Infidelity
Infidelity (also referred to as cheating, adultery, or having an affair) is the subjective feeling that one’s partner has violated a set of rules or relationship norms and this violation results in feelings of sexual jealousy and rivalry. It is one of the primary reasons that couples in the United States seek divorce.
Effects of infidelity
- Discovering that your spouse has been unfaithful breeds a devastating amount of distrust.
- Grieving the loss of trust in the relationship can manifest itself in the victim in various emotions simultaneously
- Affairs may lead to a feeling of tremendous insecurity and anger.
- Such an individual may lose complete faith in relationships and also the ability to trust people because of the immense betrayal caused by infidelity.
- Infidelity may result in long drawn out and bitter divorce proceedings and custody battles.
- Where children are involved, their lives may experience a lot of turmoil and in unfortunate cases they may be used against the cheating partner.
How to recover from infidelity
The steps to recover from infidelity may be the most painful steps you will take as an individual or as a couple as you try to rebuild the trust you had in your partner. Assuming this affair was meaningless to your spouse and they are asking for your forgiveness, you have to do a self-assessment first. It includes the following questions.
- Do you want your marriage to survive?
- Can you forgive your spouse for their thoughtless act?
- Can you rebuild your trust in your spouse?
- How can you turn this adversity into a positive for your marriage?
In order to recover from infidelity, the injured partner has to be able to get past the emotional trauma of your mate’s unfaithfulness. It is not a matter of forgiving and forgetting because that is nearly impossible to do. In other words, you can’t continue to bring this dreadful act of selfishness up every time you get angry at your spouse. You have to accept their acts of forgiveness as genuine and sincere then focus on the reasons why you still want to be with them.