A man will give love, and expect sex, and a woman will give sex, and expects to be loved.

As lust is to a man, fear is to a woman.

When loving comes to giving, some people stop at nothing.

Defining what is perceived as 'love', shouldn't be confused with expectations of one, to another, as fulfilling the others 'sense of self-entitlement'.

Don't confuse 'attention' with love!

I am not sure where those lines come from, which model of councelling or psychology they belong to, but I can see a lot of percieved wisdom in most of it. Of course, they are generalisations as the male-female dichotomy of behaviours and relationships is not always so clean cut these days.

I have looked at When loving comes to giving, some people stop at nothing and am getting lost on various interpretations. I must be being thick as I cannot grasp it's subtle (or maybe not so subtle) message. Could you expand on it a little more please? It can be parphrased in that When someone thinks they are guaranteed love they stop at nothing in what they will take. I would appreciate extra words on it and I assure you I am not being in any way 'confrontaional' or offended in my question. I am genuinely struggling with the meaning.

As for my contribution above, I had no intention to court sympathy in any way. Rather it was an explanation as to how I came to discover just how much some relationships can zap from you and that escape - crossing a brifge you may need to build yourself - is the only escape. I certainly know it is not unique as many people, both men and women, have been in abusive relationships. I am one of the lucky ones. I lived to tell the tale :-)

mp