another little tidbit that should be common knowledge to all men but when our marriages start to fail, we change from the people were to frightened, powerless children that will do anything to save what we have.
Women have no respect for men who are afraid of them, and truth be told, women may end up being quite cruel to men who do.
In your quest to perform relationship cpr you are exhibiting to your wife that her behavior is ok ("take as much space & time as you need to find yourself and sort things out") and that you are afraid to lose her. Once she realized that you were afraid to lose her and that you loved her more than you loved & respected yourself, she lost respect for you and was repelled by you.
Do you remember self-respect, self-love, self-esteem?
Do you have children? Do you want them to go through this when they are old enough to have relationships? The only way they will ever know how to be strong is for you to show them that you are strong and it can't be fake, it has to be real.
You want your wives to respect you? Show them that you respect yourselves - you currently aren't doing much to show that now.
