So I received a new book in the mail yesterday. It's called "Runaway Husbands: The Abandoned Wife's Guide to Recovery and Renewal". It has really opened my eyes and I'm only on the 4th chapter. Holy moly, someone else (lots of someone elses) has experienced what I have been going through and they survived! That is very encouraging to me. The book gives lots of good information on the steps for healing from the specific case of Wife Abandonment Syndrome (WAS). WAS occurs when a husband leaves what appears to be a very happy marriage suddenly and then turns into a different (angry and aggressive) person. My situation fits the bill even by the exact way that he left. I can't believe how common this is. It's so sad that this many husbands would pull this shit on their unsuspecting wives. It's degrading, humiliating, a huge blow to your self esteem, and just downright wrong on so many levels. It's also very cowardly.
The book is helping me to realize that he had probably been planning to leave me for quite some time. How nice of him to talk to me about it so that I could 1. try to save the marriage and 2. have time to prepare myself (financially, emotionally, etc). What a POS he is to have done this. Of course, the book also talks about healing from the hurt and not holding on to the anger. I'm going to follow the steps for healing in the book and hope that it's what I need to move on with my life. I'm so ready to just forget that he ever existed.