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View Full Version : I am so so stuck ::sigh::


nicola
27th September 2004, 10:31 AM
I am in my second marriage and married for five years now. A year and a half ago I discovered that my husband was having an online affair that become physical.

I wish that he had confessed before I discovered his affair, it would make it so much easier to forgive him. My difficulty is that I just can't get past it and I am unable to contribute to our marriage. Intimacy is a thing of the past and it's really sad.

Here is my story....
I met my husband online in 1996 then in person after eight months. We married in 1999. Although I discovered his affair in March 2003, he had been having online affairs since August 2001. Least that's the date I can track his online activities to. Our marriage was made possible after I moved from Australia to Canada with one of my children. A few short months later my second child also came here. My eldest child began a once a year visit but refused to actually move here. At the time of my move my children were 15, 16 and 17.

I struggled with the move and within a year or so realised how much this relationship had cost me. The main reason for me moving here was because my husband was earning the greater income and it would allow me and my children to travel to and from Australia as many as three times a year.

My husband's children at the time of our marriage were 13 and 16. I began to feel less and less important even though my husband tried his best to make it work or so I thought. Things got rather heated at times mostly over the usual problems blended families experience. It also didn't help that we were living 5 minutes away from his ex wife.

Two and a half years ago we moved to Vancouver, just the two of us while my stepchildren stayed with their mother. Also at this time my children had finished high school and returned to live in Australia with their father. My husband and I were busily working and spent our evenings together and although I sensed something wrong could never put my finger on it. I never once thought he was having an affair.

Out situation today is so strained because I cannot forgive him. We have both been to counseling and worked rather hard at putting it all behind us but I just can't. My head controls so much of what I think and not a day passes that I don't believe he is betraying me again and again. He is losing patience with my inability to forgive him and move forward.

Who of you have been through betrayal and successfully remained married? Is it possible to get the trust back? if so, how? My thoughts constantly remind me of what he did and I just cant forget the pain. At the time I discovered his infidelities I also hacked his email and discovered over 400 emails from a women he was with for a whole year. According to him they never ever met but they did engage in phone sex and constant chatting and of course those emails. I also learned that there were others along the way until the last woman. She was the one I found out about and unless I hacked his email would never have known there were more women.

My husband begs my forgiveness and begs that I try to believe in him.

Please give me any advice or suggestions from any of you who have been through similar experiences.

nicola

vallygirl
28th September 2004, 02:55 PM
Well my husband and I were not married yet,but we were in high school.We married a week after we graduated.I was going to join the Marine corps for college money.They had me spend the night at a hotel with other fellow future Marines (Guys and Gals). I really lusted after one man and got drunk that night and woke up naked next to him.I remember walking to my room being held up and him on top of me and enjoying it because I had lusted after him.But it felt like a dream.I woke up next to him scared sh*tless and a huge dark hickie on my neck.I told my boyfriend at the time(husband now).He broke up with me shunned me and all but spat at me.I begged him and never went away until he gave me a second chance.He eventually did.However,it never went away from our relationship! We have been married 7yrs (don't know how much further it will go now) and it does still come up once a year.The more you talk about it and how you felt,the more those hurt feelings become less on both of your parts.I don't know why he took me back(maybe because I was his "first")but he did and it was Hell for the first 2-3yrs.You will discuss this issue over and over until it is not such an issue anymore.YOU NEED COMMUNICATION AND TRUST TO KEEP YOU GUYS GOING! My marriage is falling apart because it was based on sex and being young and pregnant too early! We never experienced other people to know how to handle a relationship so we are both feeling around in the dark alot!

I wish you Luck in your choices.
Val

Kate
28th September 2004, 09:39 PM
Hi there,

Have you looked at the resources about internet affairs here (http://www.2-in-2-1.co.uk/marriageclinic/cyberaffair/) and the resources on general affairs here (http://www.2-in-2-1.co.uk/marriageclinic/infidelity/). You'll find articles that may help you to understand some of what is going on.

If you think that you started out on your relationship too early, it's not too late to find some help. you could look at the articles on basic relationship skills (http://www.2-in-2-1.co.uk/healthclub/relbasictopic/) and consider an enrichment weekend (http://www.2-in-2-1.co.uk/healthclub/servprov/).

All the best

Kate

nicola
29th September 2004, 09:07 PM
Thanks Kate, I stayed up really late last night researching the links you posted and then I ordered a book or two. Your suggestions were helpful and kind.

I think overall most of my troubles is my personality type. I obsess over what my husband did. Mostly it's because I feel so fooled that I didn't read the signs sooner, not that that would have helped. In a sense I think I did because at times I would make snide remarks when he was heading off to work and for overnight or longer work trips. He would perform very well at brushing my comments off. The hardest part is believing you truly know someone and then finding out they really are a jekkyl and hyde rolled into one.

Can you answer this for me? My husband betrayed me but insists all along that he always always was in love with me and at no time ever intended ending our marriage. For me, if I were able to betray him I would have lost respect for him first and therefore fallen out of love. Is it different for men? Truly? Can they betray their wife and credibly say they were always in love with her?

Kate
30th September 2004, 02:07 PM
Dear Nicola

I don't know the answer to this one. I suspect that self honesty goes out the window and selfishness comes in when someone gets drawn into an affair. I guess the ones who don't do it still have the integrity and conscience to stop them.

You said in your first post that you were struggling to forgive him and trust him. have you looked at the articles on these subjects? Forgiveness is about not making the person who hurt us pay for what they have done. It's not about saying or believing it doesn't matter. It is costly. It means that we bear the pain that we would like to take out on them.

Trusting is a further step along the road and has to be worked at together. You need to agree what trust looks like to each of you and what needs to be done to build it. Perhaps your husband needs to show you his email accounts regularly or give you the password to them, so he knows he can't hide anything. That way he is choosing to make himself accountable to you. In the end you will have to choose whether you are going to take the risk and place your trust in him again. If you want to make your marriage work, that will have to be done. it may not be easy but the battle with your head is part of it.

Kate

nicola
30th September 2004, 07:44 PM
Thanks Kate,

So true that the battle is in my head (daily). You mentioned a way for him to help me regain trust in him. You suggested he might give me access to his email account or the password itself. I do have access to his primary email and a couple of others. There has been no sign of inappropriate behaviour. In the beginning he received one or two emails from ex online lovers. These stopped.

Although I respect your suggestion re email access, it has it's flaws. Who's to say he cant just open a different email account and carry on his activities? I do check his primary email and others often but there are so many other ways a person can betray another.

I believe the only way I can heal is to forgive him in order to free myself. I know this is the right thing to do but I am uncertain how to do that. I can't just say I forgive you and my worries then go away. The pain definitely wont go away, the distrust wont go away either. My inability to reconnect with him intimately is really difficult. Sure we have sex, but we used to make love. Sex is fine but if I didn't have it I would be fine. I miss love making.

I wish people who choose to have affairs really understood the seriousness of their actions on their primary relationship. Nothing will ever be the same again.

nicola