The horses were gone.
421
00:26:24,722 --> 00:26:28,630
All very expensive saddles. All the saddles were gone.
422
00:26:28,970 --> 00:26:32,802
She has an art studio in her barn
423
00:26:32,866 --> 00:26:37,250
that I built. And most
424
00:26:37,290 --> 00:26:40,722
of her art stuff was gone. Very little was
425
00:26:40,746 --> 00:26:44,194
taken from the house. You said you
426
00:26:44,202 --> 00:26:47,180
did file for divorce. She did, yeah.
427
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,820
So this was. And this is the longest you guys have ever been separated?
428
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,144
Yes, we were separated one other time for,
429
00:26:55,232 --> 00:26:58,040
like, oh, maybe two months.
430
00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:02,200
And it was the same. I mean, I came. I was.
431
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,400
At that time, I was in my 40s.
432
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:09,208
I was playing hockey. I played hockey
433
00:27:09,384 --> 00:27:12,770
all of my Most. All of my life at a very
434
00:27:12,810 --> 00:27:16,610
high level. And I played men's league here locally.
435
00:27:16,690 --> 00:27:20,018
And a bunch of kids saw me from the college and said,
436
00:27:20,154 --> 00:27:23,314
you need to come to play. And I went play.
437
00:27:23,482 --> 00:27:26,482
And I came home one night, and all our furniture and our whole house was
438
00:27:26,506 --> 00:27:30,430
empty after a hockey game.
439
00:27:32,730 --> 00:27:36,018
Wow. So we have. That was another time.
440
00:27:36,154 --> 00:27:39,660
And we went for Christian marriage counseling
441
00:27:39,820 --> 00:27:42,796
at that time. And I did.
442
00:27:42,948 --> 00:27:46,760
I mean, a lot of my behavior was different after that.
443
00:27:48,420 --> 00:27:52,444
I did change in different ways. And I'm.
444
00:27:52,492 --> 00:27:55,628
I'm right now. I've. I've done a lot of.
445
00:27:55,684 --> 00:27:58,364
I've got notepads here full of.
446
00:27:58,452 --> 00:28:02,092
Of ways to modify your
447
00:28:02,196 --> 00:28:05,876
behavior, to deal with Your emotions to
448
00:28:05,948 --> 00:28:09,124
relate to women. How to be
449
00:28:09,132 --> 00:28:12,720
a better husband and a better, you know, a better person.
450
00:28:14,700 --> 00:28:18,360
You know, I. When I do something, I don't do it halfway.
451
00:28:19,260 --> 00:28:22,996
My idea was, I'm going to be a better person out of this.
452
00:28:23,148 --> 00:28:26,692
Good for you. And it sounds like you. It. It's. Do you feel like
453
00:28:26,716 --> 00:28:30,646
you're out of the tunnel now, of the delimiter object thing
454
00:28:30,718 --> 00:28:34,150
that's passed? Yes. You're. You're out. Did you.
455
00:28:34,190 --> 00:28:37,702
Did you feel like. Was that a gradual process or.
456
00:28:37,806 --> 00:28:41,478
Well, it was abrupt. It was when. Yeah.
457
00:28:41,654 --> 00:28:44,850
Wait, it was when your wife or she left?
458
00:28:45,310 --> 00:28:48,758
Yeah. Yeah. I offered to go to counseling. I said,
459
00:28:48,814 --> 00:28:52,822
you know, can we work on this? I think we
460
00:28:52,846 --> 00:28:56,506
should go to counseling. And of course, because our marriage was the way it was,
461
00:28:56,558 --> 00:29:01,842
was she had been to counseling before and
462
00:29:01,946 --> 00:29:05,106
after you do that, then, I mean,
463
00:29:05,178 --> 00:29:08,610
she would do all kinds of things to try to. The last thing
464
00:29:08,650 --> 00:29:12,402
she was doing, and she was doing it right up till she left,
465
00:29:12,586 --> 00:29:16,322
was trying to show me more respect because that changes the
466
00:29:16,346 --> 00:29:19,842
way I react. So she was trying to do that. She was trying to
467
00:29:19,946 --> 00:29:23,276
improve. Yeah, but she didn't
468
00:29:23,308 --> 00:29:26,200
do any. She was doing.
469
00:29:26,740 --> 00:29:30,600
She didn't do any of the emotional stuff for herself to make me more
470
00:29:30,980 --> 00:29:34,412
connected to her. You see, what I'm in.
471
00:29:34,436 --> 00:29:37,900
That went through my mind too. Why do I have this connection
472
00:29:37,980 --> 00:29:41,180
to this other person but not to her? Yeah.
473
00:29:41,340 --> 00:29:44,652
Almost a stranger, really. Yeah. You know?
474
00:29:44,756 --> 00:29:48,140
Yeah. Why is this there, this emotional
475
00:29:48,220 --> 00:29:51,270
connection with her, but there isn't with my wife?
476
00:29:51,770 --> 00:29:55,250
I found all that out in the last 10 days because
477
00:29:55,370 --> 00:29:58,930
I have to meet with my counselor tomorrow and I told you
478
00:29:58,970 --> 00:30:02,594
she wanted me to go back in time, and I had a
479
00:30:02,602 --> 00:30:06,338
hard time doing that because she said there's always
480
00:30:06,394 --> 00:30:10,030
one major thing that. That a personal.
481
00:30:10,330 --> 00:30:13,890
She's done prison counseling, too. And there's always one
482
00:30:13,930 --> 00:30:17,516
major thing that an inmate brings up that their life changes
483
00:30:17,548 --> 00:30:20,860
on a die. But knowing what I know
484
00:30:20,900 --> 00:30:24,780
now, there isn't always one major thing. It can be subtle things. It can
485
00:30:24,820 --> 00:30:28,492
be. Mine was emotional
486
00:30:28,556 --> 00:30:31,660
attention was given and withdrawn as
487
00:30:31,700 --> 00:30:35,068
a child. I can remember it
488
00:30:35,124 --> 00:30:38,556
now. Did it. Did it seem like it should affect
489
00:30:38,588 --> 00:30:41,120
me? No, but it's subconscious.
490
00:30:41,420 --> 00:30:44,756
Wow. And it imprints you. There's ways
491
00:30:44,788 --> 00:30:48,196
to change it. Oh, really? What kind of ways?
492
00:30:48,308 --> 00:30:49,840
I don't know that yet.
493
00:30:52,220 --> 00:30:55,636
And so was this from a parent figure? Yeah.
494
00:30:55,828 --> 00:30:59,604
I always thought it was from my dad because my dad
495
00:30:59,652 --> 00:31:02,628
is a lot like me. He isn't very. I mean,
496
00:31:02,684 --> 00:31:05,828
my family never hugged, never kissed each other,
497
00:31:05,884 --> 00:31:09,198
never. And my father Emotions were sort of pushed
498
00:31:09,214 --> 00:31:13,102
under the rug, or more like, you're a guy. Don't cry. Just.
499
00:31:13,286 --> 00:31:17,150
Yeah. And it can't. My mom. Me and my mom
500
00:31:17,190 --> 00:31:21,182
aren't speaking right now because of it. Oh. And it's not.
501
00:31:21,286 --> 00:31:24,170
And I, I just, I can't talk to her.
502
00:31:25,030 --> 00:31:28,622
And I will say, though, I think. Tell you
503
00:31:28,646 --> 00:31:32,410
why it is. It's because when I, when,
504
00:31:32,820 --> 00:31:36,460
when this first happened, like two days after it happened,
505
00:31:36,620 --> 00:31:39,852
my mom calls me and I couldn't believe it because she never calls me.
506
00:31:39,876 --> 00:31:43,020
And I always put my phone on speakerphone and my wife
507
00:31:43,100 --> 00:31:46,332
there. And she goes, well, are you going to tell her? And I had
508
00:31:46,356 --> 00:31:49,772
no intentions of telling her at that time because I didn't know
509
00:31:49,956 --> 00:31:54,124
what the, what we were, where our lives were going.
510
00:31:54,292 --> 00:31:58,428
So why would I. Why would I? And my
511
00:31:58,484 --> 00:32:01,240
wife started and I, I.
512
00:32:01,700 --> 00:32:04,680
And she said, well, things aren't good.
513
00:32:05,460 --> 00:32:09,292
And I. We told my mother and it went along a
514
00:32:09,316 --> 00:32:12,588
while, and of course my mother goes,
515
00:32:12,764 --> 00:32:16,172
I'm not taking sides. And I
516
00:32:16,196 --> 00:32:19,372
talked to my counselor about it, and she said, well,
517
00:32:19,396 --> 00:32:23,004
what's that tell you when she says that? And I said, well, she's taken.
518
00:32:23,092 --> 00:32:27,190
She's not taking my side, it's taking her side.
519
00:32:27,810 --> 00:32:30,906
How did that make you cool? Well, that.
520
00:32:30,978 --> 00:32:34,030
I don't want to disrespect my mother, so I'm not talking.
521
00:32:35,090 --> 00:32:37,670
Were you expecting your mom to take your side?
522
00:32:38,210 --> 00:32:40,550
I would expect she should,
523
00:32:41,810 --> 00:32:44,950
yeah. It's a situation. I mean, over 40 years,
524
00:32:46,530 --> 00:32:50,346
my wife's attachment style is a vindictive attachment style,
525
00:32:50,378 --> 00:32:53,888
too. And my daughter does not speak to me. I haven't
526
00:32:53,904 --> 00:32:57,952
seen my grandson in four months, dear. Yeah, she's been
527
00:32:57,976 --> 00:33:01,440
on the Internet and villainized me. And I did
528
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:04,800
put an end to that because when I could comment on it,
529
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:08,384
I put, maybe you ought to tell all these people about the adulterous
530
00:33:08,432 --> 00:33:11,340
affair that stopped it.
531
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:15,360
But I do think, you know, the other
532
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,336
generations before us, you know, like your parents,
533
00:33:18,448 --> 00:33:21,900
they probably did the best they could at that time.
534
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,832
You know, everybody. Yeah. You mean in raising a child?
535
00:33:27,016 --> 00:33:30,608
Yep. And that was just the way it was. Everybody does.
536
00:33:30,744 --> 00:33:34,860
I mean, my daughter told me that she.
537
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:38,832
And I don't know why she's not speaking to me because we
538
00:33:38,856 --> 00:33:42,240
did speak at Christmas time. What? She told
539
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:45,052
me I was an absentee father. And I watch.
540
00:33:45,236 --> 00:33:48,460
I mean, I work. I ran a farm.
541
00:33:48,500 --> 00:33:51,964
It was a small farm. We had like 40. We were
542
00:33:52,052 --> 00:33:55,660
40 to 50. 40 to 60 cows. We had
543
00:33:55,700 --> 00:33:59,372
120 head. I hired one kid to
544
00:33:59,396 --> 00:34:03,004
come after school for an hour a day. I worked 13
545
00:34:03,092 --> 00:34:06,012
to 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
546
00:34:06,116 --> 00:34:09,340
Wow. 40 years. And I had three weeks off
547
00:34:09,380 --> 00:34:13,832
the whole time. Uh huh. So was I an absentee father?
548
00:34:13,976 --> 00:34:17,672
Yes, in a lot of ways. Did her college get
549
00:34:17,696 --> 00:34:20,456
paid for, does she have college loans to pay?
550
00:34:20,608 --> 00:34:24,344
No. Did half her house get paid for by her father?
551
00:34:24,472 --> 00:34:28,408
Yes. So I, you know,
552
00:34:28,544 --> 00:34:31,540
there were other ways I tried to make up for it.
553
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:35,064
I kind of did the same thing my mother did to me, I guess.
554
00:34:35,192 --> 00:34:39,080
Yep. And that, that is typical.
555
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:43,016
You know, that's what we do. Yep. So yeah,
556
00:34:43,048 --> 00:34:47,128
I agree. My. Me not, I think the generations
557
00:34:47,224 --> 00:34:50,616
being raised. I've got a teaching degree and I've
558
00:34:50,648 --> 00:34:54,376
taught school also. And I don't, because I don't
559
00:34:54,408 --> 00:34:58,260
agree with the way the schools are run. But I do think
560
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,130
my generation and probably my,
561
00:35:02,250 --> 00:35:06,082
maybe my daughter's generation have had the best
562
00:35:06,266 --> 00:35:10,390
parenting that they can have. The parenting now is terrible
563
00:35:11,210 --> 00:35:14,510
in most cases from what I've seen.
564
00:35:15,530 --> 00:35:19,122
But. And that shapes a person in a lot of
565
00:35:19,146 --> 00:35:23,390
ways. And I don't think
566
00:35:24,250 --> 00:35:28,468
I know one thing. Me being an anxious preoccupied
567
00:35:28,564 --> 00:35:32,440
probably stopped me from leaving my wife.
568
00:35:32,940 --> 00:35:36,724
You know what I mean? I, I had no intentions of ever leaving
569
00:35:36,772 --> 00:35:39,760
her. Never. Never really. I mean,
570
00:35:40,300 --> 00:35:43,620
I was buying stuff for a car right up till,
571
00:35:43,780 --> 00:35:47,412
till there's a brand new set of tires out in
572
00:35:47,436 --> 00:35:51,076
my shop. There's snow tires out in my shop on rims.
573
00:35:51,188 --> 00:35:54,770
You know, I was still buying stuff with the anticipation that,
574
00:35:54,900 --> 00:35:58,518
you know, a month before this all happened that,
575
00:35:58,654 --> 00:36:01,766
you know, she would need. So there was,
576
00:36:01,918 --> 00:36:04,662
I, I'm odd, I guess, is all I'm saying.
577
00:36:04,766 --> 00:36:08,966
I'm not typical MLC that, that looked
578
00:36:08,998 --> 00:36:12,570
at, you know, a progression to leave.
579
00:36:13,230 --> 00:36:16,870
I guess there are some that don't. Your wife is lucky in that respect.
580
00:36:16,990 --> 00:36:20,450
You know, she might, I don't know. Is she?
581
00:36:21,060 --> 00:36:24,812
He ended up in the same spot, only in reverse
582
00:36:24,876 --> 00:36:28,364
roles. Did she realize you had a midlife
583
00:36:28,412 --> 00:36:31,724
crisis? Did you say that to her? Did you guys talk about it?
584
00:36:31,892 --> 00:36:35,708
No, I didn't know till after she. Oh, wait, so when did you
585
00:36:35,764 --> 00:36:39,708
realize after she left? After. Yeah,
586
00:36:39,804 --> 00:36:43,356
I didn't find, I didn't join that marriage support
587
00:36:43,428 --> 00:36:46,972
group till after she left. And that's where the person in
588
00:36:46,996 --> 00:36:50,716
it said, hey, you need to take this test. And that's
589
00:36:50,748 --> 00:36:54,780
when I found out and I have told her. I've sent
590
00:36:54,820 --> 00:36:58,284
her the information to the, to the midlife crisis
591
00:36:58,332 --> 00:37:02,556
group. I don't think she knows the extent that it can affect a person
592
00:37:02,628 --> 00:37:06,028
because she did say when we were together two
593
00:37:06,084 --> 00:37:09,964
weeks, she could say I could understand if you had some kind of
594
00:37:09,972 --> 00:37:13,292
mental problem and this happened. Little does she know I
595
00:37:13,316 --> 00:37:16,440
did. Yeah. Well, that's good. She said that.
596
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:23,672
She won't read the information. She won't look at it. She won't.
597
00:37:23,816 --> 00:37:27,912
She's really hurt. She feels really betrayed.
598
00:37:28,056 --> 00:37:31,432
I think she feels really betrayed. If there was a way
599
00:37:31,456 --> 00:37:35,208
I could educate them and give them the knowledge that I have,
600
00:37:35,344 --> 00:37:39,300
at least they'd understand. Well, we're trying to do that with
601
00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,922
this show and there's a lot, there's a,
602
00:37:43,096 --> 00:37:47,610
A lot of folks now that are trying to lift the, the awareness. Of mlc,
603
00:37:47,950 --> 00:37:52,166
newer awareness. And there needs to be some mental health
604
00:37:52,238 --> 00:37:55,430
studies. There needs. I believe there's, there's some
605
00:37:55,470 --> 00:37:59,050
way that this can be prevented. Yeah, to the extent,
606
00:37:59,550 --> 00:38:03,062
I mean, you're probably not going to prevent a midlife crisis, but to the
607
00:38:03,086 --> 00:38:07,010
extent that people have it, I think there is a way to
608
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:10,740
limit the severity.
609
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:15,568
But there's not, there's not enough knowledge,
610
00:38:15,664 --> 00:38:20,176
there's not enough awareness. There's not enough studying,
611
00:38:20,368 --> 00:38:22,540
and there's probably not enough money.
612
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:29,456
Well, I mean, the last we've had one meeting where I've
613
00:38:29,488 --> 00:38:32,976
seen her and it was on like we're doing now, she couldn't
614
00:38:33,008 --> 00:38:34,100
look at the camera.
615
00:38:36,350 --> 00:38:40,486
She could be having her own crisis, too. I, I wondered that
616
00:38:40,638 --> 00:38:43,878
she had gone through something. She's on hormone,
617
00:38:43,974 --> 00:38:45,810
so I don't know.
618
00:38:48,510 --> 00:38:51,990
She's. She's got a master's degree. She got
619
00:38:52,030 --> 00:38:55,078
a degree in art education,
620
00:38:55,214 --> 00:38:58,422
elementary education, and a minor in psychology and
621
00:38:58,446 --> 00:39:02,384
a minor in abnormal
622
00:39:02,432 --> 00:39:06,000
psychology. Huh. She ought to know what's going
623
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:09,184
on. But I don't know what she does. My attorney
624
00:39:09,232 --> 00:39:13,008
did bring up, of course, I'm asking for reconciliation,
625
00:39:13,184 --> 00:39:18,336
which I live in New York, so we have very liberal laws
626
00:39:18,368 --> 00:39:22,688
of all kinds, so they just about hand divorces out
627
00:39:22,824 --> 00:39:25,300
at a drive through. Yeah.
628
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:29,300
And. But my attorney is.
629
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:33,496
Did it. Did talk about reconciliation and
630
00:39:33,568 --> 00:39:38,824
brought up, you know, the work that I've done, the midlife
631
00:39:38,872 --> 00:39:42,664
crisis. And I forget.
632
00:39:42,712 --> 00:39:46,232
Her, her attorney, he, he handled it
633
00:39:46,256 --> 00:39:50,232
in a way that was demeaning to me. Let's just. Enough so that
634
00:39:50,256 --> 00:39:53,352
the court. Wait, wait, wait. Your attorney did. Or hit hers.
635
00:39:53,416 --> 00:39:56,634
Hers. Oh, enough so that the court
636
00:39:56,722 --> 00:40:00,150
person said, look, we're not going to have any of that going on.
637
00:40:00,770 --> 00:40:05,338
It was my, my. I think my attorney said,
638
00:40:05,394 --> 00:40:08,778
you know, what can we do? Can we do counseling or.
639
00:40:08,914 --> 00:40:13,146
And he said, well, the problem with it is it's
640
00:40:13,178 --> 00:40:17,338
the second time, which I said, two years ago we had an issue and
641
00:40:17,394 --> 00:40:20,612
now this. And your attorney,
642
00:40:20,756 --> 00:40:24,244
your, Your client Went out and bought a house with.
643
00:40:24,412 --> 00:40:27,640
I forget how he worded it, but it was very. Demeanor.
644
00:40:29,340 --> 00:40:30,080
Right.
645
00:40:36,700 --> 00:40:40,132
I'm so sorry to hear that. It's. It's just unraveled like
646
00:40:40,156 --> 00:40:46,478
this. You know, we am too, because I'm
647
00:40:46,494 --> 00:40:49,630
not a quitter and I think it
648
00:40:49,670 --> 00:40:52,878
can be fixed. It would take a lot of work,
649
00:40:53,014 --> 00:40:56,222
a lot of understanding. I've done
650
00:40:56,246 --> 00:40:59,918
a lot of the work already. Right,
651
00:41:00,054 --> 00:41:00,730
right.
652
00:41:03,590 --> 00:41:07,438
So do you ever sit down and have those. You don't
653
00:41:07,454 --> 00:41:10,848
have those panic attacks anymore about life is short death,
654
00:41:10,974 --> 00:41:13,964
anything good? I got nothing to live for.
655
00:41:14,132 --> 00:41:17,292
Oh, that's not true. You're. You're going to have a lot
656
00:41:17,316 --> 00:41:20,600
to live for. So you don't know.
657
00:41:21,380 --> 00:41:24,668
No, I think, you know, a lot of us feel that way at times.
658
00:41:24,804 --> 00:41:28,412
Really. But, you know, I've talked
659
00:41:28,476 --> 00:41:31,708
with my. My business partner.
660
00:41:31,884 --> 00:41:35,452
We've talked about it. Actually, we talked about it quite a while
661
00:41:35,476 --> 00:41:38,940
ago, and it was probably a midlife.
662
00:41:39,020 --> 00:41:42,120
Part of my midlife crisis and part of what he's going.
663
00:41:43,770 --> 00:41:47,378
And, you know, we've talked about. About it
664
00:41:47,434 --> 00:41:50,670
and, and this may have helped some.
665
00:41:51,370 --> 00:41:55,138
You know, we've done a lot in our lifetime.
666
00:41:55,234 --> 00:41:58,430
We've accomplished a lot. We. We're both.
667
00:41:59,930 --> 00:42:03,250
He told his aunt about our partnership and she goes, well, you know,
668
00:42:03,290 --> 00:42:06,866
partnerships are really bad. And his aunt.
669
00:42:06,978 --> 00:42:10,114
And he goes to his aunt. Well, the guy's just like. And she goes,
670
00:42:10,162 --> 00:42:13,602
there's another one like you. And we
671
00:42:13,626 --> 00:42:17,362
are. We've got the same demeanor. How long. How long
672
00:42:17,386 --> 00:42:21,042
have you guys been partners? Since 2018.
673
00:42:21,146 --> 00:42:24,830
But we've known each other. He was. For 30 years.
674
00:42:26,970 --> 00:42:30,242
Through your counseling and things. Have you realized or, you know, do they
675
00:42:30,266 --> 00:42:34,616
talk about, like, joy and that feeling of fulfillment
676
00:42:34,778 --> 00:42:38,172
needs to come from within and not from your spouse or anything like that?
677
00:42:38,276 --> 00:42:39,880
Talked about that.
678
00:42:43,860 --> 00:42:47,004
It's kind of weird. I pretty much run.
679
00:42:47,092 --> 00:42:50,604
Run the counseling thing because
680
00:42:50,692 --> 00:42:54,156
first I was obsessed. Why I did what I did.
681
00:42:54,308 --> 00:42:57,804
Yeah. And how. How can I repair the damage?
682
00:42:57,932 --> 00:43:01,270
Yeah. And we still talk about
683
00:43:01,310 --> 00:43:04,758
it some. And then my counselors and.
684
00:43:04,814 --> 00:43:07,734
And now I've said to her, you know, I've got a lot. I've had a
685
00:43:07,742 --> 00:43:11,570
lot laws. How can I improve on those?
686
00:43:12,350 --> 00:43:15,410
So that's where we're starting. Have started.
687
00:43:16,190 --> 00:43:20,690
And looking into my childhood and
688
00:43:21,790 --> 00:43:25,090
I mean, I meet with her tomorrow. It was two weeks ago.
689
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,180
And I think I got more figured out.
690
00:43:29,720 --> 00:43:33,600
Wow. Why I am the way I am now
691
00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:36,620
after that. How do you fix it? How can you.
692
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,260
How can you, you know,
693
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:44,224
work on changing. Changing your attachment
694
00:43:44,272 --> 00:43:47,632
style? Yeah. I guess recognition is
695
00:43:47,656 --> 00:43:51,056
the first Step in the right direction. Well, yeah, I've known,
696
00:43:51,208 --> 00:43:51,940
yeah.
697
00:43:53,410 --> 00:43:55,550
Admittance, remorse,
698
00:43:55,890 --> 00:43:59,790
acknowledgment and accountability.
699
00:44:02,450 --> 00:44:04,270
That's how you correct yourself.
700
00:44:06,050 --> 00:44:09,818
Well, I refer to all my male guests as John, so I'm not gonna
701
00:44:09,834 --> 00:44:13,178
say your name, but. So. Okay, so you've
702
00:44:13,194 --> 00:44:15,402
got a lot coming up in the future. Would it be okay if we have
703
00:44:15,426 --> 00:44:18,710
a part two sometime in the future? Whatever you want.
704
00:44:19,510 --> 00:44:23,374
Let me ask you any, any, any last minute you want to
705
00:44:23,382 --> 00:44:26,942
share with our viewers today. You've got
706
00:44:26,966 --> 00:44:30,730
some advice there. You've got a lot. You know, I, I talk
707
00:44:32,070 --> 00:44:35,118
in, in the chat and I try to give them advice more,
708
00:44:35,174 --> 00:44:38,542
very understanding. And I try to
709
00:44:38,566 --> 00:44:42,370
tell them pretty much what happened in and where I'm headed.
710
00:44:43,670 --> 00:44:46,830
I do think, given time,
711
00:44:48,250 --> 00:44:52,546
I will tell you right now, your husband will regret what's
712
00:44:52,578 --> 00:44:56,990
happened. And if you can,
713
00:44:57,610 --> 00:45:01,510
if you can buy the time and prevent
714
00:45:01,850 --> 00:45:05,986
certain things from happening, if you feel
715
00:45:06,058 --> 00:45:08,510
that your relationship is worth that,
716
00:45:09,130 --> 00:45:12,538
it's a risk. But it's saying
717
00:45:12,594 --> 00:45:15,898
that, I guess if you're
718
00:45:15,914 --> 00:45:20,122
in love with someone, it's a risk. You, you have and died on
719
00:45:20,146 --> 00:45:23,390
your own, whether you're willing to take or not. Huh.
720
00:45:26,210 --> 00:45:31,978
It's like me now. I've been four months and I,
721
00:45:32,114 --> 00:45:36,670
I went sending my wife messages,
722
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:40,832
and the last one I sent her was she asked me
723
00:45:40,856 --> 00:45:44,032
why this happened. And I never. When she asked me,
724
00:45:44,056 --> 00:45:47,760
I could not give her satisfactory answer. All I could say
725
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:50,720
was it made me feel younger. Right.
726
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:52,620
But I couldn't, I couldn't tell her,
727
00:45:55,240 --> 00:45:58,864
you know, why I did it. And I told her, in a
728
00:45:58,872 --> 00:46:02,400
way, you know, I said I was very insecure, both in my life
729
00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:05,962
and in my marriage at the time. And those were
730
00:46:05,986 --> 00:46:09,754
the main reasons that. And I said there were some reasons why I felt
731
00:46:09,802 --> 00:46:13,050
insecure. Went to the part with
732
00:46:13,090 --> 00:46:16,586
my mom and all that, but I wanted
733
00:46:16,618 --> 00:46:20,602
her to know I would, I would, and I will if she gives me
734
00:46:20,626 --> 00:46:24,042
that chance. To me, when you, when I hear that
735
00:46:24,066 --> 00:46:27,430
she said that to you, that she asked you how did it happen? I think
736
00:46:27,970 --> 00:46:31,794
that that's really like her willing to be opened up, sort of keep a
737
00:46:31,882 --> 00:46:36,034
wall, maybe an invisible wall between. Yeah, that was the tour here with,
738
00:46:36,122 --> 00:46:39,150
with me. Yeah. The,
739
00:46:39,530 --> 00:46:43,586
the fearful avoidant fluctuates from
740
00:46:43,658 --> 00:46:45,350
avoidant to anxious.
741
00:46:47,050 --> 00:46:50,110
They go from one end from one extreme to the other.
742
00:46:50,410 --> 00:46:54,322
And she must have been in the anxious
743
00:46:54,466 --> 00:46:58,510
stage where she wanted to, you see what she wanted.
744
00:46:58,590 --> 00:46:59,490
Inquire.
745
00:47:02,790 --> 00:47:06,270
I think it would. Anyone that goes through this,
746
00:47:06,310 --> 00:47:09,806
I think it would do anyone good to talk about it
747
00:47:09,878 --> 00:47:13,534
afterwards, whether you're with your partner
748
00:47:13,582 --> 00:47:15,770
or not, I think you owe them that.
749
00:47:17,750 --> 00:47:21,050
You're very lucky that you've come out of this, you know,
750
00:47:21,990 --> 00:47:25,886
not everybody does. Eight years. Eight years.
751
00:47:25,958 --> 00:47:28,130
It's been eight years. Wow.
752
00:47:29,750 --> 00:47:33,070
Well, 2017. What a great way to start your retirement,
753
00:47:33,150 --> 00:47:35,650
huh? Oh,
754
00:47:37,430 --> 00:47:40,702
I'll never be retired. I'm not that type.
755
00:47:40,846 --> 00:47:44,382
Yeah. I've got so
756
00:47:44,406 --> 00:47:47,854
many things that I do. But that's a
757
00:47:47,862 --> 00:47:51,060
good thing. Yeah. I would do things a lot different.
758
00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:55,540
And I. I don't know, I.
759
00:47:57,680 --> 00:48:00,980
We got five foot of snow here this
760
00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:04,936
December and it collapsed one of my barns.
761
00:48:05,128 --> 00:48:08,632
Oh. Caved the roof right in. Oh. Yeah.
762
00:48:08,696 --> 00:48:11,700
It's. I got a huge mess to clean up from that. But.
763
00:48:12,240 --> 00:48:14,980
Yeah. And. And I've thought, you know,
764
00:48:15,470 --> 00:48:18,438
I don't know if I want to live here in the world. Maybe I'll have
765
00:48:18,574 --> 00:48:21,270
place in the south in the winter.
766
00:48:21,350 --> 00:48:26,310
South. I don't know. But it
767
00:48:26,350 --> 00:48:30,410
changed my life. You mean the crisis?
768
00:48:30,830 --> 00:48:34,262
Yeah, the midlife crisis is changing. Wow. And not
769
00:48:34,286 --> 00:48:37,526
for the Right. I'm so sorry. You know,
770
00:48:37,678 --> 00:48:41,382
I mean, it is devastating. See, you're the
771
00:48:41,406 --> 00:48:44,920
person in the crisis. Devastating for you, devastating for your wife,
772
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:47,220
other grandchildren in the family.
773
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:53,140
Yeah. It's hard to some, you know, for some people, it's really hard to.
774
00:48:54,240 --> 00:48:58,824
Some people won't admit it outright, but inside
775
00:48:58,872 --> 00:49:03,416
they will know what they did was wrong and regret
776
00:49:03,528 --> 00:49:05,700
that they did it to someone.
777
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:10,744
Really sad because it's tipping, you know what's happening. People's the latter
778
00:49:10,792 --> 00:49:14,186
third of, you know. Yeah. Well, why do you think there's
779
00:49:14,218 --> 00:49:18,270
some men. Look at. Look at the rise in divorce.
780
00:49:19,170 --> 00:49:23,002
A look at the rise number of divorces with
781
00:49:23,026 --> 00:49:26,218
people with gray hair. They're talking about it all the time. Oh yeah,
782
00:49:26,234 --> 00:49:30,310
there's a Facebook group, Gray Hair Divorce. Yes. Why do you think it is?
783
00:49:30,610 --> 00:49:34,122
Yep. You know why and I know why. But the
784
00:49:34,146 --> 00:49:36,790
public doesn't know why yet and they need to.
785
00:49:40,460 --> 00:49:43,972
Thank you for joining us today as. As we
786
00:49:43,996 --> 00:49:47,924
discuss this topic. You know, the mental health community has yet to formally
787
00:49:47,972 --> 00:49:52,612
classify midlife crisis as a psychological impairment with real world consequences
788
00:49:52,756 --> 00:49:56,532
similar to what you've heard today. Research suggests that MLC
789
00:49:56,596 --> 00:50:00,388
can involve symptoms similar to depression, identity crisis, and even
790
00:50:00,444 --> 00:50:03,876
dissociative states. Like other conditions that impair
791
00:50:03,908 --> 00:50:07,364
judgment, such as manic episodes and bipolar disorder or temporary
792
00:50:07,412 --> 00:50:11,152
psychosis. M leads individuals to make reckless
793
00:50:11,216 --> 00:50:15,072
decisions similar to that that they later end up regretting if
794
00:50:15,096 --> 00:50:19,168
a person is in a psychiatric crisis. If a person in
795
00:50:19,224 --> 00:50:22,880
a psychiatric crisis cannot legally sign contracts or make major life
796
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:27,136
decisions without oversight, why should an individual in the throes of a midlife crisis
797
00:50:27,168 --> 00:50:30,384
be allowed to dismantle a marriage, sell a home or drain
798
00:50:30,432 --> 00:50:33,984
shared finances without safeguards. We believe
799
00:50:34,072 --> 00:50:37,684
legal protections must be implemented to prevent MLC
800
00:50:37,732 --> 00:50:41,508
driven destruction of families. Legal reforms should be considered
801
00:50:41,604 --> 00:50:44,868
such as waiting periods for major decisions.
802
00:50:44,964 --> 00:50:48,516
Just as there are waiting periods for gun purchases and other high risk
803
00:50:48,588 --> 00:50:52,468
actions. A mandatory reflection period should be instituted before
804
00:50:52,524 --> 00:50:55,684
finalizing divorce or selling shared property during an
805
00:50:55,772 --> 00:50:59,636
mlc. There could be legal oversight for spousal protection
806
00:50:59,748 --> 00:51:03,702
if one spouse claims the other is in a midlife crisis. Courts should require
807
00:51:03,766 --> 00:51:08,086
mediation and mental health assessments before irreversible legal actions
808
00:51:08,118 --> 00:51:12,358
can be taken. It's our efforts through this podcast
809
00:51:12,534 --> 00:51:16,198
that more awareness can be brought to this
810
00:51:16,334 --> 00:51:20,550
situation so that going forward from
811
00:51:20,590 --> 00:51:24,790
unilaterally destroying a shared life due to a temporary psychological
812
00:51:24,870 --> 00:51:29,062
breakdown. Thank you for joining us today and we
813
00:51:29,086 --> 00:51:32,750
look forward to having you join us on our future shows. Thanks so much.
814
00:51:32,790 --> 00:51:34,222
Have a super day you guys.
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:00,820
Foreign.
2
00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:18,984
Hello there and welcome to our show today, Midlife crisis, bomb drop
3
00:00:19,032 --> 00:00:22,936
and beyond. I'm going to start with a little background on what we call midlife
4
00:00:22,968 --> 00:00:27,016
crisis. We're going to refer to it often as mlc,
5
00:00:27,128 --> 00:00:31,160
which stands for midlife crisis. You're going to hear about the
6
00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:35,268
midlife spouse and then you'll also hear about the left
7
00:00:35,324 --> 00:00:37,560
behind spouse known as the LBs.
8
00:00:38,300 --> 00:00:41,092
You'll hear words like bomb drop and tunnel.
9
00:00:41,236 --> 00:00:44,660
And I'll give you a little background on those
10
00:00:44,700 --> 00:00:48,388
too. Midlife crisis is often
11
00:00:48,444 --> 00:00:52,100
dismissed as a cliche, but the reality is actually far more
12
00:00:52,140 --> 00:00:55,908
serious. During this period of midlife crisis,
13
00:00:56,084 --> 00:00:59,672
the individual undergoing that experience, they have a
14
00:00:59,696 --> 00:01:03,608
profound psychological and emotional upheaval. It often
15
00:01:03,664 --> 00:01:07,576
leads them to make impulsive and self destructive decisions.
16
00:01:07,768 --> 00:01:11,464
Despite the clear signs of instability, MLC individuals
17
00:01:11,512 --> 00:01:14,680
are still currently allowed to like, file for divorce, sell their
18
00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,408
family homes, make irreversible financial and legal choices,
19
00:01:18,504 --> 00:01:22,380
often to the devastation of their long term spouses and families.
20
00:01:24,570 --> 00:01:27,794
I'll tell you a little about bomb drop. The bomb drop that we're going
21
00:01:27,802 --> 00:01:31,570
to be talking about in almost every episode is actually the moment
22
00:01:31,650 --> 00:01:35,330
when a person, often the spouse, unexpectedly announces
23
00:01:35,410 --> 00:01:39,026
that they want a divorce, a major life change, or they suddenly adopt
24
00:01:39,058 --> 00:01:43,282
an entirely new personality. There's some
25
00:01:43,386 --> 00:01:47,110
symptoms of that, such as going from a loving
26
00:01:47,930 --> 00:01:50,976
spouse to all of a sudden committed
27
00:01:51,098 --> 00:01:55,284
to being cold, indifferent, cruel. They rewrite
28
00:01:55,332 --> 00:01:58,820
history. They can claim they've never been happy despite years of
29
00:01:58,860 --> 00:02:02,323
apparent contentment. And I mean even 20, 30,
30
00:02:02,393 --> 00:02:05,748
40 years being happily married. And then all of a sudden you wake
31
00:02:05,764 --> 00:02:09,156
up one morning and they say, you know what honey, I, I haven't been happy
32
00:02:09,188 --> 00:02:12,884
for 40 years. So you can see where I'm going. It's a
33
00:02:12,892 --> 00:02:15,972
little, little disconcerting to
34
00:02:15,996 --> 00:02:19,156
the left behind spouse. And you know, you feel like you're,
35
00:02:19,188 --> 00:02:22,952
the rug's been pulled out from under you. There's horrendous discard you
36
00:02:23,036 --> 00:02:26,240
to be hearing about because it's just not like a normal breakup.
37
00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,304
It's pretty different. Many bomb droppers
38
00:02:30,352 --> 00:02:33,760
become infatuated with a new partner. This is known as limerence.
39
00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:36,940
You'll hear that word every now and then as well.
40
00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:42,304
I already mentioned, they often file for divorce. Suddenly they liquidate
41
00:02:42,352 --> 00:02:44,620
assets. Let's see,
42
00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:50,928
for the spouse on the receiving end, it often feels like their world
43
00:02:50,984 --> 00:02:54,318
has exploded. Hence the term bomb drop.
44
00:02:54,494 --> 00:02:58,622
Many struggle to reconcile the sudden change as the MLC person appears
45
00:02:58,686 --> 00:03:02,542
almost unrecognizable. Some later regret their
46
00:03:02,566 --> 00:03:06,478
choices, but by then the damage is often extensive and
47
00:03:06,614 --> 00:03:10,222
irreparable. So thank you
48
00:03:10,246 --> 00:03:14,830
for joining us today because now you're going to hear from people from
49
00:03:14,870 --> 00:03:18,400
around the world as they tell their story from Bomb Drop
50
00:03:18,550 --> 00:03:23,884
and Beyond Limerence.
51
00:03:24,012 --> 00:03:27,820
This is the obsessive fantasy driven infatuation with
52
00:03:27,860 --> 00:03:31,260
another person often mistaken for true love during
53
00:03:31,300 --> 00:03:34,844
a midlife crisis. The stories
54
00:03:34,892 --> 00:03:38,652
and events discussed in this podcast are based on our guest
55
00:03:38,716 --> 00:03:42,220
experiences and are intended for informational and entertainment
56
00:03:42,300 --> 00:03:45,948
purposes only. They should not be considered legal, medical or
57
00:03:46,004 --> 00:03:50,044
professional advice. Any names, locations or identifying details
58
00:03:50,092 --> 00:03:53,340
have been changed to protect privacy. Any similarities
59
00:03:53,420 --> 00:03:57,756
to actual persons, living or dead, or real events are purely coincidental.
60
00:03:57,868 --> 00:04:01,724
The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily
61
00:04:01,772 --> 00:04:04,540
reflect those of the host or the podcast creators.
62
00:04:04,700 --> 00:04:08,156
Listeners should consult with a qualified professional regarding
63
00:04:08,188 --> 00:04:09,760
their own circumstances.
64
00:04:11,540 --> 00:04:14,812
Hello, dear listeners, today I have a really special guest for
65
00:04:14,836 --> 00:04:18,332
you. We are going to be speaking with John, who has been married for
66
00:04:18,356 --> 00:04:22,071
over 40. But John is the one that went through
67
00:04:22,175 --> 00:04:25,575
the midlife crisis. He's not a left behind spouse
68
00:04:25,607 --> 00:04:28,871
or a forward moving spouse. John is
69
00:04:29,055 --> 00:04:32,407
the one that experienced the crisis in his
70
00:04:32,463 --> 00:04:36,055
head. It started in 2017, it's lasted
71
00:04:36,087 --> 00:04:39,447
about eight years. He feels like he's starting to come
72
00:04:39,503 --> 00:04:42,919
through this and you're going to hear from him. He knew
73
00:04:43,079 --> 00:04:46,359
really right when it started and also when
74
00:04:46,399 --> 00:04:49,686
he started to come out of it. So we are going to be speaking
75
00:04:49,718 --> 00:04:53,382
with John. This is a really important guest for us to to
76
00:04:53,406 --> 00:04:57,158
meet with today to see the inside look at what it's like from
77
00:04:57,214 --> 00:05:01,366
their perspective. My midlife Crisis
78
00:05:01,398 --> 00:05:05,478
started in two late to I believe late 2017,
79
00:05:05,614 --> 00:05:11,190
somewhere around there. It was when I
80
00:05:11,230 --> 00:05:14,130
had retired a few years before,
81
00:05:14,510 --> 00:05:17,614
quote unquote retired. I didn't really retire.
82
00:05:17,742 --> 00:05:21,790
I ran a farm. I sold my cows. I had surgery on
83
00:05:21,830 --> 00:05:25,790
my neck because I had vertebrae that were in very bad shape.
84
00:05:25,950 --> 00:05:30,238
I still kept my farm and I raised corn and hay.
85
00:05:30,414 --> 00:05:33,774
So I was still actively involved in a job.
86
00:05:33,862 --> 00:05:37,502
Just it wasn't as demanding. But I did lose self
87
00:05:37,566 --> 00:05:40,990
focus, I lost purpose a lot in
88
00:05:41,030 --> 00:05:44,860
doing that. And I think,
89
00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:48,592
I mean I didn't notice depression. I think I'd been
90
00:05:48,616 --> 00:05:52,320
depressed my whole life. I really do. The job I
91
00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:56,112
had, it was a job that I was expected to
92
00:05:56,136 --> 00:05:59,340
do. I knew I was going to do it when I was five years old.
93
00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:04,352
So I think after I started and became a farmer
94
00:06:04,416 --> 00:06:08,440
it was, I mean I looked at it like this.
95
00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:10,952
There were a lot of nice things about it, but there were a lot of
96
00:06:10,976 --> 00:06:14,904
bad things about it too. So I the bad things
97
00:06:15,072 --> 00:06:18,280
or the good things outweighed the bad things. So Was
98
00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:21,832
it your, your family that had a farm and
99
00:06:21,856 --> 00:06:25,512
so you. My father's farm. And I was the only grandson. Gotcha. Okay.
100
00:06:25,576 --> 00:06:28,712
So that's how that. And I came here every. I came to my
101
00:06:28,736 --> 00:06:32,552
grandfather's farm every summer since I was five years old and spent
102
00:06:32,696 --> 00:06:36,242
two months here. So I think that contributed
103
00:06:36,306 --> 00:06:40,130
to it some. I didn't know. I was depressed and when
104
00:06:40,170 --> 00:06:43,474
I got out of it, I lost purpose
105
00:06:43,522 --> 00:06:46,834
of my life. My wife retired that year,
106
00:06:46,922 --> 00:06:49,986
which I didn't agree with the retirement.
107
00:06:50,098 --> 00:06:53,234
She was a teacher. She could have worked another year. I felt she should have
108
00:06:53,242 --> 00:06:56,830
worked another year, built her retirement a little more.
109
00:06:57,210 --> 00:07:00,758
We just saved on insurance. There were a lot of issues with, with it,
110
00:07:00,814 --> 00:07:04,210
but I didn't, I didn't voice my opinion. It's her,
111
00:07:04,670 --> 00:07:08,054
her choice. It's not my choice. So she,
112
00:07:08,222 --> 00:07:11,846
she retired and then it went along. It was
113
00:07:11,918 --> 00:07:15,558
probably. I mean, I did things. I didn't
114
00:07:15,574 --> 00:07:19,170
have a great beard. I didn't have a great beard. Six months ago.
115
00:07:19,790 --> 00:07:23,286
Yeah, six months ago. And I, I always had
116
00:07:23,358 --> 00:07:26,870
people work for me and they were always like
117
00:07:26,910 --> 00:07:30,460
most of them were. I had a full time guy that worked for
118
00:07:30,500 --> 00:07:33,932
me and he was in his mid, he was
119
00:07:33,956 --> 00:07:37,500
in his 30s and we were like friends and that was
120
00:07:37,540 --> 00:07:40,760
probably a lot of it too. I was more
121
00:07:41,220 --> 00:07:45,320
adept to his, his age and.
122
00:07:46,180 --> 00:07:49,244
But anyways, that I didn't,
123
00:07:49,372 --> 00:07:53,200
I didn't. I had an online emotional affair
124
00:07:53,700 --> 00:07:57,082
and. Can you tell us, can you tell us how it
125
00:07:57,106 --> 00:08:02,218
started? It started just as messaging
126
00:08:02,314 --> 00:08:05,642
online as a friendship. Was it
127
00:08:05,666 --> 00:08:09,162
somebody that you actually knew? No, it wasn't.
128
00:08:09,306 --> 00:08:13,082
Wow. Wait, did somebody just message you out of the blue? I can't
129
00:08:13,146 --> 00:08:15,990
remember how it actually started.
130
00:08:16,530 --> 00:08:19,930
If I think I messaged her and she
131
00:08:19,970 --> 00:08:23,820
messaged back. She lived about an
132
00:08:23,860 --> 00:08:26,920
hour away from my house. We.
133
00:08:27,220 --> 00:08:30,120
We never met till last six.
134
00:08:30,740 --> 00:08:34,124
My timeline, because we've been set. My wife's been separated
135
00:08:34,172 --> 00:08:37,884
from me for four months. So we never met for. We met
136
00:08:37,972 --> 00:08:41,820
for the first time in August of this year and
137
00:08:41,860 --> 00:08:45,240
it had been going on for like three and a half years online.
138
00:08:46,180 --> 00:08:49,670
Yeah. And that's a lot of the issue with my wife.
139
00:08:49,830 --> 00:08:53,094
And it is like. It is an addiction. I will tell you.
140
00:08:53,182 --> 00:08:56,518
It's an addiction. Right. And the person that I
141
00:08:56,574 --> 00:09:00,038
was with was a lot younger than me. She was
142
00:09:00,094 --> 00:09:03,494
pretty smart in knowing how to control
143
00:09:03,582 --> 00:09:06,870
that addiction, if you know what I mean. There were
144
00:09:06,910 --> 00:09:11,142
times where we didn't speak for or message for two
145
00:09:11,166 --> 00:09:15,984
or three months. And of course it built the anticipation
146
00:09:16,112 --> 00:09:20,020
and that and the addiction. It built an addiction.
147
00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:24,080
Do you know if she was married. She was not married when I
148
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met her. She had a boyfriend. They did
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have a baby. I mean, when my wife found
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out, she wanted a paternity test, and we
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never had physical contact.
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It. It was. It was a weird relationship.
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There was limerence, and that contributes to
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the addiction. And let me ask you, did you know, like,
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in 2017, did you even know the word limerence? Did you know that that's a
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thing? No, I didn't even know. Midlife crisis.
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I didn't all knew for you. I'll tell you something.
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I joined the support group,
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the community, or the hero spouse community.
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The only reason I joined it is because I was on this marriage
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site and I told my story, and a lady said, there's a
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test you need to take. And I took the test. And she goes,
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how many of those things did you have? And I said, like,
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80%. And she goes, you had a midlife crisis?
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And I said, what. What are you talking about? I didn't
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even know it till it was over. Right. And I.
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My rationale wasn't right. I didn't. I mean, I have
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a business partner. We buy and sell bankrupt properties.
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I told him about it,
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and he couldn't believe it. He goes,
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and there's more to this story. I haven't told
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the whole thing. Thing. This girl, this summer,
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her and her boyfriend broke up, like, in April
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of last year. And it got more.
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She got more attached.
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And there was a house that she.
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She had worked for. The person cleaning the house.
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The person had died. Died in the house.
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The house came up for sale. It came up at a very reasonable price.
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She knew what I did, and she wanted to buy the
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house. And her mother actually called me
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and said, well, why don't we buy the house and flip it? And in the
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process, she decided she wanted the house. And I ended
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up owning the house with her, and I
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ended up owning it because when I wanted to stop,
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she threatened to. My wife's birthday is August.
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She's threatened to come to the house, on my house,
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and expose us of what was going on.
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Wow. Yeah. And that actually was a
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good thing because that actually brought me
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to my senses, if. If that. That's a good term
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to use. I knew that what I was doing was wrong.
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I had extreme guilt. Extreme. Like me
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and my wife had started walking a mile every day on
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our property. We own a lot of property. And I had a hard
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time doing it with her. I. It was
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because you felt so guilty. It was agony. Yeah.
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And I was a little Different. A lot of men
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say. Apparently they say,
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I love you, but I'm not in love with you. That wasn't me. I wasn't.
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I didn't have that mindset. I was in love with my wife the whole time.
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My. My thinking was, how could I feel this way
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about two different people? And it was.
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Was terrible. I mean, it. It. When the guilt started,
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it was. I mean, I knew
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from what started happening with the house that what
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I was doing was wrong, that my wife was
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the best person for me. She was.
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You know, how could I do this to somebody like that?
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It was very difficult. And I
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actually prayed for it to end, and it ended,
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but not. Not the way I wanted in that.
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The consequences that I have to
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deal with. Wow. So really, you had that emotional
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affair for about three years with. Yes.
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And. And you didn't meet her for the first two or two and a half
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or three years, it sounds like. Yeah. And during that
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time, did you feel ever guilty about texting or calling?
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Not as much. It went through my mind. It went through my
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mind that what I was doing was wrong. It didn't
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stop me, though. Yeah. It wasn't enough guilt to
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stop me. The house was enough guilt to start the
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process, to stop it. I was still addicted,
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though, during that. Time, because that behavior of
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that woman, the house woman, that's sort of
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like. Sort of blackmail kind of thing. Oh, yeah. We're in a lawsuit
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right now. Really? Oh, my God. I went.
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I went to the police, and the police said, if you hadn't
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closed on the house, we'd have arrested her.
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We closed on the house was the problem. I ended up signing
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a paper in the attorney's office that I wouldn't sue them.
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Yeah, that's. It's not a good thing.
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I mean, I tell people my story because
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hopefully someone can learn from it, but I'm pretty embarrassed.
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Well, we'll get to that. I mean, it's like a
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disease, and it sounds like, you know, you couldn't really control it.
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Disease. It's an addiction. It's different than taking drugs.
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Yeah, exactly. You know what? When I first, you know,
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started understanding how MLC works, I equated
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it to somebody that's like a heroin addict, you. Know,
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like, it almost.
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There's a lot more that I've learned, and I've been
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on the site and commented some, and everybody
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wants to know why. And I thought, I know why,
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and they don't want to know. There's. There's.
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I talked to one guy called me up because I
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had just gotten on the site and I was telling about it, and I told
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a little bit about why. And he called me and he says, you don't want
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to say that on here. You'll be. You will.
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They. These women will tear you.
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Well, can you tell us why? We're not going to tear you apart.
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And we don't use names. You are not going to want to hear it.
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You know, marriage is two imperfect people trying
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to. And they are. Yeah. And what I
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did was wrong,
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and I know that. But there were a lot of reasons why. I've been
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in counsel. I'm in. I have a meeting with my counselor tomorrow.
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I've been in counseling every week. It's gone
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to two weeks now. I'm in Christian counseling. I'm in regular counseling.
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And I don't mean with a coach. I mean with.
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With a counselor from a hospital. So they're,
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you know, they're professional people.
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And I was very insecure.
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We. Me and my wife have been married 43 years.
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There is a pending divorce. We have
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had a hard marriage.
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Yeah. And this was a long time ago.
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I know that. I know that she's very
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upset about being separated and
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the way our marriage is ending up if it ends up that
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way. I know that she basically said when she left, you ruined
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my life. And I feel the same
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way, too. But there. There is. There's.
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There's things on both sides that cause it. And really
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what people need to do when they. You can't.
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The problem is. And I've said this to people that have contacted
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me. I said, I wish I had a magic phrase that I could whisper in
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the person's ear that has this and they would come out of it.
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Yep. I wish I did,
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but there isn't. And so you started to
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see yourself going in that direction of being addicted.
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Like. I didn't really.
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I knew it was. I didn't equate it to an addiction
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then, but it was. I couldn't control myself.
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I've made terrible decisions.
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Wait, what? The terrible decisions even outside of the relationship,
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sort of like just in general.
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Well, I couldn't. I'm very
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anal. And I. I pay a lot of bills.
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I write my checks. I put a date on the envelope
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five days before they have to be five days before they're due.
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And they get mailed five days before they're due. And then three
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days after that, the money is transferred from my savings account to
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my checking account. So it draws interest. During that whole time,
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I got. So I was forgetting to Take the letters out and mail.
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Wow. So. So I hear this a lot, that people describe it as
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a brain fog. Did you feel that way that you're. You were just a little.
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But I knew looking back,
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I just thought, mine is different.
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I'm 66 years old. This started in the late 50s.
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And I'll tell you, I know the day.
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Not the day, but I remember the day very distinctly
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that it started. I sat in a chair right over
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there, and all of a sudden I started thinking
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about dying. And it was like a panic
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attack. It felt like time and space was compressing,
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and it lasted for about an hour, and it would come and go, and I
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had it for, I don't know, six months or a year.
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And it did leave after a while,
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but I changed, too. I became a midlife crisis person.
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Wow. So that's sort of how it started. You started having that
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feeling of. Yeah, it was. It was an.
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I have anxiety pretty bad. I always have.
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And it was worse than any anxiety that I've ever had.
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Like I said, it was like a panic attack. Wow. Did you
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actually. Did you talk about that with your wife or did you. I didn't talk
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to her. Go back.
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If I could advise somebody. I mean,
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I don't think anybody that is going through. Somebody going
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through that might listen to somebody and say,
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if they said, hey, you're having a problem. You're having a mental
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problem. It is a mental problem. It's mental.
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It's. It's. You're. You have a mental
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deficiency. It's. It's. I don't know why it's
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temporary, but it is a mental deficiency.
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I don't want to say it's mental retardation, because it isn't
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like that, but it.
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It's. It's something your brain isn't.
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Right. Right. I know you want to know why I
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know it. And. And this is one of the things also
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that started more guilt is.
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I have a knee problem pretty bad, and a back problem
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because of what I've done my whole life. And I.
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I go to a specialist for it. And they said,
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why don't. There's a reservation near us. And they said,
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why don't you go to the reservation, buy some gummies and see if it helps
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you. I took a little piece of that gummy,
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and it made me terribly paranoid, so I didn't do
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it anymore. When it also took the midlife crisis
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away, I was. I knew
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what I was doing was terribly wrong. I felt guilty.
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I felt. It was like.
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And that was late it was like a
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year ago, maybe not even a year ago, 10 months
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ago. But it affected my brain. So the chemical,
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whatever chemical is in marijuana affected the
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midlife crisis, Whatever the midlife crisis was doing to my brain.
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Wow, that's amazing.
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Yeah. Thank God it's temporary, you know. You know,
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I had mentioned something to a doctor and they, they said that they're,
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they can do blood test or hormone. It might have had something to do with
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hormones, you know, as people age. So I
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don't know. I guess they say. And that's the male menopause andropause
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that could be. Yeah, probably. I'm sure it probably is.
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I don't, you know, I don't know.
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But I didn't know I had medlike crisis.
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I didn't even realize the severity. There could be a severity.
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Yeah, I don't think there's enough people
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don't. You know midlife crisis, you go
360
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and you get a tattoo like that, you go buy
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a car. Actually, I planned
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on getting that tattoo long before I got my midlife crisis.
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It just. Oh, okay.
364
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Yeah. So let me just. Let's see. Okay. So she
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was your limerant object, basically, that gal.
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Do you feel like she may have sought you out kind of thing after.
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She found out more about me? I think she did.
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I mean, she,
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she. I'm trying to think how old
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she was. She was 22 or 23.
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Oh, wow. When we first started talking.
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She's. Well, no. 25,
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24. And she lives in America.
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What? Yeah, she looks not far from here.
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Wow, that's crazy that somebody's so close by.
376
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And did she ever come and how did your wife find out?
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Like, so obviously she didn't come on. The birthday, but no,
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my wife asked to see my phone because we had had an issue
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two years ago and I gave it to her and she said, what's this?
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And it was actually a phone call from the. There was a text message,
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I believe the girl's mother on my phone. And I said,
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well, that's something you probably aren't going to want to see. And that's how she
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found out. And I, I immediately told
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her that she called the woman and started talking
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with her. And after all of the commotion
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stopped, I went and told my wife that there was a house involved.
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And apparently she had already been told that, but I wanted
388
00:24:24,562 --> 00:24:27,842
to be upfront with her from here on.
389
00:24:28,026 --> 00:24:31,698
Yeah. So it sounds like from your wife's perspective,
390
00:24:31,794 --> 00:24:35,212
that might have been the bomb drop. Oh, it was, yes.
391
00:24:35,356 --> 00:24:38,636
Yep. And what happened after that?
392
00:24:38,788 --> 00:24:42,348
When this. Did it happen? Oh, you said it was pretty recent.
393
00:24:42,484 --> 00:24:45,484
October 20th. It happened. Okay,
394
00:24:45,612 --> 00:24:49,388
right. Months ago. Yes. Four months
395
00:24:49,444 --> 00:24:52,040
ago. Wow. Half months ago.
396
00:24:52,340 --> 00:24:55,788
And there were two days we didn't speak after
397
00:24:55,844 --> 00:24:59,560
that. We spoke. I don't know.
398
00:25:00,030 --> 00:25:03,398
I think she was just making plans at the time.
399
00:25:03,454 --> 00:25:07,650
We did, actually, the day before
400
00:25:08,510 --> 00:25:11,910
and the day. Two days before. We walked both
401
00:25:11,950 --> 00:25:15,542
days, which I was shocked, but I think she was just
402
00:25:15,566 --> 00:25:19,574
doing it to put up a sense of normalcy.
403
00:25:19,702 --> 00:25:22,774
Yes. So. Because she left the next morning.
404
00:25:22,942 --> 00:25:26,664
And when she left, was it sort of immediate
405
00:25:26,712 --> 00:25:30,100
or sort of like, you know what? I'm. I'm out of here.
406
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:34,296
It was covert. She never told me. Oh, I haven't spoken
407
00:25:34,328 --> 00:25:37,880
to her since that morning. Wow. So you have not spoken to your.
408
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,112
So your wife is almost like what we call. What do we call
409
00:25:41,136 --> 00:25:44,440
it? Nlc. The. The. The spouse that doesn't come back.
410
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,180
The. Yeah. Yeah.
411
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:50,940
Like a runaway wife. Yeah. Okay.
412
00:25:53,660 --> 00:25:57,140
Election day was the last day, full day. We were
413
00:25:57,180 --> 00:26:00,852
together the next morning. We didn't know who had
414
00:26:00,876 --> 00:26:04,372
won the election. She woke up. I think the last thing
415
00:26:04,396 --> 00:26:06,480
she said to me was, trump won the election.
416
00:26:07,660 --> 00:26:10,320
And I had a doctor's appointment that morning.
417
00:26:10,620 --> 00:26:13,732
And when I came home, oh,
418
00:26:13,796 --> 00:26:17,220
it's a long. There's so much involved. We own
419
00:26:17,260 --> 00:26:20,360
a farm. She has horses.
420
00:26:20,970 --> 00:26:24,594
Very expensive horses. The horses were gone.
421
00:26:24,722 --> 00:26:28,630
All very expensive saddles. All the saddles were gone.
422
00:26:28,970 --> 00:26:32,802
She has an art studio in her barn
423
00:26:32,866 --> 00:26:37,250
that I built. And most
424
00:26:37,290 --> 00:26:40,722
of her art stuff was gone. Very little was
425
00:26:40,746 --> 00:26:44,194
taken from the house. You said you
426
00:26:44,202 --> 00:26:47,180
did file for divorce. She did, yeah.
427
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,820
So this was. And this is the longest you guys have ever been separated?
428
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,144
Yes, we were separated one other time for,
429
00:26:55,232 --> 00:26:58,040
like, oh, maybe two months.
430
00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:02,200
And it was the same. I mean, I came. I was.
431
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,400
At that time, I was in my 40s.
432
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:09,208
I was playing hockey. I played hockey
433
00:27:09,384 --> 00:27:12,770
all of my Most. All of my life at a very
434
00:27:12,810 --> 00:27:16,610
high level. And I played men's league here locally.
435
00:27:16,690 --> 00:27:20,018
And a bunch of kids saw me from the college and said,
436
00:27:20,154 --> 00:27:23,314
you need to come to play. And I went play.
437
00:27:23,482 --> 00:27:26,482
And I came home one night, and all our furniture and our whole house was
438
00:27:26,506 --> 00:27:30,430
empty after a hockey game.
439
00:27:32,730 --> 00:27:36,018
Wow. So we have. That was another time.
440
00:27:36,154 --> 00:27:39,660
And we went for Christian marriage counseling
441
00:27:39,820 --> 00:27:42,796
at that time. And I did.
442
00:27:42,948 --> 00:27:46,760
I mean, a lot of my behavior was different after that.
443
00:27:48,420 --> 00:27:52,444
I did change in different ways. And I'm.
444
00:27:52,492 --> 00:27:55,628
I'm right now. I've. I've done a lot of.
445
00:27:55,684 --> 00:27:58,364
I've got notepads here full of.
446
00:27:58,452 --> 00:28:02,092
Of ways to modify your
447
00:28:02,196 --> 00:28:05,876
behavior, to deal with Your emotions to
448
00:28:05,948 --> 00:28:09,124
relate to women. How to be
449
00:28:09,132 --> 00:28:12,720
a better husband and a better, you know, a better person.
450
00:28:14,700 --> 00:28:18,360
You know, I. When I do something, I don't do it halfway.
451
00:28:19,260 --> 00:28:22,996
My idea was, I'm going to be a better person out of this.
452
00:28:23,148 --> 00:28:26,692
Good for you. And it sounds like you. It. It's. Do you feel like
453
00:28:26,716 --> 00:28:30,646
you're out of the tunnel now, of the delimiter object thing
454
00:28:30,718 --> 00:28:34,150
that's passed? Yes. You're. You're out. Did you.
455
00:28:34,190 --> 00:28:37,702
Did you feel like. Was that a gradual process or.
456
00:28:37,806 --> 00:28:41,478
Well, it was abrupt. It was when. Yeah.
457
00:28:41,654 --> 00:28:44,850
Wait, it was when your wife or she left?
458
00:28:45,310 --> 00:28:48,758
Yeah. Yeah. I offered to go to counseling. I said,
459
00:28:48,814 --> 00:28:52,822
you know, can we work on this? I think we
460
00:28:52,846 --> 00:28:56,506
should go to counseling. And of course, because our marriage was the way it was,
461
00:28:56,558 --> 00:29:01,842
was she had been to counseling before and
462
00:29:01,946 --> 00:29:05,106
after you do that, then, I mean,
463
00:29:05,178 --> 00:29:08,610
she would do all kinds of things to try to. The last thing
464
00:29:08,650 --> 00:29:12,402
she was doing, and she was doing it right up till she left,
465
00:29:12,586 --> 00:29:16,322
was trying to show me more respect because that changes the
466
00:29:16,346 --> 00:29:19,842
way I react. So she was trying to do that. She was trying to
467
00:29:19,946 --> 00:29:23,276
improve. Yeah, but she didn't
468
00:29:23,308 --> 00:29:26,200
do any. She was doing.
469
00:29:26,740 --> 00:29:30,600
She didn't do any of the emotional stuff for herself to make me more
470
00:29:30,980 --> 00:29:34,412
connected to her. You see, what I'm in.
471
00:29:34,436 --> 00:29:37,900
That went through my mind too. Why do I have this connection
472
00:29:37,980 --> 00:29:41,180
to this other person but not to her? Yeah.
473
00:29:41,340 --> 00:29:44,652
Almost a stranger, really. Yeah. You know?
474
00:29:44,756 --> 00:29:48,140
Yeah. Why is this there, this emotional
475
00:29:48,220 --> 00:29:51,270
connection with her, but there isn't with my wife?
476
00:29:51,770 --> 00:29:55,250
I found all that out in the last 10 days because
477
00:29:55,370 --> 00:29:58,930
I have to meet with my counselor tomorrow and I told you
478
00:29:58,970 --> 00:30:02,594
she wanted me to go back in time, and I had a
479
00:30:02,602 --> 00:30:06,338
hard time doing that because she said there's always
480
00:30:06,394 --> 00:30:10,030
one major thing that. That a personal.
481
00:30:10,330 --> 00:30:13,890
She's done prison counseling, too. And there's always one
482
00:30:13,930 --> 00:30:17,516
major thing that an inmate brings up that their life changes
483
00:30:17,548 --> 00:30:20,860
on a die. But knowing what I know
484
00:30:20,900 --> 00:30:24,780
now, there isn't always one major thing. It can be subtle things. It can
485
00:30:24,820 --> 00:30:28,492
be. Mine was emotional
486
00:30:28,556 --> 00:30:31,660
attention was given and withdrawn as
487
00:30:31,700 --> 00:30:35,068
a child. I can remember it
488
00:30:35,124 --> 00:30:38,556
now. Did it. Did it seem like it should affect
489
00:30:38,588 --> 00:30:41,120
me? No, but it's subconscious.
490
00:30:41,420 --> 00:30:44,756
Wow. And it imprints you. There's ways
491
00:30:44,788 --> 00:30:48,196
to change it. Oh, really? What kind of ways?
492
00:30:48,308 --> 00:30:49,840
I don't know that yet.
493
00:30:52,220 --> 00:30:55,636
And so was this from a parent figure? Yeah.
494
00:30:55,828 --> 00:30:59,604
I always thought it was from my dad because my dad
495
00:30:59,652 --> 00:31:02,628
is a lot like me. He isn't very. I mean,
496
00:31:02,684 --> 00:31:05,828
my family never hugged, never kissed each other,
497
00:31:05,884 --> 00:31:09,198
never. And my father Emotions were sort of pushed
498
00:31:09,214 --> 00:31:13,102
under the rug, or more like, you're a guy. Don't cry. Just.
499
00:31:13,286 --> 00:31:17,150
Yeah. And it can't. My mom. Me and my mom
500
00:31:17,190 --> 00:31:21,182
aren't speaking right now because of it. Oh. And it's not.
501
00:31:21,286 --> 00:31:24,170
And I, I just, I can't talk to her.
502
00:31:25,030 --> 00:31:28,622
And I will say, though, I think. Tell you
503
00:31:28,646 --> 00:31:32,410
why it is. It's because when I, when,
504
00:31:32,820 --> 00:31:36,460
when this first happened, like two days after it happened,
505
00:31:36,620 --> 00:31:39,852
my mom calls me and I couldn't believe it because she never calls me.
506
00:31:39,876 --> 00:31:43,020
And I always put my phone on speakerphone and my wife
507
00:31:43,100 --> 00:31:46,332
there. And she goes, well, are you going to tell her? And I had
508
00:31:46,356 --> 00:31:49,772
no intentions of telling her at that time because I didn't know
509
00:31:49,956 --> 00:31:54,124
what the, what we were, where our lives were going.
510
00:31:54,292 --> 00:31:58,428
So why would I. Why would I? And my
511
00:31:58,484 --> 00:32:01,240
wife started and I, I.
512
00:32:01,700 --> 00:32:04,680
And she said, well, things aren't good.
513
00:32:05,460 --> 00:32:09,292
And I. We told my mother and it went along a
514
00:32:09,316 --> 00:32:12,588
while, and of course my mother goes,
515
00:32:12,764 --> 00:32:16,172
I'm not taking sides. And I
516
00:32:16,196 --> 00:32:19,372
talked to my counselor about it, and she said, well,
517
00:32:19,396 --> 00:32:23,004
what's that tell you when she says that? And I said, well, she's taken.
518
00:32:23,092 --> 00:32:27,190
She's not taking my side, it's taking her side.
519
00:32:27,810 --> 00:32:30,906
How did that make you cool? Well, that.
520
00:32:30,978 --> 00:32:34,030
I don't want to disrespect my mother, so I'm not talking.
521
00:32:35,090 --> 00:32:37,670
Were you expecting your mom to take your side?
522
00:32:38,210 --> 00:32:40,550
I would expect she should,
523
00:32:41,810 --> 00:32:44,950
yeah. It's a situation. I mean, over 40 years,
524
00:32:46,530 --> 00:32:50,346
my wife's attachment style is a vindictive attachment style,
525
00:32:50,378 --> 00:32:53,888
too. And my daughter does not speak to me. I haven't
526
00:32:53,904 --> 00:32:57,952
seen my grandson in four months, dear. Yeah, she's been
527
00:32:57,976 --> 00:33:01,440
on the Internet and villainized me. And I did
528
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:04,800
put an end to that because when I could comment on it,
529
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:08,384
I put, maybe you ought to tell all these people about the adulterous
530
00:33:08,432 --> 00:33:11,340
affair that stopped it.
531
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:15,360
But I do think, you know, the other
532
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,336
generations before us, you know, like your parents,
533
00:33:18,448 --> 00:33:21,900
they probably did the best they could at that time.
534
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,832
You know, everybody. Yeah. You mean in raising a child?
535
00:33:27,016 --> 00:33:30,608
Yep. And that was just the way it was. Everybody does.
536
00:33:30,744 --> 00:33:34,860
I mean, my daughter told me that she.
537
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:38,832
And I don't know why she's not speaking to me because we
538
00:33:38,856 --> 00:33:42,240
did speak at Christmas time. What? She told
539
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:45,052
me I was an absentee father. And I watch.
540
00:33:45,236 --> 00:33:48,460
I mean, I work. I ran a farm.
541
00:33:48,500 --> 00:33:51,964
It was a small farm. We had like 40. We were
542
00:33:52,052 --> 00:33:55,660
40 to 50. 40 to 60 cows. We had
543
00:33:55,700 --> 00:33:59,372
120 head. I hired one kid to
544
00:33:59,396 --> 00:34:03,004
come after school for an hour a day. I worked 13
545
00:34:03,092 --> 00:34:06,012
to 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
546
00:34:06,116 --> 00:34:09,340
Wow. 40 years. And I had three weeks off
547
00:34:09,380 --> 00:34:13,832
the whole time. Uh huh. So was I an absentee father?
548
00:34:13,976 --> 00:34:17,672
Yes, in a lot of ways. Did her college get
549
00:34:17,696 --> 00:34:20,456
paid for, does she have college loans to pay?
550
00:34:20,608 --> 00:34:24,344
No. Did half her house get paid for by her father?
551
00:34:24,472 --> 00:34:28,408
Yes. So I, you know,
552
00:34:28,544 --> 00:34:31,540
there were other ways I tried to make up for it.
553
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:35,064
I kind of did the same thing my mother did to me, I guess.
554
00:34:35,192 --> 00:34:39,080
Yep. And that, that is typical.
555
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:43,016
You know, that's what we do. Yep. So yeah,
556
00:34:43,048 --> 00:34:47,128
I agree. My. Me not, I think the generations
557
00:34:47,224 --> 00:34:50,616
being raised. I've got a teaching degree and I've
558
00:34:50,648 --> 00:34:54,376
taught school also. And I don't, because I don't
559
00:34:54,408 --> 00:34:58,260
agree with the way the schools are run. But I do think
560
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,130
my generation and probably my,
561
00:35:02,250 --> 00:35:06,082
maybe my daughter's generation have had the best
562
00:35:06,266 --> 00:35:10,390
parenting that they can have. The parenting now is terrible
563
00:35:11,210 --> 00:35:14,510
in most cases from what I've seen.
564
00:35:15,530 --> 00:35:19,122
But. And that shapes a person in a lot of
565
00:35:19,146 --> 00:35:23,390
ways. And I don't think
566
00:35:24,250 --> 00:35:28,468
I know one thing. Me being an anxious preoccupied
567
00:35:28,564 --> 00:35:32,440
probably stopped me from leaving my wife.
568
00:35:32,940 --> 00:35:36,724
You know what I mean? I, I had no intentions of ever leaving
569
00:35:36,772 --> 00:35:39,760
her. Never. Never really. I mean,
570
00:35:40,300 --> 00:35:43,620
I was buying stuff for a car right up till,
571
00:35:43,780 --> 00:35:47,412
till there's a brand new set of tires out in
572
00:35:47,436 --> 00:35:51,076
my shop. There's snow tires out in my shop on rims.
573
00:35:51,188 --> 00:35:54,770
You know, I was still buying stuff with the anticipation that,
574
00:35:54,900 --> 00:35:58,518
you know, a month before this all happened that,
575
00:35:58,654 --> 00:36:01,766
you know, she would need. So there was,
576
00:36:01,918 --> 00:36:04,662
I, I'm odd, I guess, is all I'm saying.
577
00:36:04,766 --> 00:36:08,966
I'm not typical MLC that, that looked
578
00:36:08,998 --> 00:36:12,570
at, you know, a progression to leave.
579
00:36:13,230 --> 00:36:16,870
I guess there are some that don't. Your wife is lucky in that respect.
580
00:36:16,990 --> 00:36:20,450
You know, she might, I don't know. Is she?
581
00:36:21,060 --> 00:36:24,812
He ended up in the same spot, only in reverse
582
00:36:24,876 --> 00:36:28,364
roles. Did she realize you had a midlife
583
00:36:28,412 --> 00:36:31,724
crisis? Did you say that to her? Did you guys talk about it?
584
00:36:31,892 --> 00:36:35,708
No, I didn't know till after she. Oh, wait, so when did you
585
00:36:35,764 --> 00:36:39,708
realize after she left? After. Yeah,
586
00:36:39,804 --> 00:36:43,356
I didn't find, I didn't join that marriage support
587
00:36:43,428 --> 00:36:46,972
group till after she left. And that's where the person in
588
00:36:46,996 --> 00:36:50,716
it said, hey, you need to take this test. And that's
589
00:36:50,748 --> 00:36:54,780
when I found out and I have told her. I've sent
590
00:36:54,820 --> 00:36:58,284
her the information to the, to the midlife crisis
591
00:36:58,332 --> 00:37:02,556
group. I don't think she knows the extent that it can affect a person
592
00:37:02,628 --> 00:37:06,028
because she did say when we were together two
593
00:37:06,084 --> 00:37:09,964
weeks, she could say I could understand if you had some kind of
594
00:37:09,972 --> 00:37:13,292
mental problem and this happened. Little does she know I
595
00:37:13,316 --> 00:37:16,440
did. Yeah. Well, that's good. She said that.
596
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:23,672
She won't read the information. She won't look at it. She won't.
597
00:37:23,816 --> 00:37:27,912
She's really hurt. She feels really betrayed.
598
00:37:28,056 --> 00:37:31,432
I think she feels really betrayed. If there was a way
599
00:37:31,456 --> 00:37:35,208
I could educate them and give them the knowledge that I have,
600
00:37:35,344 --> 00:37:39,300
at least they'd understand. Well, we're trying to do that with
601
00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,922
this show and there's a lot, there's a,
602
00:37:43,096 --> 00:37:47,610
A lot of folks now that are trying to lift the, the awareness. Of mlc,
603
00:37:47,950 --> 00:37:52,166
newer awareness. And there needs to be some mental health
604
00:37:52,238 --> 00:37:55,430
studies. There needs. I believe there's, there's some
605
00:37:55,470 --> 00:37:59,050
way that this can be prevented. Yeah, to the extent,
606
00:37:59,550 --> 00:38:03,062
I mean, you're probably not going to prevent a midlife crisis, but to the
607
00:38:03,086 --> 00:38:07,010
extent that people have it, I think there is a way to
608
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:10,740
limit the severity.
609
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:15,568
But there's not, there's not enough knowledge,
610
00:38:15,664 --> 00:38:20,176
there's not enough awareness. There's not enough studying,
611
00:38:20,368 --> 00:38:22,540
and there's probably not enough money.
612
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:29,456
Well, I mean, the last we've had one meeting where I've
613
00:38:29,488 --> 00:38:32,976
seen her and it was on like we're doing now, she couldn't
614
00:38:33,008 --> 00:38:34,100
look at the camera.
615
00:38:36,350 --> 00:38:40,486
She could be having her own crisis, too. I, I wondered that
616
00:38:40,638 --> 00:38:43,878
she had gone through something. She's on hormone,
617
00:38:43,974 --> 00:38:45,810
so I don't know.
618
00:38:48,510 --> 00:38:51,990
She's. She's got a master's degree. She got
619
00:38:52,030 --> 00:38:55,078
a degree in art education,
620
00:38:55,214 --> 00:38:58,422
elementary education, and a minor in psychology and
621
00:38:58,446 --> 00:39:02,384
a minor in abnormal
622
00:39:02,432 --> 00:39:06,000
psychology. Huh. She ought to know what's going
623
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:09,184
on. But I don't know what she does. My attorney
624
00:39:09,232 --> 00:39:13,008
did bring up, of course, I'm asking for reconciliation,
625
00:39:13,184 --> 00:39:18,336
which I live in New York, so we have very liberal laws
626
00:39:18,368 --> 00:39:22,688
of all kinds, so they just about hand divorces out
627
00:39:22,824 --> 00:39:25,300
at a drive through. Yeah.
628
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:29,300
And. But my attorney is.
629
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:33,496
Did it. Did talk about reconciliation and
630
00:39:33,568 --> 00:39:38,824
brought up, you know, the work that I've done, the midlife
631
00:39:38,872 --> 00:39:42,664
crisis. And I forget.
632
00:39:42,712 --> 00:39:46,232
Her, her attorney, he, he handled it
633
00:39:46,256 --> 00:39:50,232
in a way that was demeaning to me. Let's just. Enough so that
634
00:39:50,256 --> 00:39:53,352
the court. Wait, wait, wait. Your attorney did. Or hit hers.
635
00:39:53,416 --> 00:39:56,634
Hers. Oh, enough so that the court
636
00:39:56,722 --> 00:40:00,150
person said, look, we're not going to have any of that going on.
637
00:40:00,770 --> 00:40:05,338
It was my, my. I think my attorney said,
638
00:40:05,394 --> 00:40:08,778
you know, what can we do? Can we do counseling or.
639
00:40:08,914 --> 00:40:13,146
And he said, well, the problem with it is it's
640
00:40:13,178 --> 00:40:17,338
the second time, which I said, two years ago we had an issue and
641
00:40:17,394 --> 00:40:20,612
now this. And your attorney,
642
00:40:20,756 --> 00:40:24,244
your, Your client Went out and bought a house with.
643
00:40:24,412 --> 00:40:27,640
I forget how he worded it, but it was very. Demeanor.
644
00:40:29,340 --> 00:40:30,080
Right.
645
00:40:36,700 --> 00:40:40,132
I'm so sorry to hear that. It's. It's just unraveled like
646
00:40:40,156 --> 00:40:46,478
this. You know, we am too, because I'm
647
00:40:46,494 --> 00:40:49,630
not a quitter and I think it
648
00:40:49,670 --> 00:40:52,878
can be fixed. It would take a lot of work,
649
00:40:53,014 --> 00:40:56,222
a lot of understanding. I've done
650
00:40:56,246 --> 00:40:59,918
a lot of the work already. Right,
651
00:41:00,054 --> 00:41:00,730
right.
652
00:41:03,590 --> 00:41:07,438
So do you ever sit down and have those. You don't
653
00:41:07,454 --> 00:41:10,848
have those panic attacks anymore about life is short death,
654
00:41:10,974 --> 00:41:13,964
anything good? I got nothing to live for.
655
00:41:14,132 --> 00:41:17,292
Oh, that's not true. You're. You're going to have a lot
656
00:41:17,316 --> 00:41:20,600
to live for. So you don't know.
657
00:41:21,380 --> 00:41:24,668
No, I think, you know, a lot of us feel that way at times.
658
00:41:24,804 --> 00:41:28,412
Really. But, you know, I've talked
659
00:41:28,476 --> 00:41:31,708
with my. My business partner.
660
00:41:31,884 --> 00:41:35,452
We've talked about it. Actually, we talked about it quite a while
661
00:41:35,476 --> 00:41:38,940
ago, and it was probably a midlife.
662
00:41:39,020 --> 00:41:42,120
Part of my midlife crisis and part of what he's going.
663
00:41:43,770 --> 00:41:47,378
And, you know, we've talked about. About it
664
00:41:47,434 --> 00:41:50,670
and, and this may have helped some.
665
00:41:51,370 --> 00:41:55,138
You know, we've done a lot in our lifetime.
666
00:41:55,234 --> 00:41:58,430
We've accomplished a lot. We. We're both.
667
00:41:59,930 --> 00:42:03,250
He told his aunt about our partnership and she goes, well, you know,
668
00:42:03,290 --> 00:42:06,866
partnerships are really bad. And his aunt.
669
00:42:06,978 --> 00:42:10,114
And he goes to his aunt. Well, the guy's just like. And she goes,
670
00:42:10,162 --> 00:42:13,602
there's another one like you. And we
671
00:42:13,626 --> 00:42:17,362
are. We've got the same demeanor. How long. How long
672
00:42:17,386 --> 00:42:21,042
have you guys been partners? Since 2018.
673
00:42:21,146 --> 00:42:24,830
But we've known each other. He was. For 30 years.
674
00:42:26,970 --> 00:42:30,242
Through your counseling and things. Have you realized or, you know, do they
675
00:42:30,266 --> 00:42:34,616
talk about, like, joy and that feeling of fulfillment
676
00:42:34,778 --> 00:42:38,172
needs to come from within and not from your spouse or anything like that?
677
00:42:38,276 --> 00:42:39,880
Talked about that.
678
00:42:43,860 --> 00:42:47,004
It's kind of weird. I pretty much run.
679
00:42:47,092 --> 00:42:50,604
Run the counseling thing because
680
00:42:50,692 --> 00:42:54,156
first I was obsessed. Why I did what I did.
681
00:42:54,308 --> 00:42:57,804
Yeah. And how. How can I repair the damage?
682
00:42:57,932 --> 00:43:01,270
Yeah. And we still talk about
683
00:43:01,310 --> 00:43:04,758
it some. And then my counselors and.
684
00:43:04,814 --> 00:43:07,734
And now I've said to her, you know, I've got a lot. I've had a
685
00:43:07,742 --> 00:43:11,570
lot laws. How can I improve on those?
686
00:43:12,350 --> 00:43:15,410
So that's where we're starting. Have started.
687
00:43:16,190 --> 00:43:20,690
And looking into my childhood and
688
00:43:21,790 --> 00:43:25,090
I mean, I meet with her tomorrow. It was two weeks ago.
689
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,180
And I think I got more figured out.
690
00:43:29,720 --> 00:43:33,600
Wow. Why I am the way I am now
691
00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:36,620
after that. How do you fix it? How can you.
692
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,260
How can you, you know,
693
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:44,224
work on changing. Changing your attachment
694
00:43:44,272 --> 00:43:47,632
style? Yeah. I guess recognition is
695
00:43:47,656 --> 00:43:51,056
the first Step in the right direction. Well, yeah, I've known,
696
00:43:51,208 --> 00:43:51,940
yeah.
697
00:43:53,410 --> 00:43:55,550
Admittance, remorse,
698
00:43:55,890 --> 00:43:59,790
acknowledgment and accountability.
699
00:44:02,450 --> 00:44:04,270
That's how you correct yourself.
700
00:44:06,050 --> 00:44:09,818
Well, I refer to all my male guests as John, so I'm not gonna
701
00:44:09,834 --> 00:44:13,178
say your name, but. So. Okay, so you've
702
00:44:13,194 --> 00:44:15,402
got a lot coming up in the future. Would it be okay if we have
703
00:44:15,426 --> 00:44:18,710
a part two sometime in the future? Whatever you want.
704
00:44:19,510 --> 00:44:23,374
Let me ask you any, any, any last minute you want to
705
00:44:23,382 --> 00:44:26,942
share with our viewers today. You've got
706
00:44:26,966 --> 00:44:30,730
some advice there. You've got a lot. You know, I, I talk
707
00:44:32,070 --> 00:44:35,118
in, in the chat and I try to give them advice more,
708
00:44:35,174 --> 00:44:38,542
very understanding. And I try to
709
00:44:38,566 --> 00:44:42,370
tell them pretty much what happened in and where I'm headed.
710
00:44:43,670 --> 00:44:46,830
I do think, given time,
711
00:44:48,250 --> 00:44:52,546
I will tell you right now, your husband will regret what's
712
00:44:52,578 --> 00:44:56,990
happened. And if you can,
713
00:44:57,610 --> 00:45:01,510
if you can buy the time and prevent
714
00:45:01,850 --> 00:45:05,986
certain things from happening, if you feel
715
00:45:06,058 --> 00:45:08,510
that your relationship is worth that,
716
00:45:09,130 --> 00:45:12,538
it's a risk. But it's saying
717
00:45:12,594 --> 00:45:15,898
that, I guess if you're
718
00:45:15,914 --> 00:45:20,122
in love with someone, it's a risk. You, you have and died on
719
00:45:20,146 --> 00:45:23,390
your own, whether you're willing to take or not. Huh.
720
00:45:26,210 --> 00:45:31,978
It's like me now. I've been four months and I,
721
00:45:32,114 --> 00:45:36,670
I went sending my wife messages,
722
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:40,832
and the last one I sent her was she asked me
723
00:45:40,856 --> 00:45:44,032
why this happened. And I never. When she asked me,
724
00:45:44,056 --> 00:45:47,760
I could not give her satisfactory answer. All I could say
725
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:50,720
was it made me feel younger. Right.
726
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:52,620
But I couldn't, I couldn't tell her,
727
00:45:55,240 --> 00:45:58,864
you know, why I did it. And I told her, in a
728
00:45:58,872 --> 00:46:02,400
way, you know, I said I was very insecure, both in my life
729
00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:05,962
and in my marriage at the time. And those were
730
00:46:05,986 --> 00:46:09,754
the main reasons that. And I said there were some reasons why I felt
731
00:46:09,802 --> 00:46:13,050
insecure. Went to the part with
732
00:46:13,090 --> 00:46:16,586
my mom and all that, but I wanted
733
00:46:16,618 --> 00:46:20,602
her to know I would, I would, and I will if she gives me
734
00:46:20,626 --> 00:46:24,042
that chance. To me, when you, when I hear that
735
00:46:24,066 --> 00:46:27,430
she said that to you, that she asked you how did it happen? I think
736
00:46:27,970 --> 00:46:31,794
that that's really like her willing to be opened up, sort of keep a
737
00:46:31,882 --> 00:46:36,034
wall, maybe an invisible wall between. Yeah, that was the tour here with,
738
00:46:36,122 --> 00:46:39,150
with me. Yeah. The,
739
00:46:39,530 --> 00:46:43,586
the fearful avoidant fluctuates from
740
00:46:43,658 --> 00:46:45,350
avoidant to anxious.
741
00:46:47,050 --> 00:46:50,110
They go from one end from one extreme to the other.
742
00:46:50,410 --> 00:46:54,322
And she must have been in the anxious
743
00:46:54,466 --> 00:46:58,510
stage where she wanted to, you see what she wanted.
744
00:46:58,590 --> 00:46:59,490
Inquire.
745
00:47:02,790 --> 00:47:06,270
I think it would. Anyone that goes through this,
746
00:47:06,310 --> 00:47:09,806
I think it would do anyone good to talk about it
747
00:47:09,878 --> 00:47:13,534
afterwards, whether you're with your partner
748
00:47:13,582 --> 00:47:15,770
or not, I think you owe them that.
749
00:47:17,750 --> 00:47:21,050
You're very lucky that you've come out of this, you know,
750
00:47:21,990 --> 00:47:25,886
not everybody does. Eight years. Eight years.
751
00:47:25,958 --> 00:47:28,130
It's been eight years. Wow.
752
00:47:29,750 --> 00:47:33,070
Well, 2017. What a great way to start your retirement,
753
00:47:33,150 --> 00:47:35,650
huh? Oh,
754
00:47:37,430 --> 00:47:40,702
I'll never be retired. I'm not that type.
755
00:47:40,846 --> 00:47:44,382
Yeah. I've got so
756
00:47:44,406 --> 00:47:47,854
many things that I do. But that's a
757
00:47:47,862 --> 00:47:51,060
good thing. Yeah. I would do things a lot different.
758
00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:55,540
And I. I don't know, I.
759
00:47:57,680 --> 00:48:00,980
We got five foot of snow here this
760
00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:04,936
December and it collapsed one of my barns.
761
00:48:05,128 --> 00:48:08,632
Oh. Caved the roof right in. Oh. Yeah.
762
00:48:08,696 --> 00:48:11,700
It's. I got a huge mess to clean up from that. But.
763
00:48:12,240 --> 00:48:14,980
Yeah. And. And I've thought, you know,
764
00:48:15,470 --> 00:48:18,438
I don't know if I want to live here in the world. Maybe I'll have
765
00:48:18,574 --> 00:48:21,270
place in the south in the winter.
766
00:48:21,350 --> 00:48:26,310
South. I don't know. But it
767
00:48:26,350 --> 00:48:30,410
changed my life. You mean the crisis?
768
00:48:30,830 --> 00:48:34,262
Yeah, the midlife crisis is changing. Wow. And not
769
00:48:34,286 --> 00:48:37,526
for the Right. I'm so sorry. You know,
770
00:48:37,678 --> 00:48:41,382
I mean, it is devastating. See, you're the
771
00:48:41,406 --> 00:48:44,920
person in the crisis. Devastating for you, devastating for your wife,
772
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:47,220
other grandchildren in the family.
773
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:53,140
Yeah. It's hard to some, you know, for some people, it's really hard to.
774
00:48:54,240 --> 00:48:58,824
Some people won't admit it outright, but inside
775
00:48:58,872 --> 00:49:03,416
they will know what they did was wrong and regret
776
00:49:03,528 --> 00:49:05,700
that they did it to someone.
777
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:10,744
Really sad because it's tipping, you know what's happening. People's the latter
778
00:49:10,792 --> 00:49:14,186
third of, you know. Yeah. Well, why do you think there's
779
00:49:14,218 --> 00:49:18,270
some men. Look at. Look at the rise in divorce.
780
00:49:19,170 --> 00:49:23,002
A look at the rise number of divorces with
781
00:49:23,026 --> 00:49:26,218
people with gray hair. They're talking about it all the time. Oh yeah,
782
00:49:26,234 --> 00:49:30,310
there's a Facebook group, Gray Hair Divorce. Yes. Why do you think it is?
783
00:49:30,610 --> 00:49:34,122
Yep. You know why and I know why. But the
784
00:49:34,146 --> 00:49:36,790
public doesn't know why yet and they need to.
785
00:49:40,460 --> 00:49:43,972
Thank you for joining us today as. As we
786
00:49:43,996 --> 00:49:47,924
discuss this topic. You know, the mental health community has yet to formally
787
00:49:47,972 --> 00:49:52,612
classify midlife crisis as a psychological impairment with real world consequences
788
00:49:52,756 --> 00:49:56,532
similar to what you've heard today. Research suggests that MLC
789
00:49:56,596 --> 00:50:00,388
can involve symptoms similar to depression, identity crisis, and even
790
00:50:00,444 --> 00:50:03,876
dissociative states. Like other conditions that impair
791
00:50:03,908 --> 00:50:07,364
judgment, such as manic episodes and bipolar disorder or temporary
792
00:50:07,412 --> 00:50:11,152
psychosis. M leads individuals to make reckless
793
00:50:11,216 --> 00:50:15,072
decisions similar to that that they later end up regretting if
794
00:50:15,096 --> 00:50:19,168
a person is in a psychiatric crisis. If a person in
795
00:50:19,224 --> 00:50:22,880
a psychiatric crisis cannot legally sign contracts or make major life
796
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:27,136
decisions without oversight, why should an individual in the throes of a midlife crisis
797
00:50:27,168 --> 00:50:30,384
be allowed to dismantle a marriage, sell a home or drain
798
00:50:30,432 --> 00:50:33,984
shared finances without safeguards. We believe
799
00:50:34,072 --> 00:50:37,684
legal protections must be implemented to prevent MLC
800
00:50:37,732 --> 00:50:41,508
driven destruction of families. Legal reforms should be considered
801
00:50:41,604 --> 00:50:44,868
such as waiting periods for major decisions.
802
00:50:44,964 --> 00:50:48,516
Just as there are waiting periods for gun purchases and other high risk
803
00:50:48,588 --> 00:50:52,468
actions. A mandatory reflection period should be instituted before
804
00:50:52,524 --> 00:50:55,684
finalizing divorce or selling shared property during an
805
00:50:55,772 --> 00:50:59,636
mlc. There could be legal oversight for spousal protection
806
00:50:59,748 --> 00:51:03,702
if one spouse claims the other is in a midlife crisis. Courts should require
807
00:51:03,766 --> 00:51:08,086
mediation and mental health assessments before irreversible legal actions
808
00:51:08,118 --> 00:51:12,358
can be taken. It's our efforts through this podcast
809
00:51:12,534 --> 00:51:16,198
that more awareness can be brought to this
810
00:51:16,334 --> 00:51:20,550
situation so that going forward from
811
00:51:20,590 --> 00:51:24,790
unilaterally destroying a shared life due to a temporary psychological
812
00:51:24,870 --> 00:51:29,062
breakdown. Thank you for joining us today and we
813
00:51:29,086 --> 00:51:32,750
look forward to having you join us on our future shows. Thanks so much.
814
00:51:32,790 --> 00:51:34,222
Have a super day you guys.