GoodGuys2GreatMen Video Podcast

Can’t Find The Strength To Turnaround Or End Your Sexless Marriage?

Dan Dore & Steve Horsmon • 2m 36s • 17 June 2023

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Can’t Find The Strength To Turnaround Or End Your Sexless Marriage?
Video overview: If you’re in a sexless marriage and keep asking yourself whether to stay, leave, wait or keep trying, you’re living in a painful kind of limbo. This video speaks to the man who misses the ease, fun and closeness he used to have and doesn’t know how to get it back. I’ll talk about what helped me when I was there, and why the first real change starts with how you lead yourself.

A sexless marriage can do strange things to a man.

It can make you question your attractiveness, your confidence, your value, your marriage, your future and even your own sanity. You can be successful in every other area of life and still feel completely lost when the woman you love no longer wants to touch you, play with you, flirt with you or desire you.

That is a very lonely place to be.

You may still be functioning. You may still be going to work, paying the bills, being a dad, fixing the house, making plans and doing all the normal life stuff. But inside, there is a question running in the background all day long.

Is this ever going to change?

Maybe you keep wondering whether you should stay or go. Maybe you look at your wife across the room and remember how easy it used to be. You remember the fun, the laughter, the sex, the affection, the way she used to look at you, and you wonder where that woman went.

Then you wonder where you went.

Because this kind of disconnection does not just remove sex from your life. It starts to remove parts of you.

Your playfulness goes quiet. Your confidence takes a hit. Your warmth turns into caution. Your desire turns into resentment. You start walking around your own home carrying a mixture of grief, anger, hope and shame.

And nobody sees it.

That’s what makes limbo so hard.

You’re not clearly leaving. You’re not clearly rebuilding. You’re not clearly accepted. You’re not clearly rejected. You’re just stuck in the middle, waiting for something to change, waiting for her to change, waiting for yourself to know what to do.

I know that place.

And this video is about the thing that helped me when I was there.

It was not a perfect script. It was not a clever conversation starter. It was not learning how to persuade my wife into wanting me again. It was not trying to become so nice, so patient, so accommodating, so useful and so harmless that she would finally soften.

What helped me was realizing I had to stop living like my whole future depended on her desire.

That may sound harsh, but it was the beginning of getting myself back.

Because when a man is in a sexless marriage, he often starts making his wife the keeper of his confidence. If she wants him, he feels okay. If she rejects him, he feels worthless. If she smiles, he has hope. If she pulls away, he collapses.

That is a miserable way to live.

And it also puts an enormous amount of pressure on her.

She may already feel disconnected, resentful, tired, guarded or emotionally unsafe. Then she feels you needing her desire in order for you to be okay. That does not usually create passion. It creates more pressure, more distance and more confusion.

This does not mean your desire is wrong.

It does not mean you should pretend sex does not matter. It does not mean you should become some numb, detached version of yourself who accepts crumbs and calls it maturity.

Sex matters. Affection matters. Play matters. Feeling wanted matters.

But you cannot build a healthy intimate life from panic, resentment or self-abandonment.

The changes that end limbo start with you becoming clear about who you are, what you want, what you will create, what you will no longer avoid, and what kind of man you want to be regardless of her response today.

That is not the same as giving up on the marriage.

It is the opposite.

A man who gets himself back has far more to offer the marriage than a man who is waiting to be rescued by his wife’s affection. He can speak more honestly. He can listen more cleanly. He can stop begging, blaming, sulking and silently keeping score. He can lead with strength instead of pressure.

That is the kind of man who can begin to change the emotional weather in the home.

Not by demanding sex. Not by having another desperate talk at 11:30 at night. Not by making her responsible for fixing years of distance in one conversation.

By becoming someone he respects again.

This is the foundation most men miss. They want the marriage to feel good so they can feel like good men again. But the work often runs the other way. You start becoming a man you respect, trust and enjoy being, and from that place you can finally deal with the truth of your marriage without falling apart.

Maybe the marriage can heal.

Maybe it will take longer than you want.

Maybe you will discover hard truths you have avoided for years.

But you do not have to stay stuck in limbo while your confidence drains out of you one day at a time.

This video will help you look at the sexless marriage question differently. Not as a helpless question of, “How do I get her to want me?” but as a stronger question of, “Who do I need to become now, and what honest changes am I willing to make?”

That is where movement begins.

And brother, movement matters.

Because the worst place for a man to live is not always a painful marriage. Sometimes it is the place where he keeps waiting, hoping, overthinking and doing nothing while the years quietly pass.

You don’t need to know every answer today.

But you do need to stop abandoning yourself while you wait for one.

Stop living in limbo

If your sexless marriage has left you confused, resentful or unsure whether to stay or go, you don’t have to figure it out alone. We help men become calmer, clearer and more honest so they can make strong decisions from self-respect instead of fear.

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About the Hosts

Steve Horsmon & Dan Dore | Certified Professional Men’s Coach

Steve Horsmon and Dan Dore have spent over a decade supporting good men who are confused, frustrated, and afraid that their marriages and families are falling apart with no idea what to do about it. We've both experienced the same emotions that you're going through now. We know what it feels like to try all the mainstream try harder, be nicer advice while watching things continue to get worse. And that's exactly why Goodguys2Greatmen exists. Since 2012, we've coached thousands of men through some of the hardest periods of their lives; marriage breakdown, emotional distance, sexless relationships, fears of divorce or separation. We focus on practical solutions to help you survive some of the most challenging and painful experiences that a man can go through. This podcast is for men who are done waiting for their life and relationships to improve and are ready to make some bold decisions so that you become more calm and confident and start moving toward what you really want.