My husband and I just bought a house in April and since moving in, he’s been gone almost every other week (the longest he’s been home is 2 weeks in May). He’s just returned from a 2-week trip, only to inform me that he has a 4-week trip in July. I keep asking myself how I seemed to manage better before this but I think it’s because I always thought there was an end in sight. That and if something major happened in our old apartment we had maintenance to fix it, whereas now I am in this new house, in a brand new city without him. We were putting off having kids until we bought a home. But now that I am here and I realize how much I am struggling alone, I can’t imagine adding small humans to take care of to the mix and this is causing some grief as well (we both want kids). I am seeking therapy (first session this week!) because I already struggle with anxiety/depression and the frequent unpredictable travel kind of exacerbates it. We’ve been having a lot of discussions about the travel and while he hates being away, he doesn’t think there are any better career options for him (and I know he loves the job and has put a lot of time and effort into it) so I should suck it up and find more things to fill my time (which I do: family visits/overnights, I work full time, I catch up with friends, find new recipes to try, and I listen to so many audiobooks, also while maintaining the day to day household stuff) — but none of those things help when things break (like our HVAC) or with the extreme nighttime anxiety I have. While he’s gone, we do make an effort to keep in contact often and I am always excited for him to return but lately, I’ve been feeling a lot of resentment towards him even when he’s here, and obviously, that’s causing some tension between us. When he’s home for such a short period of time, he’s still working a lot but also has to make time to see friends and family because he’s gone so often (which I logically know is a good thing but sometimes when he’s still so busy and home these things add a little salt to my wound). I am starting to feel more like an accessory to his life and it’s like we get started on things, get into a routine, and then he goes away — so I have to change things up and put things on hold and I start a different routine and then he returns and we do the same cycle all over again. I feel like my life just stops and starts and I don’t want to feel this way so I’m hoping therapy can help me cope better because I want this to work but I’m struggling. Any advice?

1 comment
  1. It’s hard. You’re basically living two different lives – the one with him and the one without him. In order to survive when he’s gone, you have to build up an entire life without him and that doesn’t bode well for a healthy, mutual relationship.

    What about now feels different than before? You can hire out house maintenance if that is truly the issue, but it feels like it is something else? Is there no longer an end in sight? What changed?

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