Walk Away Partner Syndrome: It Happened To Me, and I Still Feel the Same Way… Run.
[This essay is now available in audio on YouTube]
In February 2019, I published my article Walk Away Partner Syndrome: It Has Probably Happened to You in which I chronicled the escalation I experienced with my former partner, Tracy, that led to our breakup. Despite the changes she promised to make after I left, I no longer had anything left to give back to her.
Social worker and marital therapist Michele Weiner-Davis describes this phenomenon as “Walk Away Wife” syndrome. I renamed it “Walk Away Partner Syndrome” because… heteronormativity is a big ew. Weiner-Davis claims that it is quite tragic when Walk Away Partner Syndrome happens because “The threat of divorce generates true soul-searching… [M]ost of these [people] sincerely undergo a personal transformation that shifts their priorities forever.”
To that, I said “YUCK.”
But then it happened to me… well… kind of.
Last year, I began dating a long-time friend of mine… we’ll call him… Michael. We were close in high school and the first part of college until he went on study abroad and didn’t come back to The States for a decade. We lost touch, but still checked in with each other periodically. He had gotten married and moved…
