Betrayal trauma in marriage: How to heal
Can a spouse’s affair lead to post-traumatic stress disorder? For some, the question seems overly dramatic. “Surely it’s heartbreaking,” they say, “but PTSD is for cops, assault victims, firefighters, and war veterans.” However, as Dr. Shirley Glass explains in her seminal book “Not Just Friends: Rebuilding Trust and Recovering Your Sanity After Infidelity,” victims of affairs often meet criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. After all, their sense of security, stability, and safety was shaken. Their view of their world and their relationships was upended. They no longer feel safe.
While you may or may not fully meet the criteria for PTSD if your spouse had an affair, there is a component of trauma (often called betrayal trauma) that no doubt affects your emotional health and your relationships every single day. If you had an affair, understanding trauma and its effects will go a long way towards helping you earn your spouse’s trust while managing your own reactions to his or her “rollercoaster of emotions.” Let’s move in closer and look out how betrayal trauma affects both spouses.
For the betrayed partner
The ways in which trauma may harm and influence you, the betrayed spouse, are more than we can list here. That said, many in your position experience of loss of joy, playfulness, and the ability to have fun. They have invasive, unwelcome thoughts of their spouse having an affair. It’s common to experience a loss of hope for the future, intense mood swings, pushing people away because you feel unlovable, self blame, and intense feelings of shame. You may want closeness from your partner at times while being repulsed by it at others. You might alternate between intense romantic and sexual interest in your spouse to extreme disinterest. Perhaps you have anger that is difficult to control.
More than anything, you want to feel safe, respected, and loved. Maybe you vacillate between trying to get those needs met in your marriage and moving on to find it elsewhere. Please know that you’re not going crazy, even if it feels that way. What you’re experiencing is normal. You can heal from this. You can find stability. You can feel safe, respected, and loved. It starts with doing what it takes to love yourself, respect yourself, and keep yourself safe.
For the partner who cheated
Many in your shoes struggle to understand why, after you’ve apologized and abandoned the behavior, your spouse doesn’t “get over it.” It seems like they’re choosing to punish you instead of healing the relationship. You’re tired of being the villain. You want your partner to understand why you did what you did and oftentimes why you felt lonely or hurt and compelled to cheat. You want to be seen as more than the bad girl or guy of this story. Maybe you feel hopeless because no matter how hard you try, it doesn’t seem to get better. Perhaps you carry intense guilt that you feel won’t go away until your spouse forgives you.
So why can’t your spouse move on? My graduate school professor said of someone in your shoes, “until your remorse equals your spouse’s pain, they’ll never get over it. They need to know that your remorse equals their pain, because then they can believe it won’t happen again.” If you’re dismissive, shifting the blame, or trying to speed the process along by pushing your spouse to forgive you, it comes across as you not taking it as seriously as they do, and that triggers massive insecurity and fear.
Speaking of triggers, a traumatized firefighter, police officer, or soldier can take time off away from their triggers for psychological care. That time away can be healing. For your spouse, you are the trigger. This is one reason why your spouse is hot then cold, drawn to you then pushing you away. He or she loves you and likely wants, on some level, to make this work. But you are also a reminder of your spouse’s anguish, a reminder of betrayal, a reminder of trauma. This is why he or she can’t just “get over it.”
Coping with betrayal trauma: Healing your marriage
You can begin to heal as individuals — and if you so choose, as a couple — from the trauma of infidelity with this quiz. It involves a three-step process:
—Atonement, the betrayed partner having a voice and the unfaithful partner making amends.
—Attunement, restoring trust and shoring up the weaknesses of the marriage.
—Attachment, solidifying your union so that you’re closer than ever while establishing a plan with boundaries to ensure faithfulness moving forward.
Please know that as awful as it feels right now, this doesn’t have to define you, your life, or your marriage moving forward. It can get better.
Articles related to “Betrayal trauma in marriage: How to heal”
You dont have to oppose gay marriages to support traditional ones
Eight ways to fortify marital bonds and rekindle your marriage
Dr. G Hits the Spot Guest Column: Are heterosexual marriages better for America?
I wish my ex would read this article. He had an addiction to texting other women, online messenger, email. But that’s not what hurt me. What hurt me and broke me was when I read a text conversation of which he was telling her that he wasn’t happy in our marriage and that he wanted her body. He texted her this whole we were eating lunch, laughing, he was happy and affectionate.
Something died inside me that day.