Hello all, I'm looking for some support. My husband and I have been separated since early September. We have one child together who is almost 8 and then my stepson, who is 14 lived with us. We have been married for 9 years. We have had a multitude of struggles through our relationship, beginning with the mental health problems that have plagued my stepson. He was hospitalized twice and later went to residential treatment. My husband initially refused to admit there was any problems. He worked out of town and while I was at home with the children during the week he was out partying with his friends and hanging out with other women. I found text messages from a friend encouraging him to cheat on me, etc. After several years of working out of town, he returned to a job here. I found texts and Facebook messages to another woman that were completely sexual and inappropriate in nature. I left for several days then. Most recently, in September, I found Facebook messages to a woman which were inappropriate and very "relationship like" in nature. I packed mine and my daughter's belongings and left. We have not been back. He assured me that he had deleted her from Facebook and had no contact with her. We had begun doing marital counseling. We had our last appointment last week. Afterwards I found on the cell phone records that he was continuing contact with her, all the while continuing to lie about it. He even lied about it when I sent him the records, calling him out on it. I have come to the conclusion that our marriage is over.

I feel beat down, which is certainly not my personality. I worry about our daughter. She has been talking about missing her dad, I reassure her each day that I understand and encourage her to talk about it. The sad thing is that he has paid more attention to her since we left than he had in the year prior to our leaving. I worry about my stepson, and while I have no legal authority over him, I've been his mom since he was 3. I, however, don't know if I have it in me to cope with his extreme behaviors anymore. I keep in touch with him and check in regularly. I also know he's doing well in school etc.

My husband also struggles with his mental health and often uses it as an excuse for the choices he makes.

I guess I'm just looking to see who else is out there and feeling the same as me. I think it's awful that I feel guilty for leaving, even though it's the right thing to do. That I feel guilty for taking my daughter away from her dad, even though she sees him daily and every other weekend. Why do we feel the guilt??