Drained
My experience is pretty much the same as eveyrone here has experienced. I think there are some very good words here, and I agree with kaos because I have done the same thing.....tried to be there for my exagf. At one point I left her for 2 months and I hoped that running out of money, foreclosure notices coming on her house, and her having to sign up for welfare for herself and her daughter would have been a bottom. But that's what "I hoped" and not what was reality. They will say exactly what they know we need to hear, and because we love them, we will want to believe them, but every single word they say is said with one purpose: to manipulate those around them, and to get exactly what it is that they want. What we want, what we need, what our children need, is of no real true concern to them and won't be unless or until they see for themselves that they and their lives are completely out of control and unmanageable and they are willing to change it all. Drained, I will put you in my prayers.