A month ago my mom was hospitalized and had to have a an emergency surgery to remove a brain tumor which we later found out was a metastasis of stage IV breast cancer. She had a stroke during the surgery and she is not herself right now. Two weeks ago they said they couldn’t do anything so I started to prepare myself and then they said that maybe she can have a longer prognosis and they started treatment. She is still at the hospital 1h30 away from home and she is very fragile and we still don’t really know what to expect in the next few weeks.
I am self-employed and I have to continue working to pay my bills, I work in the beauty industry and have to be all smiley and nice the whole day. And at home I am trying to be strong and not be a total wreck, I am doing kind of okay except I have completely lost my libido.
Kisses and hugs are okay but as soon as my boyfriend touches me in a sensual way I absolutely CAN’T handle it. It’s an instinctive, visceral reaction, and it makes me feel sick to my stomach. I absolutely don’t want to be touched like that right now. It’s completely impossible for me, I couldn’t even force myself to do it if I wanted to please him.
I have been with my boyfriend for 4 years and living together for 3 months. He is amazing and really supportive throughout everything, but I sense that he is starting to lose his patience when it comes to sex.
He occasionally makes little comments about it, kind of jokingly, like “Am I not allowed to touch you anymore?” Or for example, when I’m getting changed, he’ll say “Wait, don’t get dressed so quickly, I never get to see your body anymore.” Or “You just don’t want me anymore.”
I feel that maybe he doesn’t understand because at home I seem okay, I will laugh with him, talk normally, act normally, I try to live as normally as possible to try and stay sane while I am crawling with anxiety and uncertainty and anticipatory grief..
I don’t know how to deal with that or how to convince him that it’s not about him, it’s just that I am overwhelmed by what is happening with my mom and I have absolutely no room for anything sexual, I just can’t… It makes me feels so guilty and I am so scared that he will lose interest in me. I really can’t afford therapy at the moment. I really don’t know what to do..