Comparing where you are today to where you were when you started posting, I have to say that you have made progress.
You still have quite a ways to go, but you should feel like you are having some areas of success. You certainly have learned alot about yourself and about you wife. You also seem to be getting through to your wife in ways that she understands and causes her to change the way she acts.
Keep up the good work!
You wife still has a long way to go. Expect a roller coaster ride and backsliding. As part of your GAL you should set some goals for yourself and your relationship.
An additional point based on my experience was to apologize to my wife for the pain I had caused her and for what I did to cuase her to withdraw from me (I initially felt my W was "wrong" to have treated me so badly) once I learned that my "nice guy" approach had been part of the problem in our marriage. My apology to her was a huge thing from her perspective and almost as important as making her feel loved in her love languages.
You have a MLC wife who is rebelling, so what helped me may not be the same as what is best or you.
>43 years of marriage--My wife and I are now closer than we have been in decades. I believe that my SSM is over.
