Billygoat, if I'd been lied to by anyone I trusted enough to love, I think it would seriously derange my understanding of love and romance, at least for a while. That's never happened to me yet.
I remember laying in bed one night (with said ex) after some very emotionally and physically unfulfilling love-making. As he lay snoring, I lay quietly sobbing. How is it that I had this huge capacity to love and yet never received enough love in a relationship to satisfy me? It really was like I had a hole in my heart. No matter how they acted/treated me, it could never be filled. I always knew I loved my men more than they loved me. I remember that night, as my sobbing stilled, coming to the depressing conclusion that I would never be loved as much as I loved. What was wrong with me?
Just a few weeks later, I broke up with the man. I decided that my huge capacity to love was not a bad thing. It was not something I had to resign myself to, but something to just accept. After the breakup, I knew I was doing the right thing for myself. But the pain of being alone (again) was excruciating. Finally after months of therapy, medication, and a great circle of friends, I decided I was okay to be alone. And that if it meant I was alone for the rest of my life, I was okay. I wasn't going to prostitute my heart just for the sake of being part of a "couple". The pain of a bad relationship was greater than the pain of being alone.
About a year later, a friend of mine asked me out on a date and I said yes. For the first time in a relationship, I decided I was going to lay all the cards out on the table. If I was going to take a leap into love again, I was doing it headfirst and completely unshackled. If I lost, I lost, but I wasn't going to lose out of not trying. I shared my fears, my joys, ALL of my skeletons (eeks!). I was myself at every point I could be. Basically, "Here I am. This is who I am and what I've done. I'm being completely honest, so I hope you can handle it." Not only did Mozz handle it and handle it well, he loved me for that. AND for the first time in a relationship, I found a man who loved me just as much as I loved him. That hole in my heart wasn't there anymore. I haven't felt it in years.
As jgnat said:
Sometimes it is better to make a flawed leap than to sit safely on the ground.