I’ve known for a long time that I have massive issues with intimacy. I have worked hard to get around them, but the truth is, at the end of the day, somewhere in my mind or in my heart, something niggles away at me. Lately, it’s been getting much worth as my partner and I move forward in our relationship.
My partner and I now are taking the HUGE leap of moving away from my home town to his home town (which is opposite ends of Australia really!).
Although the packing and moving process has been extremely frustrating at times, the truth is, we’ve discovered we work pretty well as a team… sometimes I just need to stop nagging and sometimes he just needs to be more pro-active but all in all – we work well. My mind and heart are absolutely in love with this man and I could not even dream up a man who is the person he is. My friends and family adore him too (my father likes him more than he likes me.. jerk) and I can see him being an amazing father down the track.
But the one thing that is frustrating to both of us, is my intimacy issues. I’m quite an affectionate person however, there are certain things I just can’t do – for reasons I don’t really understand.
My partner likes to ‘snuggle’ and put his arms around me and let his head rest on my shoulder while we talk. I literally feel smothered, hot, frustrated and uncomfortable beyond all belief. Sure this would make sense if my partner was a 500kg ball of fur, but he’s very far from it. I know it deeply offends him when I grunt or when I go dead silent so as to avoid grunting or asking him to get off, but I honestly just can’t deal with this. I don’t like snuggling, I don’t like spooning, I don’t like someone being in my space in bed.
It used to be so bad, and sometimes still is, that I couldn’t sleep if someone else was in the bed. Some nights, I’m not sure if it’s anxiety or what it is, but I stay up on my phone (on reddit or facebook) and no matter how long I put it down for or how long I lie with my eyes closed, the fact that someone is next to me makes it too uncomfortable for me to fall asleep.
It’s gotten really bad lately and in my mind, the one thing I keep thinking is, I’m going to be sleeping with this man every night soon. Every night in the same bed… what if this never goes away? What if I spend every night having a restless sleep or no sleep at all? What if he gets angered by my lack of intimacy that he decides to leave?
It’s like I’m more than capable of giving love but as for accepting love in – I just can’t do it. Some days, I wonder if I’m even capable of accepting love, because the people I have always had in my life have always ended up being spoilt by me, I give them the best of who I am and in turn get the worst of them or given little time, love or affection.
When I look back at the relationships I’ve had, the ones where the men loved me and treated me like a princess, were the ones I pushed away or got an ‘icky feeling’ about. The ones who let me be, where I was putting all the effort in and they rarely did – are the ones that I still miss or am still upset that the relationships didn’t work.
I know this is directly linked to my mother. When she was nice to me and when she did treat me with love and affection, it was closely followed by a spurt of abuse. I am sure this has large psychological effects, but through all the years of counselling and seeing psychologists, this is one thing that has never been addressed or brought up.
I’m such a big hypocrite and I’m starting to realise that I cry wolf and beg my partner to show me he loves me, but when he does, I push it away, feel uncomfortable or find a fault or flaw in his affection.
I know this is a horrible thing to do and detrimental to our relationship, but I honestly just don’t know how to make that nagging little feeling go away for good.
So here is my question to all you wise readers out there, what do I do? What are the little steps I need to take to be able to let this man love me without having this rising sense of fear/anxiety.
Little Red 
I suggest talking about it. You’ve probably already done that a hundred times but maybe you should openly express the exact feeling you get when you begin to feel your space being closed in on. Sometimes walking through it while it is happening helps.
Today I was going to write a blog and was searching for images and stumbled upon your blog. Interesting that I did, because the topic of what I am going to write is how to not marry your parents and how to not become your parent. Let me explain. A woman grows up with an emotionally abusive mother. She knows that her mother loves her and she knows that her mother has, in the past, emotionally abused her over and over. What does this young woman do? She marries a man who abuses her. She knows that he may also love her also because the two (love and abuse) can go hand-in-hand, in her limited life experience. You seem to be allowing your mother and your past to control who you are today. You’ve learned that intimacy means you can reject someone you love. You need to face this and you need to talk to him about it. Be brave and be honest. My husband helped me get through my communication issues because he cared enough to do so. I suspect this may be the case for you as well. You need to feel worthy enough for love. On the surface you may say you want to “love,” but deep down you are not reflecting that to yourself or him.
In the long run your behavior will hurt him to the core. You could be the abuser now. Rejection is a sharp knife.
Good luck!