Trapped In Their Own Story

What you are about to hear is a classic session of Where Should We Begin with Esther Perel. None of the voices in this series are ongoing patients of Esther Perel's, and each episode is a one time counseling session. For the purposes of maintaining confidentiality, names and some identifiable characteristics have been removed, but their voices and their stories are real. Support for Where Should We Begin comes from Ollie. It's tempting to feel you need to improve yourself in the new year, but Ollie wants to offer an alternative. Reconnection, not reinvention. Whether you're looking for gut support, multivitamins, or more targeted solutions, OLLI has you covered. If you're stepping into 2026 with presence, not perfection, visit olly.com and explore their wellness lineup. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Close your eyes. Listen to monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to monday.com, start for free, and finally, breathe. I just remember her saying like, well, if you knew the truth, you wouldn't even be able to handle it. They've been together for almost two decades. We met each other when we were in eighth grade, and we got together our senior year. Pretty much been together ever since. They've been disconnected from each other for a long time. It's always kind of been rocky. It's always kind of had its ups and downs. And it felt like I was one of his priorities. They each are acutely aware of how they wanted something more from the other. More attention, more desire, more affirmation. And after years of complaining about the lack of affirmation, they each found other people to give them the attention they so much craved. So it was like a total of maybe six infidelities, I guess you could say. Mine happened a year after discovery of hers. That point, I was in such a dark place to hear someone actually tell you that you're good enough. Here we are, what now, almost four years later. They're not in the grip of it, but they are still dealing with everything that led to it. I feel like he's disconnected, and he doesn't wanna talk to me, or he's afraid to talk to me. I keep trying to improve myself to be able to be the person that I feel like she needs. And maybe that's the part that hurts the most is I just feel like I'm always trying to improve myself for her, and I just feel like it it just never measures up. I feel like he doesn't like to share things with me, doesn't like to communicate. More so now as the years have gone by, I feel like I withdraw a lot more when I feel him being distant. So if he …