Hi Bright Eyes,

When someone damages us and destroys our faith in Humanity, it takes a long time to recover.

Yet, your new partner seems to be trying to live up to your expectations, and only you will know when you are ready to fully trust again. Have you explained the previous situation to your new partner? Maybe not everything at once, but the body image abuse issues would give him a good insight into how you have been hurt, and how difficult things are for you.

Perhaps it is no bad thing that you cannot 'read' him fully, a little mystery allows a longer time to get to know each other deeply.

Finally, always remember the heart and mind are resilient to mistreatment in the form of broken relationships, especially when there is another to take it's place. Trust will come again.

Dave.