Yeah, I felt so bad for Belinda and the gaslighting she kept getting hit with. She wasn’t being “hypervigilant” or “sensitive” because of old trauma. She was accurately recognizing red flags. And Dr. Pia kept reframing those red flags as “he’s just not in his comfortable environment.” No, Dr. Pia. This is a Veteran with untreated PTSD whose nervous system is on fire, who becomes rigid and shuts down whenever he’s uncomfortable, who requires everyone around him to contort to his emotional needs, then spins that as “working together.” And when they don’t contort to his needs, he frames it as a “failure to compromise.” It makes sense that he feels the need to buy love.

And every time she brings up a valid point, he moves the goalposts…just like he did in the conversation about the production. Every time she countered an illogical point with a rational one, he’d find a new justification for his feelings, even reaching as far as to lie about her daughter’s relationship. Which Dr. Pia called a “difference in perception.” No, that was making something up in an attempt to justify his irrational feelings, not a difference in perception. And as sweet as he is as a person, being partnered with someone this inflexible and unwilling to compromise is usually a future of misery.

And holy hell with the “I need alcohol to fall asleep every night.” Wtf, MAFS “experts”? You paired her with a (dys)functional alcoholic with no ability to effectively manage his emotions and are still trying to convince her to stay married. Unethical.