It's a tough topic for sure and unfortunately, we've had this same conversation many times because you broke up...yet she still lingers.

I'll echo advice that I shared last year.  If your paths must cross in a professional environment, so be it.  Your fear of her is just, but it also empowers her in an unhealthy way.  I would take that power back by speaking directly to her in a room full of professionals and absolutely killing her with kindness.

Don't let her intimidate you at work any longer than you have to.  I would NEVER be alone with her, but in front of others I would be cool, calm, and collective as I wished her the best and showed that she's not harming me any more.  After all, that's why she is still there and still in your orbit.  She knows it bothers you.  So stop letting it.

The things she said and did, those things happened because she's mentally ill.  I was in that position with a BPD ex-wife and a BPD daughter.  And you know what I did that stole every bit of their hatred and anger?  I forgave them for everything...and then I let all of that pain go.  It's not their faults that they're mentally ill and I didn't want to be angry (or afraid) anymore.  So I stopped giving into that and released it through forgiveness.

That won't be popular advice here, but I hope it helps my friend.

In the USA the family courts generally ignore incidents older than 6 months as legally stale or too old to litigate.  Apparently the policy reflects the view that if it was that serious then it would have been brought to the court's attention long before.

However, perhaps there in your country they do have the concept that a pattern of poor behavior is actionable despite the passage of time.  Have you documented the conflict and that you're not the one doing the aggressive behavior?

Your daughter will be 18 within a year, have the lawyers said that is when custody/parenting orders would end or would they continue until she completes school.

In general we encourage our members to avoid the impression of exiting and leaving the minor children behind.  While you would  be away only briefly, don't give your spouse the impression you're abandoning your daughter.  She's welcome to spend time with you even if you're in temporary lodging.

and you really can't argue with documented facts: domestic violence on her end, destroying parts of my house when moving out, stealing quite a bit of my stuff, dumping me then calling the cops saying she was afraid of me, telling everyone for months I'm a physically abusive, controlling, toxic manipulative narcissist. You just CAN'T be around that person.

1 point to the 'survivors'.

Very fishy. Granted not many people on my end know the extent of it all. And that whole random reach out yesterday made me think that too. I spoke to the service chief before emailing my direct boss, and his response was 'who the fk said that? No, that isn't an option, that should be a given. That's ridiculous. Chances are she won't even be here. I go to their building to check on the non-profit and she's not even in by 10am most days, ridiculous. That is not happening. If they push for it let me know'. But his mom and sister were both diagnosed bpd and he said life was hell growing up so he gets it.

SURPRISINGLY, my boss said this:

I understand.
I think for the Monday and Wed sessions in the PI conference room if the others are there, that should be sufficient.
We did not talk about doing a researcher training, so I think we should do at least one session via Teams that would cover protocol submissions and development or other topics that you would be SME.

It feels good to be seen, not questioned...and that people are finally seeing her work ethic and other things unravel. What a relief.

Hello and welcome to the family.  I'm so sorry you're going through this and I also have a 27 year old BPD daughter (and a BPD ex-wife).  I can relate to so much of your journey and I fought many of the same battles.  I think I knew something was very off when my kid was maybe 5 or 6 years old.  The teenage years were catastrophic though!

The best advice I ever received was from a psychiatrist who laughed at me.  He actually laughed at everyone and our secret nickname for him was Dr. Happy.  We brought our kid to his hospital for her 6th or 7th in-patient stay (first time at this hospital) and he looked at my ex-wife and I with puzzlement.  He asked, "Why are you still here?

I explained that our child had BPD and this happened, that happened, and that she's a danger to herself and others.  But he laughed at me and repeated the question.  "That's why your daughter is here...but why are you still here?"

I repeated the same things, all the ways I want to help my daughter, and he continued to laugh at me.  I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone or something because it wasn't making any sense.  I thought maybe he didn't understand me.

Finally, he said, "Do you think that you have any impact at all on your daughter's mental health?"

And of course I did.  I'm her dad and it's my responsibility to protect her, to guide her.  More laughter.

Finally, he explained that I'm responsible for myself and I have zero control over anyone else in my life.  The same is true for my daughter, and I was trying to work harder than she was to overcome mental illness.  He stressed that it doesn't work that way, I can't save her and I can't heal her.  Only she can do that for herself.

With that, he came back to the original question- so why are you still here?

My wife at the time finally spoke up and said, "Well, what are we supposed to be doing then?"

And Dr. Happy gave a pretty epic answer.  He said, "I don't know.  Go see a movie, take a beach vacation, have great sex in the living room.  That's not for me to say.  But your task for the next week is to let go of this ridiculous burden you're carrying by thinking that you can do a single thing that can make your kid better."

My life honestly changed after that day by fully understanding that my kid is in control and she won't get better until she's personally ready to commit to therapy.  I could scream, I could plead and beg, and it made absolutely no difference whatsoever.  The way to get past something in our lives is to actually get past it...nobody can do it for us.

So I'm telling you what Dr. Happy told me- stop being a prisoner to your own guilt and shame.  You can't save your daughter, not even the best doctors in the world can save her until she's ready to actually make changes.  You can save yourself though by focusing on your own mental health and letting go that mountain of fear.  Let your kid fall down, let her struggle.  That's the only way she'll actually realize that she needs help in the first place.

That's what we did and several years later, my kid took therapy seriously.  She actually sought out Dr. Happy, even though she hated him at first, and the changes in her life were substantial.  She's still mentally ill, of course, but she has such a great handle on checking herself and learning to avoid self-sabotage.  It helped me heal as well though by realizing that it's not my burden and I can only do so much.

I hope that helps and again, welcome to the family!

Lawyers practice law, and they don't get paid unless you're a client.  So I'd advise to do what you feel is in your best interest and not necessarily what attorneys are saying.  No one here will know Singapore law enough to give you practical advice, but it sounds like "unreasonable behavior" is going to be a very messy path to take.

Note that I'm not saying, "Don't get divorced" here.  I'm simply pointing out that going that route doesn't sound like a peaceful one.  If separating for four years is a reasonable reason for divorce, then why not just separate and see what happens?  Or maybe you can't under the legal visa circumstances...I don't know.


My divorce to my BDP ex-wife wasn't typical here, because there was no scorched earth and we really didn't fight about anything.  We split things 50/50 and anything she wanted from the home, I told her to take it.  And I took that stance because my main focus was our young adult daughters...I wasn't going to argue over "stuff" or "money" when that wasn't the most important thing.  My ex and I are still on good speaking terms because I was able to go that route.

My advice would be to talk to your wife about what she wants long-term, and what's best for the four of you.  If she has a boyfriend she's thinking about living with, or she wants to go overseas for projects, then where does that leave you and the kids?  I would talk it out and see if you can find a happy medium where you're both getting what you want and the kids know mom and dad loves them.

Again, my path wasn't typical...but I promise it was/is the best possible path by far.  Try talking things out and stepping away with grace.  If that fails, okay, then you consider the legal advice and the long battle it will create.  I don't think you have to start there though and your wife may surprise you.

I hope that helps!

You are not selfish!  You are dealing with reality!  And having the opportunity to read your post and tell you this helps me to see the truth of my own situation. If you were talking to a friend in this same situation, you would tell them to go!  You would point out that you cannot help people who don’t be helped and that you are only destroying your own life. Go in peace!

That alone is reason to be keeping your distance. Who knows what she might say or accuse you of after working wth you? Has the study coordinator - who you say you normally never deal with - been influenced by her to try and get you on the scheme?

Seems strange that, knowing your history with her, management seem happy for you both to work together.

Hope you can find out what's behind this - seems a little fishy to me.

All a tattoo would have done is to remind you of her and would only have served to keep you attached, not an aid to breaking away.

A BPD relationship - as you now know - is unlike a 'normal' relationship where you decide to end it and it's a clean break. With BPD we always have the 'if I try this will that make it work?' thoughts because the relationship is utterly addictive and we look for any means to keep it going, even though we know that nothing is going to change and the chaos will continue.

We seem to discard all sense and logic in our efforts to keep a toxic relationship; we know it's bad for us but the tiny amounts of joy we do get keep us hooked. The hardest part is to be able to finally say 'I'm done' and mean it - it took me 4 years of grief before I did it.

Good to see you're now in a happy relationship. Nice to be with someone without having to be on guard for the next explosion. Best wishes.