Guilt about VLC

SO has said she doesn't want me giving out the address to where we live, will not drive me elsewhere for my mom to pick me up and will be very upset with me if I go. I don't know what to do.

This stuck out to me and I'm curious about it but this post isn't about your SO so I'm not going to focus on it. I do recommend going to the appropriate sub to ask for advice on it if you feel the need. I'm not accusing SO of anything. I'm just saying that it looks like your relationship with your mom might be causing maybe some tension with SO. The root is still mom here.

You may want to get a counselor to talk to about all of this, and one of the things that'll be good to cover is how to manage every relationship during something like this. What boundaries are helpful and what are counterproductive can really look very similar.


It's okay to not be ready to announce NC. It's more than okay.

You should be doing what's right for you in this relationship with your mom. If you're still struggling with guilt don't rush yourself! Take time to process how you feel but keep your wellbeing as top priority.

If that takes a week of avoiding mom or a year of dodging it's all good. You don't have to hurry your emotional evolution. Going No Contact can cause people to go through the 5 stages of grief.

The five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief.

In this context No Contact is like killing your relationship and then grieving the loss of what could have been in an ideal world.

/r/JUSTNOMIL Thread