Thank you, Nuu, for this thread. You have no idea how helpful it is for me, it's a coincidence... very eye-opening. When I first read your OP and I "listened" to my immediate reaction to it (what I wrote down in my post), it was like an instant light bulb. I'm just struggling through this also, yet again, just not in a romantic relationship but other kind, relative to my father. I almost made my old mistake again early last week after he reached out to me pretty much with the clearest and most direct cry for help and "I need you". I almost said, yet again, "not a good time, I have too much commitments right now at work". Thank God I posted about it here on SR immediately and the wonderful people here helped me restore me to sane and reasonable judgment. So I did not avoid being vulnerable and... well yeah, very overwhelmed emotionally. After making the right decision and did what I truly wanted to do, I knew it was probably one of the best decisions I made in the past few years... Yay, for personal growth, with lots of help!
Yay for you as well, we may be on the opposite sides of this particular problem but I think we are doing it right. Moving forward. All these weird, wonderful, and awful features of human nature
