Rhapsody, I understand your frustration and I'm sorry you're hurting so much. I do find this thread to be hurtful in its negative generalization of men, though. I wish you could have vented it as "the men in my life are selfish" or "the men I've known are selfish" instead of stereotyping in such a way. If this was a thread written by a man saying "all women are *****es", we would have pounded him to shreds.

But I'm really, really sorry that you're feeling taken for granted and uncared about... and agree that you should give more to yourself than you had in the past. I know that in my marriage and relationships, whenever I feel taken advantage of, I realize that I had given more than I should have and expected something in return. That's the problem with generosity - there is usually some underlying expectation that the generosity will be returned, and if it isn't, then we're disappointed.

Hang in there - I'm thinking of you