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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3
K
Junior Member
Junior Member
K Offline
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3
He says that he has ended it - many times. This last time right before Thanksgiving... he said he paid her money he owed her and gave her the cell phone back she gave him. He also has a problem with alcohol, but does not admit to it.We've had counseling and thought things were better... and to my SHOCK and the counselor's he had never stopped seeing her. He says that he loves me and will never leave me. I don't want a divorce, but I feel like I'm being "used". When he drinks he's soooo depressed. I'm really not a drinker and he knows this really bothers me when he drinks so much. I realize there are more than one big factor here. Am I fooling my self that we can make this marriage work?? We are a blended family with 5 kids.... 2 are still at home. My husband works 80 miles away and of course that is where "the other woman" lives also. Plus my husband's mother is in a nursing home in the area with Alzheimer's Disease so he conveniently has to take care of her and her house and stays down there during the week and comes home on the week ends. Am I just being a blind idiot about this whole thing? I know I probably haven't handled this situation just right, but what is right?? I do love my husband, I just don't know if he really feels the same way or is just "acting" the part. We have a great "phone relationship"!! We just built a new home a year ago. WHY??? would he do this when he's still seeing her? I am confused, upset, down and out! Help me out..PLEASE. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" />

Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 598
A
Member
Member
A Offline
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 598
I don't feel qualified to give advice, just what helped me. I HAD to stop focusing on my H and his A. We had many false recoveries and it has been a long road. All I can say is that until I stopped obsessing on what they might be doing I could not get my bearings. I did a lot of praying and working out and things that made me happy. Eventually I was able to read about Plan A and implement it and then even Plan B twice! I almost had to do it a third time, but thankfully their A had really pretty much died by then and my H could see that the rewards for continuing contact however "harmless" he felt it was were outweighed by the need to fully work on our R.

The ONLY person you can change is yourself. I read about codependency, about healthy relationships, about changing MY responses to my H's actions. That is all that we will ever be able to do. They control themselves, we don't do it for them. So the road to emotional health for me was acceptance of what had happened, what was in fact still happening and then fully letting go of what I didn't control. This took a LONG time and I am still working on it. But it is all possible.

I feel your pain and wish it were different, but believe me, you will take many wonderful things from this journey, even if your M does not survive. Loosen your attachment to the outcome of the M and work on your own changes in response to what he is doing. I am not advocating putting up with continued contact. I am saying decide what you will allow and accept in YOUR M. Plan A so he can see that you can be happy. If he won't do NC and end the A, you may have to do Plan B.

Read up on Harley's principles and also Shirley Glass's "Not Just Friends" to educate yourself and give yourself some perspective.

Hang in there!


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