30M After divorce I got literally zero support from anyone, why?

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Holy shit man, reading your story was just slightly diffrent than mine. Like looking into a mirror.

My partner broke up with me 5 months ago, we've been together for 11 years with a kid of 5 years old.

I lost it a couple weeks ago now and had to be checked into a mental facility. My sister is helping my ex and long story short no one is on my side. I have one friend and my Mum doing her best to help, but if you ever want to talk. I'm here for you dude.

I'm so sorry you're going through this, it sucks getting no to little support and being betrayed like this. Please if you're in a bad head space, I'll be here for you and do my best to get back ASAP.

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My therapist used to say feelings are not facts. And that has always stuck with me. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I've been where you are now. It was a rough year, and there were rough times long after the divorce was finalized. It took me a while, but I picked myself up, found new friends, and got back out there. The best thing you can do for yourself is do things you love to do, and try to meet new people. Staying in your house and ruminating on all the ways your life sucks is probably the worst thing you can do for yourself. Keep your head up, there are people out there that do care about you, and probably many more who will once they get to know you. You just need to find them.

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I’m sure I’ll be downvoted to oblivion for this, but give ChatGPT or local LLMs a try for support. They are surprisingly effective, just keep the perspective that they’re about as alive as a screwdriver. They’re not alive and can’t form emotional or other bonds with you. Working through issues or thought processes or needed some base level support, they seem pretty decent at. Maybe it could limp you along to a building a support network.

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If you still have a decent hairline be aware that Bupropion is the antidepressant with the strongest association with hair loss according to a meta analysis from ~5 years ago.
I know it nuked my hairline after just 3-4 months of being on it.

And to reply to your original topic, yeah, women receive way more support post-breakup in my experience, while men are expected to just suck it up. As a male you're treated as disposable whose worth is based on what he can offer others, while women are inherently valued for being female.

It is what it is.

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There are friends and friends of convenience. Real friends stay by your side. The others show their colors eventually. I’m sorry for you but you’ll find real friends going forward.

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If it's been that long and it's still getting worse, you should see your PCP or a psychiatrist if you haven't already. There are many treatments for depression, and a doctor can help identify underlying medical causes that could be contributing.

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My man, i know I am just a random internet person, but please let me (at least virtually) hug you. I mean it.

A divorce is trully a tough process, and you have the right to feel affected by it. You are not "exagerating" things or being unreasonable. So don't think that they are right when the say "simply get over it".

Having said that, I please ask you not to take any strong decision right now, we (all humans) don't think correctly when we are severely affected by emotions. That's simply the human nature. So try by all means to invest in yourself, therapy, gym, read philosophy (Stoicism is a good start), observe life, therapy again, learn something new, maybe move to a different city to mark a new start...

The sun will absolutely shine again, and you will be proud of yourself for your growth and for having gathered strenghts when there were none.

You can do this. This feeling is not permanent. Please remember that.

Again, a huge hug for you, my fellow human. You can pass this chapter.

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They are, though. A good "wall" to bounce thought at. Many times helping you to see things from a different perspective. AKA, assisting you in a self-reflective process.

Walls are not alive, but they can help in bouncing the balls we through at them, and evon when that's not like playing an actual game, it is still a good exercise.

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Bro. I am gonna be real with you.

I was in an abusive relationship too. She cheated on me at 30 and blamed me. I am not going to sugar coat this.

It will fuck you up for a great long while. This all happened to me in 2020. I've been through intensive outpatient therapy. I've lost 100 lbs.

It still hurts when it comes to me. You are grieving. This ain't depression. 40% of men who experience an unfaithful long term marriage commit suicide. You are heartbroken. You are realizing this ain't you.

It will get better. Little by little. And I still have a long ass ways to go. I'm not even officially divorced yet.

I'm not going to give you advice, because the only thing I understand, is that I finally found me again, and I like that dude a hell of a lot more than I like who I was with my ex.

But it's going to suck the entire time. The entire 5 years has sucked. But I finally see a light. There is a pinprick of light. I'm heading towards it. You can't see it yet. I understand. But it's there.

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5 months? Are you kidding me? I'm at 5 years, and it's still stinging despite intense therapy and medications.

This shit is not quick. It's grief. His relationship, all that 9 years of marriage, etc. died. He might still need it, sure. But that is not what we're looking at here.

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That statistic seems awfully high. I don't suppose you recall where you read it?

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Stop spreading this bullshit.

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A leftist response to the alt-right pipeline starts with men. It would take a ton of emotional labor, but at-risk boys simply aren’t going to listen to women the way they will listen to men.

This brings a conundrum, as women are generally much more practiced at emotional labor than men are. They aren’t naturally better, they don’t choose to take it on, but they are conditioned to deal with it in a way that most men aren’t. That’s why women tend to have support networks that are there for them in times of difficulty, but many men don’t. Again, it’s not inherent nor a choice, but a complex result of society and circumstance.

Point is, if you’re a man and you’re waiting around for someone else to start lifting up men and boys, you’re going to be waiting a long time. As cliché as it is, you have to be the change you want to see in the world. Have some male friends you haven’t talked to in a while? Message them, ask them how they’ve been, and don’t be scared to get deep about things.

A support network starts with connecting two points, and if you don’t make the effort to build and maintain it, it’s not going to happen.

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You know, I can't seem to find it right now.

It was in a paper discussing "Immediate effects of Post-Infidelity-Stress-Disorder".

I was also given a similar number after my attempt (1/3rd of men)

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OP says he has had progressively worsening suicidal ideation for 5 months. Seeing a doctor is an incredibly reasonable thing to do in that situation. Not sure why my suggestion upset you so much.

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Well,

You've got some support right here

Stay strong

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I feel like it's weird to say "the left isn't doing enough for men" when the left is full of men who are struggling with the same thing. They grew up in the same society, filled with the same outdated "suck it up" mentality.

So I appreciate you calling out the issue of younger men not being in a place to listen to women, and the issue of men in general not being in a place to emotionally support their fellow men. It's not a left vs right thing, it's that most men are simply ill-equipped to handle emotional labor due to these outdated cultural norms, and yet those same men are naturally the primary providers of support for other similarly ill-equipped men.

Just because the alt right is pretending to care about the needs of men doesn't mean the left is worse at this. The alt right isn't standing up for men, they're using vulnerable men as a means to an end, and replacing "suck it up" with "blame women and leftists". They're not telling you how to truly process your emotions with patience and care, they're just shifting the blame.

There's plenty of men on the left that serve as excellent role models, they just don't spend their time constantly talking about their gender, because a large part of evolving past these outdated cultural norms about gender is actually moving past these cultural norms about gender.

This means viewing people and their problems as human first before viewing them as <insert gender>. The majority of people who constantly fill the airwaves about "what it's like to be a man" are actually just men who are still desperately clinging to those same self-destructive norms. They perpetuate this divide between genders, and leave their fellow men feeling alone and misunderstood and vulnerable to manipulation.

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I'd like to strongly challenge your third point. As others have said, there are many reasons people don't provide emotional support besides "they're not your friends." They might not know how to be supportive, they might be afraid of saying the wrong things and causing more hurt, they might have an avoidant attachment style with a deep fear of having others depend on them. We all have moments when we fail to show up for people we care about, and if we respond by ending those relationships, we'll be left without any at all.

I'm not saying it's wrong for OP to end those friendships, and I think making new friends is usually a good move. I am saying that - when both parties are willing - being able to name and repair those hurts is part of having healthy relationships.

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Same here man, it was many years ago. My ex was crazy - I don't mean the kind of crazy like "everybody has a crazy ex crazy," I mean literally crazy. I never knew whether I was coming home to someone weeping uncontrollably with her face buried in the couch - or bleary eyed with rage, screaming - pulling knives on me in the kitchen and threatening to kill me in my sleep. I am not exaggerating.

Five years of this shit getting increasingly worse before I finally said "this ain't living" and pulled the plug. She tried desperately to get me to change my mind, but I was done. Then she turned on me in earnest, lying to everyone I knew and telling them all sorts of crazy shit. They should have known better - these people grew up with me, they knew I was a good guy.

But here's the thing (and it still bugs me to this day) - when you're the one doing the divorcing, you're the one who gets blamed, right or wrong. There's this sort of unspoken rule that the partner that wants to keep the marriage around must be the one that's blameless. Nevermind if they're abusive, manipulative, gaslighting pieces of shit who fuck around on you - they only want to make the marriage work!

But there's a silver lining. People always get the truth eventually. She won't be able to hide her true nature forever, and eventually people will come around. When they do, they will come to you and they will apologize. In the meantime, get your counseling, know it isn't you, be good to yourself, and find someone who will treat you like you deserve to be treated.

I am married to my second wife now for over 15 years. She is, was and always will be: NORMAL. Thank goodness. Sometimes you can wonder if it was maybe somehow partly your fault. A good woman will disabuse you of that notion.

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But I'm afraid I don't have a mental health issue and the thoughts of suicide come from a place of logic.

I am sorry to say that there is no logic behind suicide.

Logically speaking - that is, without emotions - death is not inherently better than life. There is no logical value added by death. You don't need to choose to live, it just happens on its own. Trust me, it's surprisingly hard to just wither away. The body doesn't want to stop.

You would need to choose to die. If it is not inherently better to die than to live, then it is illogical to choose to do something that you do not have any reason to do.

It is only emotion that changes the equation. Emotionally speaking, it sounds like you currently feel that death would be better than life.

But it does not sound like you wanted to die before this year. At least, not nearly like this. If you did not feel this way before, than there is no logical reason to think you will always feel this way later.

It is therefore only temporary, it is only emotional, and it is exclusively a mental health issue that can be resolved with time and effort.

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30M After divorce I got literally zero support from anyone, why?