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Need unbiased ear to help calm anxiety or provide insight with infidelity PTSD!

User Profile: gentleTriangle9510
gentleTriangle9510 March 6th, 2024

Hi all,


Hopefully someone will be able to read through this and give me their opinion, maybe resources to help and hopefully help to calm my anxiety.


Let me start off by saying me and my fiance are due to be married in May this year. We have had a very up and down relationship due to my pornography addiction coming to light over a year and a half ago and the betrayal trauma I instilled in my fiance which I still regret more than anything to this day and have made so many lifestyle changes to help both our recovery. 


My fiance is a gorgeous, loveable, hilarious lady, who gets on with so many different personalities and characters. Through her years, has mainly had guy friends due to the nature of female personalities clashing with hers and preferring to get on with guys instead. She has never once shown any indication of cheating and is something that we have both openly discussed after both being cheated on many years ago, which has instilled a great cause of untrust in myself of all partners since the infidelity took place.


So, cut forward to this last year when she's obtained a job after being a stay-at-home mum for several years to my stepchildren and our now son and has finally found her freedom away from the struggle that is childcare, our dynamic being essentially a 50/50 split caring for the kids. With a job that she works in, they have a pretty sizeable friend group of girls and one or two guys, one of the guys being a very close friend and often go out to the pub after work or after colleague meetings that take place every couple of months. I am glad she has found her freedom but when alcohol is involved, she struggles to see the sensible option sometimes and will often go out drinking instead of coming home from work to be with her family. This does tend to wind me up sometimes when it becomes quite frequent given I would actually like some time with my fiance which is difficult when we have kids as well the tendency to tell me she's coming home at a certain time or has left the pub and won't be long until a few hours have passed since that time and still not being home. I have since told her to stop telling me when she's coming home and have begun just going to sleep and leaving a key out instead of staying up waiting like I would previously.


Now a few incidents are what has driven my anxiety through the roof:


One time I was on night shifts and she was able to get childcare from her mother, she went out with friends for their prearranged outing which lasted till about 1am, she then extended the offer for people to come back to our house and the only person who did was the close friend, the guy in question whom stayed over whilst I was on the night shift - doesn't help with certain children saying things without thinking such as "mum had her boyfriend here staying over last night" when I come home from work


Another situation was when the friend group went out for another night out, in which the invite was extended by him to go back to his. This is after she told me it "wasn't going to be a late one" as any person drinking alcohol does and didn't eventually come home until 5am after I'd fallen asleep 


Or even recently with only a few of the friend group going out and my fiance texting me she's on the walk home at 10pm and not arriving home till 1am, in which I wasn't able to contact her because her phone died which is the reason for her lateness as she went back to close friends and charged her phone and had a few more drinks. 


We're now at the point where they're even getting a similar tattoo together, like friends do, sure, but something about it irks me. It was only when she mentioned she'd be paying a deposit for the tattoo which did eventually come out that it's a deposit because she's paying half for her tattoo and he's paying for his and didn't say that initially because she knows I have this built up anxiety around it all.


We have obviously spoken about all this and she claims they're just friends, understands exactly where I'm coming from and that I have nothing to worry about, she wouldn't have stayed with me after my betrayal if she was just going to cheat, etc. I don't want to overstep my mark because she's easily on the defensive with her paranoid ex who was very narcissistic and run her down constantly


They're gym buddies, they're work buddies, they're drinking buddies and I'm constantly tearing my hair (or lack of) out because of my PTSD with being cheated on previously and am on the fence between it being a justified reaction (I previously had a close girl friend who she used to be funny with because she had an incling that my friend liked me, but we drifted away) or if it is really me, my anxiety and my previous trauma causing me to overreact.


Again, I have no reason to disbelieve her but can anyone give me their thoughts? Are their any resources available to help me move past my previous trauma?


Really appreciate it!




3
User Profile: sadcat13
sadcat13 March 6th, 2024

@gentleTriangle9510 oh God... Do not, under any circumstances marry this woman. Have you ever heard about emotional affairs? You can research it a bit more in depth, but In a nutshell, according to google: ""Emotional cheating" is a particular type of secretive, sustained closeness with someone who isn't your primary partner. It's one person making a unilateral decision to cultivate nonsexual intimacy with someone other than their primary romantic partner in a way that weakens or undermines the relationship." Sounds familiar? That's exactly what she is doing. It basically means her being closer with him then she is to you. She is a mother and soon to be married to you. She has nothing to do in a club or getting regularly drunk in a pub. Nothing. That doesn't mean she can't go out, she absolutely can. But let's face it. Going to a club/pub in her position in life should not be a thing, or at least not without you (and yes, same would go for you, so no double standards here just common sense of a person with kids, a relationship and a job should know better then behave like they are in college. Clubs are highly sexually charged, and getting drunk repeatedly and often in a pub after you are more then 25 and have a family is an addiction, not fun). 


She is crossing major boundaries with this guy, he is literally acting like her boyfriend. Assuming we give her the benefit of the doubth, the least you can do is have a conversation with her about you not being comfortable with this and asking her how would she feel if you did what she is doing with a female friend. That should make her aware of her behaviour if she is just genuinely clueless and make her change. But for every case, do not marry her. In the best case, postpone the wedding for at least a year because man. Divorce is messy. Don't bind yourself legally to someone you can't trust.

Also about your addiction, it is not the same. You handled it very well. She told you it is something she isn't okay with and you addressed it making changes, what is very admirable. Now let's see how she will respond to you stating you are not ok with this and setting your boundaries of this having to stop or it doesn't work for you. But honestly. I'm so sorry to say this. With the amount of alcohol involved? Would be honestly surprised if they didn't at least kiss at some point.
2 replies
User Profile: gentleTriangle9510
gentleTriangle9510 OP March 6th, 2024

Thank you for your reply and insight


I've looked up emotional cheating and have taken some points, it's something we're going to need to sit down and discuss properly. At the minute I'm trying to collage perspectives from an unbias point of view from both males and females and how they would feel in this situation.


I have been suggested couples councilling as from what I've read and assume, my partner likely still has a *** of a lot of resentment from finding out about my addiction and could be intentionally or unintentionally seeking that emotional support from elsewhere but unfortunately, as much as I have made adjustments from both our point of views, it's not fair to commit to a marriage if she is still resentful and I cannot personally live with this paranoia, as well as the kids lives being affected by it. I hope for some more replies from people and will keep this updated! Thank you again.



1 reply
User Profile: sadcat13
sadcat13 March 6th, 2024

@gentleTriangle9510 it's admirable that you are seeking a variety of different perspectives to get an objective point of view 🌻 but yes you are right. If she has still resentment over a problem you addressed, then it is not fair to anyone involved to keep staying in this relationship. You should definitely sit down with her and have a talk about all the resentment and issues you are currently having and what to do with it going forward. I hope you will make a decision that is the best for you 🌻🌻🌻

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