Can one successfully "Fix a Broken Woman"?

Awwww! And, you were thinking about me! Bless your heart!

When women complain, bitch, and moan, they don’t want an answer or a way to be fixed, they just want someone to listen and sympathize. One of the most annoying traits of men is that after you tell them details about your personal life, they try to FIX IT instead of just saying something soothing. So just don’t go there. NEVER try to fix someone’s life. They probably like their life most of the time.

I come from a long, semi honorable line of drunks and whack jobs. You can’t fix us. At some point we might get semi domesticated, but usually that’s a result age and health issues coming to the fore. And basically, most of us like it like that.

I used to, not that it ever worked . . . until I met a man who didn’t need to be rescued. :slight_smile:

You can’t “fix” anyone except for yourself.

FWIW, I am aware of some relationships that have improved when men improved themselves and their partners responded in kind. In some cases they’d probably been perceived as “broken women.” But in any event it was only possible with individuals deciding to improve themselves and not “fix” others.

In my experience “broken” people don’t want “fixing” and if they say they do they eventually blame the “fixer”- often simultaneously for TRYING to fix them AND not being successful at it.

Can you describe what they would look like/ how they would behave if they were fixed? What would the difference be?

My wife has a tendency to attract such women to her because she is so friendly and she listens. The “woe is me” types and my wife gets sucked in wanting to help. Dang these women really suck the energy out of you. My wife comes back from work or off the phone all stressed out and it effects the rest of the family.

Call me whatever name you want but I have put my foot down and basically told my wife to stand up to such people and quit being their go-to therapist. I tell her to listen, give advice, but if so and so doesnt do anything to change to just tell them “I dont want to hear anymore of your problems”.

After this advice my wife has said its worked out better because such women quickly go find someone else’s shoulder to cry on and so were not truly friends.

In my own personal experience, the desire to be with an emotionally damaged person and “fix” them is a good sign that you are, in fact, an emotionally damaged person who wants (and needs) to be “fixed.” I’ve not been in many romantic relationships in my life, but I have had friendships, and even family relationships in which I set out to “fix” the other person, only to find myself sad, frustrated, and angry that they didn’t return the favor. Instead, they were angry and annoyed with my attempts. In the end, I did nothing for them, except for making myself a pest.

I can’t tell you what to do. I’m in therapy to help myself, and, with work and luck and a little bravery, perhaps I’ll find myself someone healthy, someone who works on and fixes himself.