Do any of you guys have “triggers” from your ex or stbex. A weird one for me that I’ll probably need to work on is that ive become oddly suspicious of girls that are overly nice towards me, I can’t help but think to myself that they have an angle there working. This is probably due to my trust in women being robbed by my ex. I also find myself almost getting slightly annoyed when women I barely know feel comfortable to tell me they’re sad life story which usually involves a story involving some sort of trauma or abuse. I know that sounds weird but my ex used to almost always introduce herself to people followed by “i was abused as a child” initially i was very empathetic, gradually I was sorta like why does she tell everyone she barely knows that, eventually her past trauma stories seemed to have details that would change or not make sense because she would exaggerate things to almost force reaction from people or to control the narrative on how they should feel towards the people in her story, it wasn’t just me questioning these things because others (my parents) have talked about this with me in private throughout our relationship and I would typically defend her, but I always knew. I now wonder if it’s a way to manipulate others by playing the victim and gain sympathy. I know she’s probably spinning her and I’s separation story with her as a victim, even though I was very patient and amicable with her as she left me for another. Have any of you guys experienced any weird “triggers” or residual effects? A weird residual effect Ive encountered during this is dreams of her and initially at the beginning I would have flashbacks to her and our dog like I would look over at the couch and swear that for a second I could see our dog. I swear that with this sorta traumatic experience we deserve a medal or at least a pat on the back for getting through it lol.