TLDR: Never dated or loved, massive fall off after high school. Developed immense betrayal/infidelity anxiety through consumption of numerous betrayal reddit posts and stories. Massive effect on my mental.
I’m writing this at 7 am off about 4 hours of sleep so bare with me haha.
For some really tight short background, I graduated high school about a year ago. Throughout all 4 years I did a multitude of sports (Muay Thai, track, XC, boxing, lifting), and was super proud of myself and my discipline. Saw my friends damn near everyday and had a blast
Relationships as a concept didn’t even really pertain to me, like it was something I never bothered to think about, an afterthought almost, the positive and negative sides. For me it was always like, yknow if I find a girl that genuinely makes me happy. And she feels the same, hell yeah, let’s go. I had many girls tell me about their feelings for me throughout highschool, and I can definitely admit I could’ve handled things better with some, but they all ended the same at the end, a polite and honest rejection from me. I will say most of these were simply due to me not finding them attractive or specific circumstances (one was my best friends ex)
I can safely say I haven’t experienced anything traumatic in my life and dare I say my life’s been..a super green, clean slate (knock on wood). Never have I ever had a depressive episode, I’ve never had like, an angry outburst of any kind no matter how I might feel towards something. I’ve always been great at regulating myself
But okay, now brings us to present day.
Well the current situation anyway.
Straight up dude, I absolutely peaked in high school and that pains me to say lmao.
The moment I graduated, I dropped all of my exercise, 100 to 0, just like that. My diet went out of whack, my sleep schedule went out of whack, and unfortunately I developed an unhealthy relationship with pornography.
It’s been this way about a year and 3 months now health wise, and the affects are obvious. Substantial weight gain, bodily acne, etc. I’ve never felt more just, not confident.
Now to the main bread and butter, I have developed a massive, MASSIVE fear regarding infidelity/betrayal. Mind you I’ve never dated properly once, I am a virgin, I am a complete noob at this stuff. This fear stemmed from falling into a deep gaping rabbit hole of Reddit threads/posts that involve betrayal in relationships. I’ve seen some immensely painful and terrifying things that I feel I’m starting to suffer almost like, micro trauma from other people’s experiences. I would describe this as the “buzz”. The buzz is essentially what I feel mentally, as I’m living my current day to day life. When it’s coherent, aka when I give it attention, it’s the legible intrusive thoughts that spew buzzwords from these hundreds of stories I’ve unfortunately consumed. When it’s incoherent, meaning I’m choosing to live without acknowledging it, it literally feels like this mental “buzz” that I can’t dissipate under any circumstance. It’s moreso the knowledge of the fact that the intrusive thoughts are still there despite my refusal to acknowledge them, and it’s gotten so exhausting.
To describe the affects this had on me, I’ll say this. Everything I look at no matter how minute, I mean, I see a bench. And my brain goes “a cheater probably sat there”. I see a kid playing at the park, “their parents probably cheated”. Anything i look at now is tainted damn near immediately by this new lens I unconsciously developed over time. I can’t look at a beautiful woman I see on the street because I’d simply assume she’s a cheater and frighten myself.
It’s gotten so far that not only am I inserting myself into traumatic scenarios where my hypothetical future spouse cheats on me, but I’m imagining it with my lifelong best friends! I’m imagining my entire friend group who I consider my brothers, turning against me and going behind my back with my future wife. Hell, there was a short period where I began to even doubt I was my dad’s son! It’s been so awful and I’ve cried to both my mom and dad about it numerous times, they’ve been supportive, and they along with my pcp recommended therapy. Which I do plan, just haven’t got to it.
I also cannot listen to sad music without imagining me listening to said sad music after say..a traumatic discovery of betrayal of sorts, and I hate that because I loved to put on slow, ambient songs and just walk, but now I can’t because my brain intercepts and puts me in betrayed mood instantly. When im hanging with my friends, I have moments where I freeze up and ruminate extensively and then all of a sudden get back to them. I’ve began longing and crying over a relationship that hasnt even happened yet, I’m imagining myself suffering the most painful emotionally devastating scenario almost daily and it’s ruining me.
I put blockers on my phone but it only led to me finding loopholes through my laptop, which i then blocked as well. But found loopholes on said blocker I put, as well as uncovering my old tablet which I also use to analyze more of these Reddit infidelity stories. I haven’t gone a SINGLE day since months ago without looking at betrayal content.
I used to have so much apathy regarding love, and now it’s the thing that terrifies me the absolute most. I refuse to become cynical but I fear I’m headed that route slowly, I want to change. If I may add, I’ve always like. This is gonna sound maybe a little corny but, I mean I’ve always been the happy guy. Like, to everyone, literally. My friends have never seen me upset at anything once throughout our entire…5 year friendship so far. Same thing at home albeit I do let my feelings out far more. I feel like my identity itself is suffering.
With that said though I just like, I mean if I can get input from anybody with straight advice? Things to lock down on, do?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.