Help evaluating LRT progress

[44tries]

Problem is, I don't believe him. All these things are simply untrue.

This is the coping mechanism. If he can deny everything positive that ever existed, claim it's dead, never was, whatever, then it becomes much easier to walk away from. You are likely right that it's all or at least mostly B.S. But he will do everything in his power to convince himself, and you (but you know better). The real question is why. Why does he want to walk away from it all? His mental health, MLC, some personal trauma/crisis? Perhaps, like we have discussed, he has just become aware of his own lack of love for himself and doesn't know what to do about it.

He says he is happier this way. He doesn't look it.

This. I think that I can honestly say if I let my wife walk away, and I believed she would become a better, stronger, happier person, I would do it in a heartbeat. A very painful heartbeat, but a heartbeat nonetheless. I value her happiness above my own because I love her. I want the best for her and if, for whatever reason, that isn't me, then I can accept that and let her go and know that I will be fine. BUT, it certainly doesn't feel like all this is for the best. She is not any stronger or happier than she was before she decided she didn't want to be married to me anymore; quite the opposite. Like you said, it's not growth, it's shrinking.

Now, I realize in my case it has only been a very short time. She is going through a break-up too and maybe her regression is only temporary. But, I have to say it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence to see her spiraling. It certainly doesn't make it any easier to walk away. If I am able to remain strong, work on bettering myself from day one, and I am the one stuck with the wrong end of the stick, it is very hard to feel like this her breakout moment of newfound strength where she sheds her cocoon (and me along with it), and becomes a butterfly.