Hey GAF!
I just wanted to update you guys on how I've been doing. Which is pretty awesomely, actually. I've never really felt more in check and in control of myself personally as I do now, and as a side effect I've never really felt more confident either.
The alcohol issue is a thing of the past, and what I've come to discover through my psychologist is that it really was a case of the alcohol affecting me badly whenever I drank that much. I tried to address it as something wrong with me, when in fact it wouldn't matter what state I'm in or when I did it, I will ALWAYS react chemically to alcohol in that depressive way. So I've limited my drinking and it's never been an issue at bars or parties since.
The other issue I've recognized, worked on and controlled fairly well is something called a "Depressive Reaction". It's what was the source of a lot of what appeared to be esteem issues, but that's not really accurate, because from day to day I think rather well of myself. What this reaction thing more accurately is like is a really bad habit I've had for a long, long, looooong time. I react to external situations involving myself or others in relation to me, and my brain makes it out to be the worst thing ever. If a friend cancels plans with me, it's not that they were busy or couldn't make it...it was that they wanted to do anything else but be around me or they didn't really like me at all or whatever. It makes me go distant or react passive-aggressively. Most of the time that only hurts myself, so I didn't think much of it, but when you're in a relationship it affects things quite a lot.
Overall what I came to realize was that I wasn't quite ready for a relationship like I thought I was, and an event like this needed to happen for me to recognize and address those issues.
Am I cured? Naw, the goal would be to never have those negative thoughts to begin with, but being able to curb them and control them is a tremendous step and I can without hesitation say I won't let it hurt myself or others like it has in the past.
I'm rambling, but it's just really awesome to talk about it and express how well off I currently am.
As for the ex? Well, we've kind of not really talked since the breakup. Maybe it was better that way, maybe not, I don't know. But this past Saturday I messaged her asking if we could meet up sometime this week, just to talk about stuff at a diner or coffee place. I have some things I want to get off my chest, but all of it's good, positive stuff. She responded that yeah, we can meet and I replied to her to just let me know whenever works for her. She has finals and such this week so I'm not going to pressure her into a specific time frame or anything.
My only goal is to say what I really want to say to her, and that's it. I plan on telling her how I've been, what I've learned and that there are no hard feelings or anything. I also plan on telling her that I still believe in us and that there's still something there worth trying for, BUT it is NOT going to be me asking for her to give me another chance or anything like that. I'm not going to ask her any questions or pressure her or anything, it's just how I feel and this way I can know I didn't leave anything unsaid or wonder what-if. If she wants to get back together, great. If she doesn't, that's not quite AS great, but all I want to do is let her know how I feel about things. Like I know there's a couple billion people out there and that the odds are pretty good for both of us that we'd get along pretty well with at least a few others, but I know how good we had it, so I'm going to fight for it, just a little.
Thoughts? I feel like I've handled things pretty maturely and rationally, and that I'll continue to do so, but I want to make sure I'm not fooling myself or anything.
Thanks for reading!