I had a friend at university, a guy, who I didn't even like that much at the start. He was tall, posh and he had a big nose. But he paid me so much attention I eventually agreed to go out with him. But once we were going out, the tables turned. He cooled off which seemed to make me "heat up". I'm a redhead so it's disastrous when things like this happen. I slowly became obsessed by him, even though I wasn't quite sure why. Eventually, after a tumultuous 10 months he dumped me. I protested - a lot. I lost friends during this time period. We got back together a few times but the same obsessive cycle started again. He would dump me over and over. Amidst this mess my mum sat me down - seeing how ridiculous I was getting (in other things I was smart and high achieving) - and she told me that with my dad she had said to him that she would 'end things' unless he proposed in a decent and timely manner, because she was too good to waste time waiting around. I had never thought about it like that! She taught me about things like self-respect and giving space in relationships, all things I didn't seem to know about. I backed off that guy for good and eventually found my husband with whom I'm very happy. We've been married for seven fun years!