Recovering from infidelity - how long does it take



ORIGINAL POST
Posted by polarduck 17 yrs ago
I found out my husband had another woman for 3 years. I spoke with about this in Feb this year. He said he wanted the family back and had a clean break with the woman. I found out I had cancer in April and had a major operation done. Now I am home for 2 months already. We have lots of arguments because I didn't have much chances to release my anger, sadness and frustration after I confronted with him because of the disease. My husband always says I have to move on without mentioning about the affair again. We have lots of arguments all the time. I always tell him it's only 2 months and how can I pretend nothing has happened. I am very sad because if I have had cancer only, I would receive a lot of care from my husband. Now he had an affair which have lasted for a long time, I have to argue with him all the times because of this. I receive the care much less that I could have got. I want to ask those who has been cheated on, how long do you recover from the trauma ?

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COMMENTS
cute_sense 17 yrs ago
My Dear Polarrduck, You are given a 2nd chance to be alive so to speak after you cancer operation. Try your best to move on. STOP the arguments; think positive put the past (unhappy things) behind - the cancer has been removed. I sugguest you seek counselling. Good luck and SMILE..... SMILE........ :-) You're ALIVE!

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polarduck 17 yrs ago
Thanks cute sense. We are going to counselling. I tried to forget about the past, but I am just a human. Sometimes, the anger and the sadness come from nowhere. I just feel sad. But my husband could not handle the situation and turns out into arguments. I don't know when my feelings of pain, sadness and frustration will go or will just stay on until I can bear with them.

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clan 17 yrs ago
It is really really hard to get over the infidelity. I've been there. It really depends on what you want. Do you want to be with him. If yes then you do need to move forward. Counselling is a good move. I agree with cute sense. Use this opportunity to start again. Things will never be the same. You will take a long time to trust. It will be hard not to throw things back at him especially when you are feeling low and vulnerable. The pain will go but it will take time. Your husband is right you cannot keep bringing it up but there must be the opportunity for you to express your sadness, anger and frustration. Maybe you could limit it to counselling. However your husband can't just expect it to go away and be normal...it can't...not yet. That would be insensitive. Just go with it and try to forgive...if you want any chane to make it work. But don't beat yourself up if you feel anger and frustration...call a friend and tell her.

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rm_60611 17 yrs ago
You can forgive but you'll never forget. Very hard to get over something like this, trust me. But time will make things better. It'll be very difficult for you to trust him again and maybe you never will. But if you love him you'll give it a try and so will he

Good luck

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southstand 17 yrs ago
There is some good advice here. First of all you both need to figure out if you really want to be in this. It's been 3 years since my wife strayed on me and we are still together but it has not been easy. I have posted elsewhere here on some other columns with more details.


If you both want to be in this then you both need to:



- first and foremost you must recognize and accept what has happened whether right or wrong

- listen to the other person when they need to talk about it

- seek counselling


It's been 3 years for me and my wife. We've had some tough times along the way. Particulary in the begining she did not want to accept or recognize what had happened or talk about it. But I needed to. With some counselling we were able to move forward. This first bit was very tough. But with every day I am feeling better about it and we are able to "talk" about it if needed rather than "argue" about it as we so often did in the begining.


Good book I would recommend is


After the Affair

Janis Abrahms Spring


Good luck to you....

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polarduck 17 yrs ago
I was away for a few days and missed all these replies. Thanks for all the advice. I am more calm now when I talk with him. My husband is now willing to go back to counselling. I was a very happy person before and his affair has changed me to another person. I hope I can get over it.

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dolce 17 yrs ago
Polarduck, i am sorry to hear that

hope you can get over it and become a very happy person again

take care

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zonked 17 yrs ago
I have seen, with my experience and of others, that there are basically two types of relationships these days.


1. Where people are just plain lucky to have everything going for them, love, closeness, lust, and so are just really happy in that relationship.

This also means that they're the lucky few these days who do not cheat on eachother.


2. Where the two make it work. Want it to work and so work towards it. In this category also lie the couples who'll cheat but will still want to work towards their marriage. And this has to be cooperated more by the person cheated on. If he/she is willing to let go and again, wants to work on the marriage, it will happen.


As someone else has written -- you need to decide what you want? And initially, every one wants to work on their marriage as there're a number of years behind it and you don't want to leave all that suddenly, even when you're hurt. But only time can tell if you'll actually stick together.


In my case, I could not get over it, could not forgive, could not forget. So I finally gave up.

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zonked 17 yrs ago
Forgot to write, in the latter type, when you WORK for it to work, the real, plain joy and happiness will never be there. Even after any length of time. What is once destroyed, is destroyed. And no, this isn't pessimism, it's reality. And esp. if you want to be one of those, you've to be prepared for that. The "bliss" factor of the r'ship will be lost forever.

SO, it isn't easy, but you choose that and be happy with that.

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polarduck 17 yrs ago
Zonked, you're right. Even when my husband is good to me, tries to care about me, I don't feel the same as before. I just lost the feeling of 'love'. I have 2 children. The older one is 14 and he once told me he doesn't want a divorced family and that's the main reason for me to stay on the relationship. But I don't feel 'joy' and 'happy'. Maybe it's only a short while after he confessed.

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