Did this contribute to a chronic illness for anyone else?
Hi, guys. This is a bit of a spiel (I'm sorry!), so if that's not your jam, skip down to the bottom for a TL;DR! I was in a four-year-long bond with someone with a FA attachment style. I myself have a FA attachment style. I leaned anxious in this bond, this person heavily leaned DA. This person actually taught me a lot about attachment styles! They were with an incredible therapist for two years until they swapped that therapist out. This person was my best friend. I mean literally, I would've taken a bullet.
Basically, in the last two years, I was put through Hell. I figured it was a byproduct of the stress of this person's graduate schooling, especially as it seemed to ease up around winter breaks. But in the last summer, between the exhaustion of the hot-and-cold and the defensiveness, no matter how gently I brought it up, I developed CFS. This was the only stressor in my life at that time. I thought it was temporary and the symptoms would go away when the behavior did, but I'm about five months out from a discard in January 2026 and I just received an official diagnosis! Yay? This person no longer takes so much from my life. I no longer want Karma or anything, this person's ever-evolving door of dissatisfaction is punishment enough. But I can't shake the feeling that in forty years, when I'm still throwing shit at a wall to see what sticks with this incurable disease, I'll think back to what started it all, and I'll think back to this painful time in my life.
I've had horrible enders before, but I've had the luxury of forgetting and being reminded in five years time and going "oh, yeah! That asshole!" I don't think I'll be able to do that here, even though I'd like to more than anything. I'm not blaming anyone! It wasn't intentional. No one set out to make me exhausted or get flu-like symptoms or anything. With my own history, this likely would've happened sooner down the line if anything as severe happened. But the fact of the matter is it happened when it happened. Has anyone been in the same boat? My therapist says I'm not alone and I'd like to feel that I'm not totally nutty.
TL;DR: Stress of the last year with someone with avoidant attachment style contributed to the development of CFS in me. Worried that even though memories fade, I'll never be able to forget what events caused this new normal in me, and I'll never be fully "free" from those events, in a sense. Anyone else in a similar boat? Would love to hear from ya!
Posted Jun 10, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC