The Dr. John Delony Show - My Husband Won’t Treat His Erectile Dysfunction (I’m Pissed)

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

On today’s episode, we hear about: ·       A woman frustrated that her husband won’t take ED medication ·       A husband wondering how to best handle his wife’s emotions ·       A man carrying resentment after being forced to play youth sports Next Steps: 📞 Ask John a question! Call 844-693-3291 or send us a message. 📚 Building a Non-Anxious Life 📝 Anxiety Test  📚 Own Your Past, Change Your Future  ❓ Questions for Humans Conversation Cards  💭 John's Free Guided Meditation  🤘🏼 The Dr. John Delony Show Merch    Connect With Our Sponsors: Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp. Get 15% off with code DELONY at Bon Charge. Get up to 40% off with code DELONY at Cozy Earth.   Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe.  Go to Hallow for a 90-day free trial.  Visit Helix Sleep for special offers!  Get 20% off with code DELONY at Organifi.   Get 25% off your order at Thorne.  Go to Trainwell to get started! Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💰 George Kamel 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big news! New dates for money and marriage getaway just dropped for Valentine's Day weekend 2026. Get tickets at ramsysolutions.com events to get away with your spouse in Nashville, Tennessee. My husband and I are 65 years old and married for 44 years. My husband and I are 65 years old and married for 44 years. He has never had a great libido and he has a long history of turning me down when I initiated sex. Let's back out of sex for a second.

Let's back out of sex. Okay? When was the last time you guys laughed so hard together you thought you were going to pee your pants? Yo, yo, yo, this is John with the Dr. John Delaney show, taking your calls from all over planet earth, real people going through real challenges. Their marriages, their mental and emotional health, trying to figure out what's going on in culture today, was trying to figure out what's going on in their kids' schools, but every guy going on in your life, my promise is I'll sit here with you and we will figure

out what's the next right move. If you want to be on the show, reach out at johndeloney.com slash ask and fill out the form and it will go to Kelly and she'll, uh, holla back girl at you. And we'll see if we can get you on the show. Johndeloney.com slash a S K. I was going to Dallas, Texas and talk to Marie. What's up, Marie? Well, it's rainy and thundering here, but it's going okay. What's up with you? Water's not supposed to fall from the sky in Texas. Oh, we're so, you know, we're so thankful for it.

I was in Nashville the first year I lived here. After living all of my life in Texas, I heard somebody say it was raining, you know, it was a couple of days in a row and somebody said, man, I wish it would stop raining. And I whipped my head around and I realized that's a sentence I don't think I'd ever heard. I had never heard that sentence. I wish it would stop raining. So that's fantastic. Well, congratulations on the rain.

Hope it works out for you guys. What's up? So I wrote down kind of a background and then to my question. So I'll just go ahead and read this. Sure. You got it. and so i wrote down kind of uh... abat ground and then to my question so i'll just go ahead and read this sure you got it okay my husband i are took sixty five years old and married for forty four years he's never had a great libido and he has a long history of turning me down when i

initiated fact i have learned not to ask him because it uh... usually results in her he's like occupied with something else or is not in the mood. Then I decided to just tell him, I need his attention. Sometimes, um, I would come right out and ask him, I need servicing. Still sex remained a low priority for him over the past two years. He has had a heart attack and stents put in. He takes cardiac medication.

We set a goal of three times per week and we did well for a while, but then erectile dysfunction hit. So now he doesn't experience pleasure at all. He said the cardiologist PA told him is just the way it is and he can't take ED medications due to the cardiac medications. Recently I became, became angry and told him I was going to call the cardiologist doctor and ask that she reconsidered the medications and assist with the ED.

I'm at that point again of giving up. He has increased attentiveness, but no physical touch. I am like, I feel like I'm dying inside, invisible, not worthy of anything. I'm angry. He irritates me. I don't like him right now. We have limited time here. We're on the short end of the runway.

I just cannot accept that we're here again. If we were just sitting there in Dallas over some fajitas, I would get up and walk around the table and give you a hug. I'm sorry. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. Sometimes ED and erectile dysfunction, all that. I mean, you know this as well as I do.

That's a hard conversation for anybody. It's embarrassing. It's all those things. And having been to an OB-GYN appointment every year for your entire life, plus or minus, you don't really care and I get that This isn't about that Like you've been lonely for a long long time haven't you The entire relationship. Yeah. Yeah the entire relationship sex is the light on the dashboard here

Right. It's not the engine problem Right. It's the one connection that is between us and our faith. But yeah. Yeah, but I want to challenge you on the faith thing. I think the faith thing has been, let me put it this way. Again, every faith is different. You can read it however you want to, but he left your marriage decades ago. Decades ago.

I tend to have a broader view of the word infidelity. And I know some people really narrow it down, especially in particular faith traditions about it is simply about intercourse with another human being. Fine. However you want to describe it. I've just sat with people for years and years and years who hide behind that nonsense. And they leave their wives on a golf course. Or they leave their husband for business after business after business after business and

or they leave their partner for fill in the blank or they just sit in the recliner scrolling whatever news channel or TV channel falling half asleep in and out of whatever life they think they're having. And so I mean, then faith becomes this thing like to hide behind without having to deal with the true issue, which is, oh, you left me. You're just still sitting in the recliner. And I don't want to, that's just the way I read it. And so all that to say is, I'm sorry. Because now you're getting to the point where you're 65 and you hear the clock ticking

a little louder and you're starting to look back and consider have you wasted time? Like the most precious thing you've got, right? Right, I've always thought that. And the only way I've been able to stay in the relationship is by having faith, you know, just thinking, okay, you know, I'll refocus on my ministries and God and refocus there. It gets me through, but it's not fulfilling as a human being on that side.

So it sounds almost like you've used your faith as kind of like a Xanax to distract yourself, not as a way through this challenge to have hard conversations and deal with the reality, but it's been a way to kind of wallpaper over the problem. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So what are you going to do? You sound pretty resolved.

Well, I mean, I'm definitely not going to leave. Like I said, I'm 65, I'm on the end of the runway, so is he. So I go back to, okay, well, I just can't accept this. Maybe I will, you know, with him on the line, call the cardiologist and say, fix this. Let's back out of sex for a second. Let's back out of sex. Okay?

How does he handle y'all's money? So we're retired right now. And so, you know, we watched the stocks a little When we absolutely have to but we stay, you know pretty frugal You know, we've treated ourselves to things he never goes overboard We've grounded ourselves to things. He never goes overboard. He, yeah, yeah, money is okay. Money is okay.

You know, we're surviving and we hope that, you know, we'll get to the other end with some money to get through life. When's the last time you guys laughed so hard together you thought you're going to pee your pants? Yeah. Yeah. When is that?

When's the last time you and him got to laughing so hard? He made you laugh and you thought you were going to pee your pants? He said something last week. I don't even remember what it was. And, and I responded and, and yeah, we just, you know, I started laughing usually when I laugh or if I think something is funny, he doesn't, but that time we both did. And yeah, I just thought I was gonna lie might have leaked a little You keep talking about how old you are quit it Kelly is way older than you way

She's not but no she isn't Here's here's the here's here's the reality okay, and I want you to be careful of a couple of things the first thing is I don't want you to back yourself into a corner and then brick yourself into that corner. Because I hear two competing, two competing like stakes in the ground. I will not live like this, period. And I will not leave this marriage period. And now you've given yourself an either or that can't ever solve itself.

And that leaves you burned out, exhausted and tired because you keep trying to, you're like trying to do a seesaw by yourself. You're going to make yourself bunkers. Absolutely. Absolutely. I just feel empty. I feel like I'm dissolving. That's right.

Some kind of human, some kind of a human touch, some kind of an affirmation, attention. You know, I never got that when I was growing up and now it's replicated in my entire, of course I picked what the problem was when I got married, right? And um... But you have to, but let's, let's don't go all the way back there. Let's look at what we have right in front of us. You've spent 40 years with somebody, is that right? 44.

Uh-huh. And you have said, I have a deep pain of just wanting someone to touch me and make me feel safe and to make me feel desired. And he has looked at you and said, I'm not doing that, no. Period, end of story. And I can't think of a more heartbreaking reality to find myself in at the age of 65 years old. Cause it's not like you said,

hey, I want you to quit being a policeman where you feel called and go be in business so that we can make more money so I can get me a lake house. Right? Or, I can't believe you've never bought me a new Tahoe. This is simply, will you sit by me on the couch and hold my hand and put your arm around me? And he looked at you and said, no, I won't actually.

And reduced you to oil change language. Will you service me? Right. Right. It's dehumanizing. And then you have spent 65 years wondering what's wrong with you. Exactly. And I wouldn't wish that thought on my worst enemy.

So sometimes I just, you know, go and sit down by him and, I mean, you know, skin to skin and just sitting together and, you know, he puts his arm around me, but you know, TV is there and it, I'm still invisible. Yeah, I'm there, but I'm invisible. Okay. So here's, here's the, here's the, the action steps you have in front of you, okay? This pain is deep and I want you to go talk to somebody. Okay, because I'm also hearing you wrestling with existential questions. How have I used my time?

Has my life been good? I got one shot at this thing. Have I? I've done a lot of hard stuff. I've also had some joy in there too. Like you're asking yourself those big, deep existential questions and I want you to go sit with somebody, whether it's a pastor that you trust, please tell me it's somebody that's trained, you know, knows what they're doing, or go see a counselor or get a group of women

your age and begin to have these conversations out loud, okay? That's number one. Okay, okay. Number two, I want you to put front and center, the reality that you find yourself. I love this because you're trafficking in reality. Your emotions are all over the place. They're scattered across 65 years of your life,

but your frontal lobe, your brain, your prefrontal cortex is present in the moment. The clock is ticking. I'm 65 years of your life, but your frontal lobe, your brain, your prefrontal cortex is present in the moment. The clock is ticking. I'm 65 years old. And I want you to be specific, not about feelings, but about what do you want to do? Who do you want to be? My fear is you've been chasing a feeling of being loved for a long time and if I were to sit down with your husband, he would look at me and say I

Put food on the table. I work myself to death. I've had a heart attack. I Just grew up a certain way So I don't even know how to like love her and you see how you just end up you said it best you end up marrying your childhood right but you get in this dance. And I want you to be very specific about some things you want to do you've been I love how clear you we will have sex three times a week on the calendar. Hey, that's not I mean that's like that's that's the way it's got to go sometimes awesome good on you. There is

Millions of 25 year old married couples. They're like three times a week. Oh my gosh, how do we play video games? And you're like, I'm getting mine three times a week right good for you But here's the thing. I want you to put on paper No, you know what back out of, write your 90 year old self a letter and say at 65, we started doing things. I'm so glad I did. Here's what we did. Cause I want you to also traffic in the reality

that for 44 years, he's looked at you and said, I don't care how you want to be loved. I'm not gonna do that. And I don't see that changing. And I also see you saying, like, it's underneath it all, I'm comfortable here, I love him, I'm safe, it's part of my faith tradition, all those things are well and good.

And this is my life, and so I'm not leaving it. So it might be that you get with some girlfriends and start saying, okay, we're going out. I'm gonna learn how to dance. I got so many years till my hips quit working, I'm gonna go dance. I'm gonna start getting a pedicure once a month and I'm gonna work a little side job so I can pay for it.

I am gonna go start going to a concert once a month. Like you gonna work a little side job so I can pay for it. I am gonna start going to a concert once a month. Like you get what I'm saying? I'm gonna start going to the middle school theater productions that are terrible but still great at the same time and I'm gonna volunteer. I'm gonna start living my life and I'm gonna stop coming home to the same couch that I've been coming home to for 44 years hoping that something will be different there.

Here's the reality. You're not going to feel like doing a lot of this stuff. Yeah. It's going to be a commitment to yourself. I'm going to keep the promises to myself. I will go once a week to have coffee with my girlfriends and we're going to be ridiculous. And in fact, I'm going to send you a whole bunch of questions for humans decks, Okay. You can start with your girlfriends. Oh, I would love that. Thank you. I'm going to send you the friends ones. I'm going to send you the couples ones. Y'all can get the

spicy ones and even intimacy ones. Y'all can bring them home to your husbands and just be all gross. Oh yeah. So I ordered the intimacy one. Okay. I'm looking for it in the mail now. Okay, cool. Well, I'll send you some other ones for free and, but I want you to go begin to have friendships and because here's the deal, you are worth being loved. You're all worth laughing with. You're worth holding hands with, you're worth hugging. It just happens that the people in your life

for the first 65 years have said, we're not going to do that. Yeah. And if you want to take your faith and walk through these challenges, not use your faith as a shield from dealing with stuff, I would recommend doing that. It'll be painful and it'll be scary. It'll be very, very hard.

Yeah. But right now your life is painful and scary and hard, isn't it? Oh my goodness. Yeah, so it's a matter of choosing your heart. I can't believe I'm here, yeah. Yeah. Cool?

Very cool, thank you so much. I appreciate your input. Maria, you call me any time, and if he wants to call me too, great. Yes, I think y'all should call the doctor. I think y'all should circle back in there, but I think the issues here are much deeper than sex, and Edie, I think it isall should circle back in there, but I think the issues here are much deeper than sex and Edie I think it is a lifetime of people not being willing to love you as you are asking. We all love me in this way

Thanks for the call sister why we come back we talked to a man who wants some advice on how to wrangle his wife's emotions This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Hey, while the world seems like it's falling apart, we're all under pressure to perform. We're all under pressure to perform and look like we're keeping it all together at the same time. We all know that support is good, but we're not even allowed to ask for it. Women are often told that they have to be everything to everyone all of the time and somehow they have to just intuitively

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Right now when you sign up at HALO.com slash Deloney, you'll get three months for free. Again, that's HALO, H-A-L-L-O-W dot com slash Deloney for three months for free. All right, Wayne in Boise, Idaho. What's up, Wayne? Hey, Dr. John. Thank you so much for taking my call. Of course, brother. Much appreciated, brother.

What's up? Hey, man. So on the side of my question, I'll give you a little bit of context and I'm excited to dive in with you. But my question is, what can I do to be better equipped to handle my wife's emotions? Um, I feel like I have the emotional capacity, the size of a coffee mug, and she's trying to dump a five gallon bucket into my small little cup. Um, I'm getting completely overwhelmed, frustrated at times.

And when this happens, I tend to shut down. This is probably our number one obstacle in our marriage is these emotions. So any help you got, man, I'd be appreciative of it. You love this woman, don't you? Big time. Yeah I can hear it in you man like this isn't you complaining about her this is a problem you want to solve I can tell I can tell. You got it. Man old are you? 41. Okay. What something happened that precipitated this call? What was the last big blow-up? When I

expressed my emotions... Give me an example. Give me an example. Um, I was flying around the kitchen, um, washing dishes. I left the pans on the, the, the stove to dry and she said, Hey, you know, why don't you just put away the pans? And I was doing, trying to do 50 other things, clean up after the kids dinner. And I took that as, uh, she didn't appreciate all that I was trying to do. Um, so when I expect express those feelings, it hurt her feelings. And then that was, uh, the last biggest thing. But it continuously, like when we get in disagreements or arguments, it all boils down to her emotions

and my lack of ability to acknowledge them maybe. of ability to acknowledge them maybe I think she would probably say that I'm not all there for her emotionally I don't hear that in the example you just gave how are you not there for her emotionally How are you not there for her emotionally? Maybe it's- Does she expect you just to take whatever she throws at you? Whatever she says, whatever she encourages you, however she lectures you, however she criticizes you,

you're just supposed to accept that. I mean- Because as you just described that one story, I feel like a hundred percent I would have felt like you did I'm in here trying to be a modern dad. I went to work all day. I'm trying to do these things I'm trying to help and do the dishes and I'm trying to get the kids squared up and I know you're busy and I'm trying to be a good guy I'm trying to be a good dad trying to help and the first thing that comes in here is not like oh my gosh

I'm so grateful for you. It's a critique Right. I'm so grateful for you. It's a critique. Right. I'm totally with you. Totally with you. It's a thing I hear very common from men, which is I feel like I'm in a failure factory. I don't know how to help because when I do help, I don't do it right.

I see that. And then- I just know how I process like my feelings and emotions is completely different than, you know, understandably how she processes hers. And I don't, I don't understand. And maybe like I've never had like a role model, um, as men, you know, we don't get to see emotions and how they're played out. That's right. Man to man. So I don't want to like put this on her because she's a great woman by like I'm looking for

some tools to maybe just help myself. So let's let's let's do this. Let's look at emotions as simply lights on a dashboard. Okay. Emotions are not designed to tell you the truth. They're designed to keep you safe. So when somebody says, like, quit yelling at me. And you're like, I'm not yelling.

Somebody says, like, quit yelling at me. And you're like, I'm not yelling. Somebody's body literally may have felt attacked. And when your body is attacked, your eyes narrow, your hearing gets acute, right? You are ready for danger. And things can sound really loud when someone else is just like like trying to talk over the kid that's babbling in the background.

So emotions, trying to traffic in emotions together is really a fool's errand. It's a tough thing to do. Okay. Getting underneath that and saying, how can I love you right now? Is the only way I've seen couples be successful. And they do that in a bunch of different ways,

but I haven't seen people be successful trying to manage each other's emotions. Because if somebody is struggling with the emotion of shutdown, then the other person's body just gets louder, which then causes the person to shut down more. Or when somebody's going over the top and somebody gets small to try to not provoke anymore, the person's not getting the rise that they need. somebody gets small to try to not provoke anymore. The person's not getting the rise that they need. And so they get a lot, right?

So it just becomes this wild firefight. And probably the her being spicy is why you loved her. It's why you married her, it's why she was fun. And you being stable is probably what made her feel safe. And so there's underneath that, the emotion stuff is good too, right? Right. The deeper question is, hey, how can I love you today?

Here's how you can love me. When I'm doing the dishes and you see me doing them wrong, it's like, let me finish them. And then when I'm all done and we're chilling say hey Here's the way you could really help out if you can put this dish over here. Do it like this Or coming in and criticizing me all the time because here's what that that can be I Would feel it the same way you felt it which is You're not you I'm I do it the right way and you're doing it the wrong way

You're not, I do it the right way and you're doing it the wrong way. Instead of, thank God somebody's doing it period. We have a bunch of kids here and we're both tired. But those things are solved way upstream with, hey, how can I love you today? I'm going to need some help with the dishes tonight. Can you take dinner tonight? Hey, I'm texting you at four o'clock. I'm already out of gas. Can you do one of the bedt dinner tonight? Hey, I'm texting you at four o'clock. I'm already out of gas. Can you do one of the bedtimes tonight?

Okay, I like that. Does that make sense? It does. Now, let me ask you another question. Sometimes people in relationships when one person gets more emotional and more emotional and more emotional, they're trying to get a sense of aliveness out of their partner. Are you in this marriage? I am. No, no, no, I'm not asking you.

I'm saying like, there's a, I want you to fight back. I want to feel passion. I want to feel aliveness. Do you get what I'm saying? And so some of it is a commitment. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was gonna say, some of the,

how can I love you today is a commitment to, hey, when you yell, I'll shut down. And I'm gonna commit that when I start shutting down, I'm gonna stay in the game. Cause I know that you're not gonna hit me, I know I love you, et cetera. And vice versa. When I start shutting down, I find myself getting me, I know I love you, etc. And vice versa. When I start shutting down, I find myself getting rattled, like trying to get your attention.

I'm not going to yell, but also please stay in the game and don't shut down on me. Gotcha. So when I tend to shut down, she's essentially waiting for me to come back. But I'm like, one, my frustration with her because I don't understand her emotions and two, I'm kind of busy beating myself up because I don't understand. And I know that I have a lot of, I have trouble stepping out of that silence to go reinitiate the conversation. Where did you learn that silence is the best way to handle a challenge? Did you get hit as a kid?

No. Was your house loud as a kid? Or did you have a parent who drank? No. Where'd you learn that? I mean, it was yelling. Okay. Maybe I never, after the yelling part,

I never really saw a resolution. There it is. So maybe your nervous system learned at a very young age. When the yelling starts, we disappear because there's no solving anything here. And the next step is fist flying. I'm not being a part of this. How do I get out of that?

You have to wade right through it. And you have to tell her this is hard and scary. Cause you've probably heard me say a thousand times on the show, the things that kept you safe as a kid will destroy your adult relationships. You're married to someone who wants that engagement from you, wants to know you're as passionate into this thing as you are.

But if you just let the nine-year-old inside of you take over and hide and get out of this deal, she feels like she just lost her husband. And she's not handling it right either. She just dials up the intensity instead of gently coming in there and getting you back, right, reaching across through that electric fence and grabbing your hand.

But that's when I talk, people talk about doing the hard work. This is that work. This is you saying out loud, oh, I'm feeling myself disappearing again. I'm feeling myself withdrawing, taking a deep breath. And I have it in my toolkit. I'm gonna reach over and grab her hand.

And we've already talked about this when we were having breakfast together. When I grab her hand, she knows to stop talking because I'm trying to come back. I'm practicing coming back. And what you'll do over time is you'll teach your body that it's okay when things get volatile a little bit because you're both on the same team

and no one's gonna hit each other or set each other on fire or anything. That's good. And she has to be an adult too and say, I feel myself just wanting to scream and yell and see if there's any aliveness in my husband at all. I wanna go get it. And she has to know the louder I get,

the more his body shuts off. And so if I see him working really hard and everybody's gonna be safe, I see him trying, everybody's gonna be safe, I'm just gonna say nothing, I'm gonna bite my lip, bite my tongue, and then next time we get together, I'm gonna say, hey, will you help me with this? And you have to promise if she says,

hey, here's a better way to do the dishwasher that you won't go into a shame spiral. I'm a loser, I'm such a terrible husband, I'm the worst ever, I can't believe she got stuck, you won't do that kind of stuff. Or if she comes in kind of hot and says, why'd you put those pans on there? That you can say, oh, I'm just drying them off.

And that you don't immediately go down the, cause I'm a loser, I don't know how to participate in mine. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. Some of that is you exhaling and choosing mindfulness. And all mindfulness is trying to extend the gap between what just happened and what you do next. It's just being aware of that next moment.

It's the same thing, people who struggle with addiction, who struggle with food, overeating, like it's that I'm about to grab this thing, exhale real quick, am I actually hungry? Do I actually need the cigarette? Do I actually need to text this person back, I'm not married to you? It's just stopping right before that action.

And here's a funny thing that happened. It's a big challenge, but this is the work to be done. Yeah. And I'm gonna be a jerk real quick. I'll be an ass here and say, if you don't do this work, you're gonna teach your kids the same cycle and they're gonna do it too. Gotcha.

And so the work is for you and for y'all, but it's also like, this is change your family tree kind of stuff. And it's still going to feel a certain way. The challenge is the work is to go do the right thing anyway. Because over time, your body will learn, Oh, my wife is safe. We love each other, we're in this thing together. All of this though, brother, starts with, hey, for 30 days, when we wake up, I'm bringing you a cup of coffee just like you like it, how can I love you today? And then come up with a couple of signals for,

hey, I'm starting to, I'm getting overwhelmed. All right, I'm back. I'm just drying these things out, hey, I'm starting to I'm getting overwhelmed All right, I'm back I'm just drying these things out man. I'll get to them. I Can't believe you didn't try them. I'll get to them. That's fine. And I'm not gonna I'm not a bad dad. I'm not a bad husband. I'm doing my best. I'm good. I'm good And it dude none of us it's just like shooting free throws except it's in our heads and nobody taught us this and I'm proud of you for even saying that out loud for trying to do something you've never seen done before.

It's impressive. I appreciate that. Okay and hey if she wants to call I would love to talk to her as well because I think there's this gets in a dance here. Man if you guys want to reach back out and put in the heading, reach back out, man. And you've got our contact info if she wants to be on too. Cause I think there's a couple of things we can do, y'all can do together

that I'll walk with you both on, but both through to stop this dance before it actually gets going. But man, can I just say one more time? The currency in the 21st century for men is emotional intelligence. How do I do this thing? How do I stay present and not explode? How do I stay present and not shut down? How do I meet my wife where she's at and stand firm?

And that wasn't what our dads taught us. They had a different operating system. And so we were learning it on the fly. Brother, I am proud of you for standing in there and trying to learn something new. Absolutely incredible. Call me anytime, man. We come back, we talk to a young man who wonders

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Let's talk to B-E-N. What's up, Ben? Hey, Dr. John. Thank you so much for taking my call. You got it. What's up, dude? And apologies in advance. I'm super nervous about this. Oh man. You're good. Don't don't ever apologize on this show, man We're all trying to figure it out the best we can man Yep. So my question is how do I get past the resentment? I still have from being forced to play youth sports How old are you?

I'm 30. Okay What are you resenting? What do you sports cost you? Well, basically if here's some background on it, I was put in sports at a very early age I played as long as I can remember and was just told hey, here's the sport you're gonna play you're gonna to play. You're going to play it throughout high school and was just molded and shaped into the image other people wanted me to be.

And I feel like in the end I became a decent player, but I feel like a lot of my childhood and teenage years were miserable. You still have a relationship with your parents? Yes, my parents are amazing. I love them so much and they are, you know, they've always been amazing parents when it came to everything. But when it comes to this, it's just like the one part that the only thing really I have, I struggle with, with the resentment issue.

I have a hard time believing that. Prove me wrong. Mainly, sports was a big part of my life. It was, like I said, something I did at a very early age, travel sports, youth sports, year round. But you told me your parents were amazing and wonderful. So there's a scenario where you got to spend a lot of time with them, got to go on the road, go to hotels with them, got to hear them cheering and screaming for you. Yes.

And also a lot of long car rides home. A lot of yelling and screaming. Okay, then don't dishonor yourself by saying they're wonderful and great and the best parents of all time ever, except for this one little thing. The honest truth is they did some really great stuff for you. They provided for you. They got you to, I'm just making stuff up. They got you to college.

They're still married. They provided for you. They got you to, I'm just making stuff up. They got you to college. They're still married. They're good people. And maybe they used you to prop up their own insecurities. Maybe you were a walking, living, breathing trophy for them. And no kid should have to carry that weight. It definitely felt like I never played the game but I played the game for them and not for me. So here's a big question. You're 30 and man I could be out to lunch here but I doubt it. What are you still doing in your life for them?

Sunday lunches? Are you a lawyer and you don't want to be? Do you still have to travel to Thanksgiving because this is how we do it in this family? You driving a Volvo and really you want to drive a... What are the things you're still doing now because your dad gives you that nod? I feel like performance is a lot. So trying to do good at my job, trying to do good for my job trying to do good. What does do good me family? Trying to make sure I'm you know

Succeeding, you know, no, no my job. I have I'm drilling down on purpose. What does succeed mean? Does your dad ask how much you made last year? Yeah making money. There you go. That's a big part of it. Do you have kids? Yes, I do. Are. How old are they? One is two and the other one is six months. Okay, so has he already started lecturing the two-year-old? Yes. No, we live in, well, we live in a different city, so. I know, but when you see him, like, well, hold on, whoa, like when he, when the two year old acts too, or talks back or does something silly.

No, I mean he will lecture me, but I kind of figure, yeah, he's my dad. He's always going to do that. He doesn't have to. He could sit outside on his front porch and drink a cup of coffee and be so happy that his son's home and get to just revel in his grandkids. He can just see that his son is smiling and his wife still likes him

and it appears that he's making good money but who cares because they're happy. The reason you have resentment in your heart brother is not because they forced you to do sports growing up it's because you're still playing a sport for them, still. And that's exhausting, man. Oh yeah. And it wouldn't surprise me if your wife is tired of having her life also regulated by your parents. And it may be coming of age

where you are seeing your two kids and you're starting to think how in God's green earth could you talk or treat them like that? Yeah, yeah, I have noticed myself thinking about that. Yeah. So your anger isn't past tense. It is right now. Can I just tell you this? Whatever it's worth, brother, I don't want to be cheesy. You are worth more than the money you make and you're worth more than the stupid sports you played. And I wish your memories of car rides with your parents was filled with fart noises and

singing along to Garth Brooks songs and not getting lectured about how you should stand and hold your stance better for baseball or whatever. Thanks. That breaks my heart for you. And for the millions of other kids who are in the exact same situation whose parents are using them as proxies for their to rerun their childhood So the only thing you got now ahead of you brothers whatever comes next that other stuff's already happened What does that look like here's's what it looks like. It's like putting your feet in the ground and standing up really tall and not in a dishonorable way, but doing things like, how's your year going? Good.

Well, how much money have you made? You know what? I'm just going to start keeping that private between me and my wife. Are you serious right now? Yeah, I'm just, I'm just going to just stop talking about money. Hey, Thanksgiving. I'm just gonna just stop talking about money Hey Thanksgiving we're doing the actually this year for Thanksgiving we're gonna go to Disneyland taking the kids Your mother's gonna be really yeah this year. We're not gonna come

And you're gonna feel guilty you feel ashamed you're gonna feel less than and there's gonna be the the You you know you really hurt your mother all that stuff that's okay my days of living my life for y'all are now officially over I have my own wife and my own kids and every bit of this will feel hard and weird And every bit of this will feel hard and weird. Alright, I'm throwing a lot at you. Talk back. Yeah, I mean...

Yeah, I just... To think about, you know, throwing my shoulders back and just being with my family and... Kind of taking charge. Sounds good. Will you do it? Yeah. I will. Can I flip this whole thing over on you for a second? Yeah, go for it. Does your mom and dad know? Do they know about the resentment?

Yeah. I don't think so. The few times it's been brought up, they kind of just shrug their shoulders and go, oh, what do you mean? Of course you had fun playing. Now I'm not talking about the resentment from childhood sports. I still think that's the proxy. I'm talking about right now. When your mom calls and asks have you done this with your kids yet? Why are you letting them? Dude, you don't get a vote? They don't get a vote brother. Do they know that?

Do they know that? I hope they do. That means they don't. Hey, and I don't blame you, that's a hard conversation. It will be cruel if you find yourself continuing along the same path, doing what they wanna do, responding to their inquiries,

trying to be successful so that somehow, someone your dad will finally say he's proud of you, or at least not say he's disappointed in you, and you come to resent them, because that resentment will be on the back of you not having boundaries, because you're 30 years old now. You are now no longer being dragged around in the back of a suburban. And so the most fair and honorable thing you can do for them is to establish boundaries so that you can

preserve the relationship. The most unfair thing you can do is just to say nothing and continue to see then see then see then see then until you finally explode. Can I tell you how this works in my house? Yeah. I would ask your wife to make you a list of the ways that you are still being parented by your mom and dad. Because I promise you you she knows.

And say, I won't get mad. I'm just going to listen. I will not respond until tomorrow. But I don't have a piece of, a piece of paper and a pen. What are all the ways you see me still being a high school kid when it comes to my relationship with my parents? And she's probably going to say, you text back with every second.

You always have the phone. You always step out whenever your dad calls. you are always having to report stuff to your dad because you need to make sure he knows how much money you made on the sale or what and every time your mom comments on why is the kids shoes scuffed up that you turn around and Why aren't we calling enough or facetiming enough or? She's probably got a whole list of things Give her permission to shine a light in the areas where you can't see, where it's dark. And then I want you just to exhale and spend a couple of days with that list and ask yourself,

is this true? And then begin the hard, painful, awful hellish walk that is right back through the middle of that. I don't need their approval anymore. I wish I had their love be awesome, but I don't have their approval anymore. And I never had it in the first place. And all of their weight on me was never about me, it was about them. And they actually probably didn't want the best for me.

They just didn't know how to say it. So they thought performance was the best. And then anyway, I got to walk back through the middle of that. And on the other end, you're going to stand up tall and say, this is my house with my wife. And as for us in our house, here's how we're going to be. Mom and dad, we want you to be a part of it.

We hope you are, but here's what that means. That's a tough, tough, tough road, brother. And I'm not saying cut them out, but I'm saying it's time for you to get out of the back of that Tahoe or that Suburban and begin to live your own life. This is not about Childhood Sports. This is about right now. We'll be right back. I grew up playing sports and I've grown up in weight rooms my whole life and I realized

a few years ago that I took for granted how frustrating, how nerve-racking it can be for someone who's never worked out before to just waltz into a gym or a weight room or a workout class for the first time. And now that I'm getting older, when I find myself in a traditional gym, even I find myself like sizing up some beefcake muscle head just to see where I compare. Listen, here's the truth. We all need to lift weights.

Men, women, young and old, everyone needs to lift heavy things. We all need to move more and knowing what to do, when to do it, even how to do it can be super intimidating. So whether you've been lifting and working out for decades or you're ready to get started for the first time, I want you to check out the incredible programs with my friends at Trainwell. I've used their workouts, my wife and her friends use them, my older sister is getting jacked with her Trainwell trainer, and even Kelly, even Kelly, the producer of this show, is now a Trainwell devotee.

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Check out my friends at Trainwell. Trainwell has a special offer for my audience, just $89 a month when you lock in your plan plus 14 days of free training. Go to trainwell.net slash deloney right now. That's T-R-A-I-N trainwell.net slash deloney. All right, Kelly, what happened that was cool? All right. This is a wonderful email from Jason in Lexington, South Carolina. Awesome. He says, all right, hey, Dr. John and Kelly, you are going to be getting an invitation

to my wedding soon. I'm marrying the woman in my dreams, Emily. Gross. In June. It wouldn't have happened without you and your team. When I discovered your book randomly in August, we were good, but I had a lot of work to do. Since I discovered you, I've read both of your books, never missed a show and have begun a journey to wellness with a therapist. I need you to know that you have impact. Even

if a call seemingly has nothing to do with my life, you always apply wisdom and an action step that I can use somewhere else. Your impact is massive. I know you can't come, but please see the invitation for what it is. Proof that you are changing lives. One struggling person at a time. And then I am going to read the last sentence of this. Oh, here we go. And I, everyone in here can see this is actually in here. Kelly, thank you. It is so clear that you were the glue that holds this amazing team together. Boo. Ben is an Andrew and Kelly K2. Amen. And Mia. is and Andrew and Kelly K2 amen and me up I just read what the fans send in okay all right they do that's the nicest email I've gotten a while we've got some mean ones that's a nice one where they get married he didn't say but they are

from Lexington South Carolina so. So, road trip. We should all go. That would be a great wedding bomb. So we roll in there, dude. It'd be also funny if we put their, like their registry in the show notes and just encourage everyone just to nuke it. But if we did that, it would be chaos.

We'd get registries all, we can't do that. But that would be cool. Let's think of something fun to do for their wedding We'll come up with something Maybe You know me dope. Hey if they come here Kelly will go get a tattoo with you another one. That would be cool Nope old English ones. Nope Whatever. Okay, do you FL full life

What's your favorite hip-hop group? I can say some country artists. Well, no, because you said hip hop. It doesn't matter. So that wouldn't be a country. What was that hip hop country guy back in the 90s? He's from Dallas. He's from DFW. Hip hop country guy. Yeah. What was his name? I was going to say Cowboy Curtis, but that's who he's bigger than. Cowboy Troy. Cowboy Troy. That wasn't great. No? No, that wasn't great.

Let's not. Let's not. Yeah. Hey everybody, love you guys. Stay in school, don't do drugs. Go find somebody and be extra kind and tip well.