[annxo]

Are some people just loners at heart, and are meant to be alone?
or
Is there a special somebody for everyone?

Sometimes, I feel so happy in a relationship and dread the idea of being alone.

Other times I feel as if I would be the happiest in my life if I were to settle down alone as a crazy cat women.

What are your thoughts on this topic?

I think some people are meant to be alone because they are happier that way. My grandfather was miserable when he was married, both times. He marched to the beat of his own drum and loved his solitary life. He built a cabin in the woods and disappeared for years.

There is nothing abnormal about wanting to be loved or to be without a partner.

[Carmina]

I have a love/hate relationship with love. To me it feels more like some intangible but beautiful seeming thing I admire from a distance but when I try and embrace it I always get hurt badly. I fall in love very deeply but don't think I've ever been loved, at least not romantically, or even by my own mother, with the one exception of being a father to my own daughter (which is a different sort of love). So I avoid relationships and at the same time really feel desperately lonely at times and in need of intimate contact (emotionally and physically) and watch romantic movies, tearfully, wishing I could have something like that, but knowing I never have and probably never will.

It's a classic double bind.

So no idea how to answer the poll.