Just noticed this thread. Thank you @Former-Member and others. I have been trying to work this out too. Intimacy stopped just after the birth of my daughter over 9 years ago. I wonder if I will ever be in an intimate relationship again. I miss it, but not enough to hook up with anyone... I'm not expecting anyone will take on me with all my stuff and all my kids' stuff. I'm mostly comfortable in my singularity currently, and I find this stuff really hard to talk about, but I finally managed to see a diagnostic psychiatrist, and touched on some of this, including my "fantasy romance" ideals, and what they 'mean' at the sub/unconscious 'archetype' level which I think will be helpful in the long term. I missed the Tuesday topic on this, but I think this is a big issue. Btw, I'm reading "the Sex Myth" by expat Aussie, Rachel Hills, which is both very readable and also well researched; and also listening to a beautiful song, 'everlong' (foo fighters), which reminds me of a wonderful, pure, love affair when I was very young. I am a better person now, but my intimate life doesn't reflect that... I'm still dealing with the emotional and cellular memory scars of my childhood abuse.

I believe in reincarnation; if only as a way of being able to deal with the excessive load of shirt that has been dumped on me during this life - next time round, my karmic account will be in so much credit.....