What, You Again?
I have dated a veritable cornucopia of men—with varied coloring and body type—an appetizing array of ethnicities and ages, styles, backgrounds and interests. And they were delicious. Most of them, anyway.
Yet for all their diverse and colorful candy coating, I often found they were a metaphorical bag of M&Ms in that on the inside, they were an awful lot alike. Though sadly not made of chocolate, which would have gone a long way in balancing their less palatable traits.
More than once I found myself sitting across a table from someone thinking, I’m sorry, but didn’t I just break up with you?! Except of course, I hadn’t. I’d simply taken up with a new chap; one in possession of the same charming attributes that had earned the last one his walking papers—or me mine.
So, what was it? What facets within the personalities of these men—so seemingly distinct from one another—kept finding their way back into my life? And why do so many of us, men and women across all demographics, keep falling back into bed with the same delectably wrong partners? Mercifully, members of the medical community are on hand with an easily abbreviated label.
“I call this Error Selection Syndrome,” says Dr. Patti Britton, director and co-founder of clinical sexology training for the Institute for Sexual Health. It’s a condition that often encompasses unresolved issues from the past. “We’re destined to repeat it over and over until we get it right … or so we think.”
Yet for all their diverse and colorful candy coating, I often found they were a metaphorical bag of M&Ms in that on the inside, they were an awful lot alike. Though sadly not made of chocolate, which would have gone a long way in balancing their less palatable traits.
More than once I found myself sitting across a table from someone thinking, I’m sorry, but didn’t I just break up with you?! Except of course, I hadn’t. I’d simply taken up with a new chap; one in possession of the same charming attributes that had earned the last one his walking papers—or me mine.
So, what was it? What facets within the personalities of these men—so seemingly distinct from one another—kept finding their way back into my life? And why do so many of us, men and women across all demographics, keep falling back into bed with the same delectably wrong partners? Mercifully, members of the medical community are on hand with an easily abbreviated label.
“I call this Error Selection Syndrome,” says Dr. Patti Britton, director and co-founder of clinical sexology training for the Institute for Sexual Health. It’s a condition that often encompasses unresolved issues from the past. “We’re destined to repeat it over and over until we get it right … or so we think.”
Fantastic piece, Cherry. I love that I now have some very smart-sounding phrases -- error selection syndrome -- with which to explain some past failures. Of course, I'm now analyzing my M&Ms, but that's a different story. Great work!