I've been imprisioned in my marriage for probably 10 years. I've come to a point that I don't know what to do. I was raised with the belief that the father was the leader of the family. That doesn't give him the right to bark out orders, or to sit upon a throne, but I always believed that. Things started downhill many years ago and my wife started doing whatever she thought was right without talking with me. Now its totally come to the point that I'm irrelivant, and its not that I've EVER been bossey. But she just does whatever without talking with me. She is unsupportive, unaffectionate, and in many ways lazy. I've tried talking with her, going to counseling, reading books about marriage. I even asked her to pray with me one time for my marriage and she said she didn't think anything was wrong.
So for the past several years I've just give-in or kept my moutn shut for the sake of the marriage. But how long do I have to stay "caged". Coming from a belief that people should not divorce it is like being imprisoned.
Is there any recourse for someone like me? She won't listen so do I just keep my mouth shut to keep the marriage. Or is there anything I can do to get her attention before I finally just give up?
Sure could use some help..............Thanks

georgiadude, if you've got time to spare, I urge you to go back to the home page and start reading all the basics. Find yourself and your marriage in those pages. You're making a lot of assumptions about your marriage, and it sounds like you have little or no actual discussion going on. Read, read, read, and then start being honest with yourself. You'll find that you are projecting yourself onto your marriage; you need to step back and look at it objectively, seeing BOTH of you honestly. If any of the issues reside with you, you have to be willing to take them on and deal with them. You have to be willing to use what you learn here. And you have to be willing to change the way you've been dealing with your wife. Obviously it's not working, no?

Also, you might want to post a thread on the Emotional Needs thread, where you'll get more traffic.

Good luck, and check back with more information so we can offer better advice.