As the MLC'er, my W's family (her parents and siblings) has somewhat splintered. As far as I can see she has continued a fairly good relationship with our kids. And, as far as I can tell she has continued to be friends with most of our family friends...not any of them had stood up to her to say she was nuts. Well, one said that she would talk about it, but nobody confronted her. She has also created an entire new group of friends that do not know me or what our M was like for the last 20+ years. I hear that is typical MLC.
Hey SBJ - nothing new to add except to second what Bird has said.
I've also experienced my mother, my siblings and my closest friends pledge to solider on with me no matter what, and so far, they have. This includes asking me for D updates even when I know they don't want to talk about it, but sense I might need to get something off my chest.
My W has distanced herself to varying degrees from every member of her immediate family as well as surrounding relatives. She's trying to find some solidarity in her elder sister who's currently losing her own marriage (and her health) to a raging 15 year battle with alcoholism. Both of them are too trainwrecked to hear what the other one is saying. Misery loves company.
My W also has new friends that don't know me, our M, or the person she used to be. I call them her "MLC Friends". She's trying to expand this new circle of friends all the time, but these are all people on the cusp of 40, and they don't want to close the bar every Saturday night like she wants to.
I guess it's true that MLCers create a new social orbit of "users and losers" to make themselves feel better. I read on another thread that while they blame the spouse as the root cause of unhappiness in their life, they really want to separate from their previous life altogether - and that may involve estraging themselves from family.
We're doing all right. Hang in there.
M: 49, W: 45 T: 22 M: 15 S14, S11, S9 BD: Jan '16 W files: Oct '16 D final: June '18
