So i've basically ignored my wife for 3 years out of 10 (since we had kids). Been through extreme financial hardship. She had post pardum and was highly abusive to me during that time and I blamed her for all our problems and made her feel guilt and shame for the way she treated me.
Bottom line is I f'ed up and did not treat her well and destroyed the love we had. Now she has asked for a separation and is having an emotional affair with someone she met 3 weeks ago.
She is seeing a shrink starting tomorrow.
Tonight we talked and I apologized and told her my goal is for her to be happy and ideally, be happy as a family. I now realize how severely hurt and disappointed she really is and I don't think she has very much respect for me at this point. She says she is not sure she can ever get back to the place where we were and that since I am just realizing all of the things I did wrong, I am like several years behind her and have a long way to go.
So for all of the experienced busters on here, just how bad does this sound? Is there any hope or is the love just totally gone? What can I do to prove to her that I really have changed fundamentally because of this?
