Husband Cheated After 11 Years – How Do I Forgive Him?

Hi, Can you please advise me how to forgive unconditionally? I found out my hubby of 11years had an affair. He had since broke off with the girl and is now trying very hard to make our marriage work again. I am also trying very hard to make him love me again. Sadly, I get depressed when he is not around. I think of the stuffs that he has done to me i cannot help not crying. I feel like shouting it to someone but…… There are not many who I confide in about his infedelity. I feel so depressed. I didn’t talk to my hubby about this as I feel it will upset him and whatever we have been doing in the day will all go down the drain. Am I doing it the right way? I hope you can help me.

Thanks, Wanting to Forgive

Hello Wanting to Forgive:

First and foremost, we commend you for making an attempt to reconcile with your husband and understanding the importance of forgiveness to make things work in your relationship. Whether most people agree or not, forgiveness is the ONE component all broken relationships need in order to successfully get on the road to recovery. Forgiveness is not allowing someone to get away with what they’ve done; nor is it an excuse, permission slip or an opportunity to forget what happened.

To be clear, forgiveness is letting go of anger and other negative emotions related to perceived or real acts of wrong performed against you or another person. Forgiveness acknowledges that certain events occurred, but remembers that people are only human, and we too must be forgiven for things we have done. Forgiving someone isn’t easy and does take time. Recommended methods of forgiving someone include:

- Forgiving yourself for whatever role you played in the relationship

- Making an attempt to understand why and how that person acted the way they did

- Acknowledging and expressing your inner pain in a mature fashion without further aggravating the situation

- Deciding whether or not to remain in the relationship

Now, Wanting to Forgive, you’ve expressed that you continue to think of things he’s done during his sexual affair and wonder about what he’s doing when you’re not with him. This is completely normal, especially after what you’ve gone through. You don’t really speak to anyone, and also say that you’re afraid to confront him because you don’t want all of the hard work you’re doing go down the drain. You must know that you have every right to speak to him about what he’s done and how you’re feeling. Cheaters hate to talk about what they’ve done, but at the same time, they must be fully responsible for their actions and how they’ve affected the relationship. Not only will sharing your feelings with him force him to fully acknowledge the pain he’s caused, but it will reinforce the fact that it will require the both of you to work on fixing your relationship.

A final word about friends and your husband’s infidelity: We won’t say that you can’t confide in them, because sometimes a friend with an open ear is all you need to feel better. Just make sure your friend doesn’t become your therapist; if things get too rough, consider looking for a professional either for yourself or for marriage counseling.

Defining Infidelity – Is it Only for Married Couples?

There are so many discussons on what it means to cheat, as well as what, specifically, cheating is.

As explained by Don-David Lusterman, Ph.D., infidelity is the “breaking of trust.” In his book, Infidelity: A Survival Guide, Lusterman states, “Infidelity occurs when one partner in a relationship continues to believe that the agreement to be faithful I still in force, while the other is secretly violating it.”

Now, many people reason that the only relationship worthy of fidelity and faithfulness is marriage. After all, when you marry someone you’re making a public commitment to them; marriage isn’t only a public commitment, it’s a legally binding one that can only be dissolved through death or divorce. Other relationships can be long-term and monogamous, but there are no legal obligations for participating parties to remain steadily involved.

This type of rationalization makes a lot of sense for most people; why treat your relationship like a written contract when there’s nothing but a verbal agreement?

At the end of the day, however, this argument is still not enough to excuse infidelity within a committed relationship. Not every relationship will be legally entitled to marriage, but as long as both parties made an exclusive agreement to remain faithful to one another, then there’s an expectation for this agreement to be honored.

Therefore, if you’re going to talk the talk – and commit yourself to somebody exclusively – then you need to walk the walk and do what’s necessary to adhere to that commitment. A commitment to monogamy is a serious one that deserves respect, regardless of it’s legally respected or not. Using the fact that you’re not married to downplay infidelity is not only crass, but shows you’re not an honorable individual, especially where it matters most.

Myths about Cheating

There are many myths floating around the rumor mill about the facts surrounding a creeping partner. Some people say, “Once a cheater, always a cheater.” But is this clichéd sentiment really true? Let’s reveal some truth and kill a few myths about cheating.

Myth: People cheat because there’s something wrong in the relationship.

Truth: Despite sexist generalizations, people cheat for different reasons.

One prevalent myth is that people only cheat when they are unhappy at home. This is not entirely false, but is not always true either. Women are typically said to cheat because of dissatisfaction, while men are more often said to cheat out of curiosity, or boredom.

While there are plenty of men and women who fit into these thoughts and roles, the truth is most people cheat for varying reasons. A man can cheat due to emotional dissatisfaction and a woman can cheat for sexual variety.

Myth: Men cheat more than women do.

Truth: Women are just as likely to cheat as men are.  

Another popular falsehood about cheating is that men cheat more often than women do. Truthfully speaking, women have become more independent and it has changed the way they view getting a little sugar on the side. Some women even think they deserve to have more freedom because of the high stress levels that come with combining work and family life. Others just feel, post-Sexual Revolution, that it’s their prerogative to be sexually forward with their desires and to chase them at any costs, just as men do.

Myth: Affairs are all about the sex.

Truth: Most reasons for cheating contain an element of emotional dissatisfaction- for both sexes.

Have you ever heard that affairs were purely and physical thing, and all about sex? This isn’t true either. Often times, affairs are means of emotional compensation. Some relationships, without sex are often so emotionally intimate that they are equally as inappropriate as physical trysts.

Now that we’ve gone through one of the myths, remember that there are ways you can work to reduce the likelihood of infidelity in your relationship. Maintaining a completely honest relationship will help reduce miscommunications and hurt feelings. Take time, on a regular basis, to show your partner that you appreciate them.

On a final note, if you have been feeling vulnerable or upset, or have been considering an affair, do not drink when you are in possibly tempting situations. This will help keep you from doing anything regrettable.

The Other Woman In Our Cheating Men’s Sexual Affairs

 As women, when we are cheated on, we feel degraded and humiliated. We are shocked, and at times, even embarrassed or ashamed. Usually, we’re quite pissed as well. When you’re faced with such a highly volatile situation, it’s easy to simply see red and share your anger. Despite the fact that she owes us nothing, we usually end up blaming and unleashing our wrath on “The Other Woman.”

Discovering Your Man’s Other Woman  

 Who is the “other woman”? Well, basically speaking, she’s the woman getting the inappropriate attention from your partner, the woman whom he’s funneling energy outside of your relationship for.  Your husband’s attention toward her can be sexual, emotional, or a combination of both; it all depends on the nature and status of their relationship with each other.

The Other Woman is Not To Blame – It’s Your Cheater

We admit, it’s just too easy to become angry with this “bitch” as we see her, but the real problem doesn’t lie with her. It stems from your cheating husband or boyfriend. Oftentimes, your man’s side chick wasn’t made aware that he had you as his main lady, and once she finds out, she’s usually just as shocked and hurt by his deception as you are. It would help to remember this, as you don’t want to lash out at her when she’s in the same predicament that you are. (Now if she did know, but persisted to get with him anyway…)

When the Other Woman is Someone You Know

If you find out his mistress is your friend or family member, then take a breath. At this point, anger is understandable. You’ll definitely need to assess your relationship with her by itself, and separately from the conversations you will have with your cheating spouse or lover. Chances are, she never respected her friendship with you from the beginning, or she suffers from any number of peculiar issues. Confront her if you must, but don’t excuse her like you would a woman you never would. The relationship, whether friend or family, may never be the same regardless, as trust and deep bonds have been destroyed.

Dealing with Your Man Post-Infidelity

Moving on from infidelity usually isn’t easy. It takes time, patience and strength. Whether you stay with your husband or boyfriend, or choose to move on with another beau of choice, you’ll need to take time to emotionally accept and understand the infidelity. Perhaps you’ll want to discuss why your man felt the need to cheat and whether you could have helped prevent it, or you may just want to go out for coffee with the other woman and see what she did that you didn’t. Or you may realize that he was just going through things and used adultery as a method of dealing with it (however poor a choice that was). Either way, realize that you have a choice in how to maneuver from this situation now that everything’s on the table.

Does it Make Any Sense to Get Your Wife Back After She Has Had an Affair?
By Emma Audley

should i get my wife back when she cheated on me

This is a question which haunts many husbands when their wives’ infidelity has made a dent in the relationship. You are overwhelmed by this dilemma – should you or should you not get your wife back – particularly when she has hurt your feelings so much and has played with your implicit trust in her. Such mental trauma is understandable.

But even if you love your wife very dearly, before you finally decide to get your wife back, there are some soul-searching which is required, if you want to put your marriage back on track:

• Is this is the first time that she has had an affair after marriage?

• You want your wife back – but does she also want to get back to you?

• If you want to know how to get your wife back after an affair, you have to know for sure, whether the affair was a fall out of existing gaps in your marriage.

• Did she voluntarily admit to the affair and apologize for the mistake?

• Are you completely sure that your love for her is strong enough to pardon her errant behavior and accept her back again?

When you do the soul searching, on your way to get your wife back you also have to bear in mind the following:

• Obviously, the affair is a result of some existing need gaps in your marriage. She has sought for things which you are unable to provide. These could be anything from mental compatibility, financial security to physical inadequacies.

• If you are aware of the inadequacies and imbalances which are affecting the marriage, are you prepared to ‘change’ for the sake of getting your wife back? Many of these changes could involve completely altering the way you look at life, your habits, lifestyle choices as well as behaviors.

• There are enough instances, where husbands have accepted their wives back, after an affair and they have found happiness and congeniality in their marriage. This is because they have taken the affair as a wake-up call to sit up and notice the underlying problems affecting the relationship. Are you viewing your wife’s affair similarly?

In short, it does make sense to get your wife back, provided you are capable of pardoning her simply for the sake of love and nothing else, like ensuing loneliness, kids, home management, etc. The pardon has to be unconditional and both of you have to work double-time to rebuild the lost trust. Once again, you have to have implicit faith in her and rely on the love and respect that you share. Only then getting your wife back makes sense.

Why is saving your marriage so important to you? Because a good marriage is one of the most treasured of human interactions. It colors everything else around us.

Visit my site at http://www.LonelinessToHappiness.com to find out how you can save your marriage after infidelity and make your spouse fall in love with you again.

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Starting over can help you save your marriage.

Cheating on Wife Can Put You Back At Square 1

When it comes to dealing with infidelity and cheating, many of us are aware that it can have dire consequences on a marriage or relationship. But how much of an impact is a dire impact? As our feature writer chronicles, cheating on your husband, wife or lover can literally put you at Step 1 all over again.

Saving Your Marriage After Infidelity – It is Like Starting All Over Again
By Emma Audley

Infidelity – a thrilling and adventurous escapade for many. But there is hardly any instance of an ‘affair‘ not generating pain to people concerned. But the situation is not bad all the way. More than 90% of couples, who have survived errant behaviors from a partner, confirm that it is possible for saving your marriage after infidelity!

But that still leaves the hapless 10% who may not be able to restore marital harmony again, ever. Or, even if they do survive infidelity, the restoration is only temporary; infidelity very efficiently weakens the basic foundation of marriage.

In case you are wondering whether you would succeed in saving your marriage after infidelity and whether things would get back to normal quickly – let me confess the basic truth: saving your marriage after infidelity is possible, but it is more like starting all over again. This means, that both of you have to have patience, understanding and be prepared to rebuild that lost trust brick by crick. Here are some cues for saving your marriage after infidelity taking you through the process step by step:

• Saving your marriage after infidelity essentially starts with a frank and sincere admission of guilt. This admission should never be linked to any inadequacy in the marriage which in turn is justifying the action in a way. Infidelity should be treated as a stand-alone episode, and the best way to deal with it is to de-link it from any rationale.

• This is followed by an unconditional forgiveness. This means that this episode should not ever be mentioned in your future years together. Even if memories haunt you, learn to live with it or shelve it back in the deepest crevices of your mind.

• Thereafter, saving your marriage after infidelity is a painstaking and laborious process, which goes through the usual test of trust, faithfulness and honesty. Somewhat like when you both first met. As mentioned earlier, you have to be prepared to start all over.

• It is cruel to hold the errant partner ‘guilty’ and raking up old memories can only increase the pain for all concerned. The best way to move on is to forget and forgive.

• Infidelity can be also viewed positively, if you take it as a wake-up call for both of you to take notice of the several areas of incompatibilities existing in the marriage. Saving your marriage after infidelity is possible if both of you make conscious efforts to bridge such need gaps, so that the relationship does not have to face such times again.

At the end of the day saving your marriage after infidelity can be an easier process, if there is true and sincere love and respect between the two of you. Every thing else can be taken care of.

Why is saving your marriage so important to you? Because a good marriage is one of the most treasured of human interactions. It colors everything else around us.

Visit my site at http://www.LonelinessToHappiness.com to find out how you can save your marriage and make your spouse fall in love with you again.

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He Cheated on Me… I’m Moving On but Scared to Date

by Lily Eckhardt

I’m newly single after breaking up with my ex-fiance. He cheated on me, and I know that I don’t deserve him, so I’ve moved on. Unfortunately, I’m scared to give my heart again. I’m ready to start dating, but I just feel like men all want one thing: sex… and that I’ll be tricked into thinking every man who commits to me, is only wasting my time and his. What do I do?

He said: The first thing you need to do is to not judge all men the same. Take the men you date on a case by case basis. Try not to bring your old drama into your new relationship. Take it slow and get to know the person, If he likes you then he will wait for sex. Men are scared of being hurt just like women are scared to be hurt. Don’t go into the first date looking for a relationship, like I said take it slow and you will know if he is the one. Make sure you are drama free be for you go into your new relationship. It’s not his fault what all the other guys did. Also don’t go giving your heart to a guy too fast, sex is not love and dating is not a relationship. You will know when its real because true love doesn’t hurt.

She said: Honestly, you are not ready to date yet. If you are not ready to give your heart or take a chance, it’s not time. You were engaged and your trust was betrayed. Ending an engagement is hard enough, but under those circumstances it’s even more difficult. Take some time to get to know yourself again and reconnect with you. Once you are comfortable and feel like you can give a guy a chance without holding things your ex did against him or like you could give him a fair shot, then you are ready.

Once you get there, the best way to find somebody who does not just want sex is to A. know what you are looking for and settle for nothing less and B. take things slowly. You don’t have to rush things, let them go at a nice, comfortable and natural pace. And if all he wants is sex, you don’t want him anyway and that’s no loss to you.

Let yourself heal and take things slow and keep your eyes open. Good luck!

Dating is not always a breeze and having a successful first date is important. As managing editor of TheFirstAndForeverLove.com,Lily gives you practical and entertaining first date advice.

visit us at: dating tips women.

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Learn to Have Sex With Your Husband & Save Your Marriage

Sex after an affair can reconnect you, or instill anxiety

Having sex after an affair is a difficult and awkward experience, wrecked with anxiety and confusion. Throughout the experience, you’ll experience a range of emotions that are incoherent and unpredictable, and pull your cheating spouse along for the ride. One night, you’ll pull your cheating husband closer; the next day you’ll push him away and withdraw. He’s annoyed and confused, but so are you. You wonder, “How am I supposed to do this again? How can I enjoy sex with a husband when he cheated on me and feel blissful about it?”In order to break past your barriers and this issue, you must completely accept these crazy ups and downs and the anxiety. Completely accepting that all of your hopes, fears, actions, thoughts and emotions will be jumbled, confused and anything but neatly organized will allow you to find a sense of peace within the turmoil. Allow all of these crazy emotions and feelings to coexist within you for now, and don’t make any excuses for it. Don’t oversimplify anything you’re feeling, and don’t discredit one emotion when the opposite emotion arises within you. Understand that fear may be ruling your judgment at the moment and allow all your beliefs to be what it is.

In You, Him and the Other Woman: Break the Love Triangle and Reclaim Your Marriage, Your Love, and Your Life , Dr. Paul Coleman states that allowing yourself to feel the full spectrum of your emotions and dealing with them effectively is more important than your choice to have sex.

Should you choose to have sex with your wayward spouse after he’s had a sexual affair, you can communicate your mixed emotions while asserting your decision. You can say, “I desire to intimacy with you and we’ll have sex but my heart is all over the place. I might not feel as intimate or close to you after we’ve made love, but I still want to do this.”

If you’re not interested in having sex, you can state the following: “I really want to enjoy sex with you again, but only when I feel comfortable and ready to do so. Right now, I’m not really feeling this, so let’s pass for now.”

At this stage of the game, while you’re trying to sort out your relationship and save your marriage, it’s incredibly important to accept your feelings without trying to discredit them with logic. You don’t have to express your wide range of feelings all the time; it’s actually prudent to restrain from acting on all your feelings at various times in order to keep your husband from pulling back from the relationship. (If he thinks he’s being rejected, he’ll pull back from you and you’ll take this as a sign he doesn’t care.) Make the best decision you can at the moment while still giving indications that you’re walking on eggshells and acknowledge that he’s doing the best he can.

To learn more about what you can to do to recover from infidelity and save your marriage, check out You, Him and the Other Woman: Break the Love Triangle and Reclaim Your Marriage, Your Love, and Your Life and read what others have been saying about it.

Constantly Reminded of Husband’s Love Affair by TV, Movies and Celebrity Scandals

You two are on the couch or at the movies when one of the characters has a sexual affair with her lover while her devoted fiancé is out of town, or you read the latest celebrity gossip and discover another rock star having an illicit affair. You’re instantly triggered to think about your husband’s cheating and the effect it has on you. “Dammit, everyone’s having an affair these days, huh?”

There’s no doubt about it, the entertainment business loves infidelity scandals for ratings and attention, and nothing serves up scandal quite like an affair. Unfortunately, one person’s juicy buzz is your painful trigger about the hell you went through dealing with infidelity. These moments will spring up on you when you least expect it, and linger no matter how much you tell yourself to ignore it.

If your cheating husband is there, he may freeze up, or seem unsupportive when he also tells you not to let it get to you when you mention it. Easy for you to say, you think, remembering all the crushing details as they press down upon your heart while you get the beginnings of a migraine. If you’re emotionally triggered, his behavior and the movie can easily push you to become confrontational.

Ideally, your husband’s response wouldn’t be so frozen; he’d understand exactly what you’re going through and respond in a kind, loving manner that would put you at ease, especially since he knows he’s part of the reason you’re feeling so low. But he can’t – his head-in-the-sand approach is his way of staying out of hot water since he doesn’t know how to handle this situation.

Don’t be afraid to tell your husband exactly what you need him to do during these awkward and rough moments, especially since he’s too afraid to take chances and guess. If you need him to silently comfort you with a hug and a kiss, tell him. If you need him to reassure you of his renewed promise of faithfulness and commitment, then do so as well. He can’t help you if you don’t teach him how to. After all, he did participate in a sexual affair, and needs to help reassure you when these things happen – as long as you’re willing to work past this as well.

Does He Even Care He Cheated?

He cheated. You feel isolated, lonely, vulnerable, confused and angry. Those are all reasonable and normal emotions, but you begin to wonder if he has any. Have you ever been cheated on and then wondered if your guy even cared about the fact that he betrayed your trust? Sometimes, the way our men behave after their affair has been discovered affects us more harshly than the infidelity itself.

What do they do differently?

Men sometimes are quicker to seek forgiveness for an affair than a woman would be if she were the one who cheated. We tend to beat ourselves up outwardly, where men do it privately, and it sometimes looks like anger or nonchalance.

If a man has cheated several times before, and he doesn’t appear to be remorseful, it might not be an act. It could be that he genuinely takes you for granted, and you probably need to seek professional help together or end the relationship entirely.  This is a vicious cycle, and unless it changes, only you will be hurt in the end.

Another thing that men do differently is make up elaborate cover stories to explain their absence, whereas a woman will usually cheat only when she knows she is not likely to be caught. This type of lying on the man’s part often makes a woman feel like she knows nothing about the man or his life outside of their home.

And, despite what we believe, you might need to  do some soul searching, and ask yourself, “Why do I attract cheating men?” Perhaps you’re attracting cheating men, and don’t consciously know it. Some men purposely choose certain types of women who are easy to cheat on.

If he’s telling you his cheating is not that big of a deal, or that you should just forget about it and move on, it may not necessarily be that he doesn’t care about your pain. What his indifferent appearance may mean is that he feels terrible about what he has done, and he cannot forgive himself until he feels like you can forgive him too.

Try to forgive, but if you just can’t get past the betrayal, find someone safe and close to talk to, and do as other ex-wives of cheating men have done: love and respect yourself enough to move on with your life.