Home→Forums→Relationships→Just found out 2 years later that my boyfriend slept with someone else?
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May 26, 2017 at 7:11 am #150762AnonymousGuest
Dear Danielle:
I am glad you had a good time in Mexico. I thought about you only yesterday.
I went back to the beginning of this thread in effort to answer your questions: “Do you think it’s something deeper? Do you think I really just want to be alone?”
Our emotional experiences as children are extremely powerful in determining our emotional experiences as adults. After all, our brains are formed with these experiences in them… and we never shed our brains (like we do our skin) and grow a new brain.
I will suggest a possibility of “something deeper”, for your consideration and evaluation, let me know:
Your experience living with your mother was very distressing, causing you much suffering: her intense anxiety, thinking the worst of everything, interrogating you on and on and on. This is a very powerful, painful long term experience of a close relationship (living with someone) during your Formative Years.
Being with your boyfriend, as in the trip to Mexico, was wonderful. Unlike your mother, time with him is pleasurable. But back from the trip, and alone for two days, the emotional memory of living with your mother is back, and you are panicking, yet again, about the possibility of ending up living with him for good, as in being married; being stuck with him, like you were stuck with your mother, greatly suffering.
Panicking about being stuck suffering, you do wish to be alone (a Yes to your second question)
What may happen is that the recent memory of being together with your boyfriend in Mexico, was most recently replaced (again) by the long term memory of being together with your mother.
anita
May 26, 2017 at 8:56 am #150780DanielleParticipantAnita,
I guess I can understand how that can be a possibility of what is happening but I just can’t pinpoint it. I remember when I was young I would wake up in the middle of the night, or early in the morning and “check” if that OCD was still there. I find myself doing that the last couple of days. He will send me a text and I’ll react, something nice and my brain tells me “eww” or “ugh annoying” or “you don’t feel the same way back”, I’ve been doing the opposite of what my brain tells me and I still continue to show love, affection, and pretend like I am feeling the same way I have always felt to let my OCD ITS not going to win this. I guess I have pretty catastrophic thinking, and I tell myself constantly you’re going to break his heart you’re going to leave him, and I Panic.
Im having just a difficult time feeling this way because this has never happened in our relationship before. I know OCD only targets things that matter, and honestly of exactly 2 years of being together, besides the first 4, these last 6 months have been the best we have ever been and the only time I can actually say I really might marry this guy. Maybe my OCD is targeting him because it’s realizing how much I love him now and how he’s changed completely for me. Before, there was no time for OCD because something was always wrong in our relationship, but now that is has the ability to blossom and really turn into something huge, I am panicking. I read many posts online & they state “if you didn’t love him, you wouldn’t have OCD towards him”, and I try to think this is true and show myself that I really do love him.
I also feel like I make it seem like the end of the world, like okay let’s say my OCD drives me to break up with him out of impulse and a compulsion, the very next day I know I would go back and he would understand and I will realize fast what I want. Just like my childhood when I was always wanting to make up a lie and scared I would tell that lie and ruin someone’s entire life (saying someone hurt me), when in reality if I did I could easily say 5 seconds later I was lying, my OCD freaked me out and made me do that, etc. I tend to think that acting on my OCD in these situations is life or death.
I don’t even crave being alone… yes i love spending time with my friends but it’s not something I would rather do all the time and be single. Another thing you could put into consideration is that where we live, I feel that he is my only best friend. I have plenty of friends there, but really he’s the only one I care to spend time with. Here where we live in the summer, I have my parents, my family, my 2 bestfriends, and just more people. Do you think that my mind is tricking me into thinking I don’t need him becusse I have all these other people? Or that because I am spending time with all these people and I’m fine with not being with him, I don’t love him. I really think my mind is playing tricks on me and I just want to get to the bottom of WHY his HAPPENING now coming home for summer, what caused it, and what I can tell myself is the reason for my feelings/thoughts.
May 26, 2017 at 9:37 am #150790AnonymousGuestDear Daniela:
Can you go back to the posts on this thread where we discussed the connection between the interrogation by your mother regarding the movie, her not believing you, doubting you and your resulting self-doubting?
anita
June 3, 2017 at 8:24 am #151754DanielleParticipantGood morning Anita,
had a pretty tough night last night I think because I was so anxious what you were going to write in the other thread I posted in. Do you have any insight on that? I think your advice on there was amazing and said a lot of what I usually tell myself, you were a child, curious, unaware of what your actions would do to you in the future, 35,z but what scared me was when you said the person is deplorable if they make a mistake more than once, and that’s what I did. I made the mistake several times because I AT the time didn’t know it was wrong I thought it was just strange or I actually didn’t even put much attention to it until I got a little older like most kids. I always say I forgive myself but I don’t think I have. I know you’ve written to be so many times on here wondering what it is why I can’t let myself HAPPY do you think this has something to do with it? Also I’m going to tell you what happened to me yesterday and would appreciate ABY advice you can give me as it took me spiraling down.
My step dad and I spent all day together yesterday alone something we haven’t done in a while. We had the entire day planned to go pick out a new ring for my mom together and eat lunch and that’s what we did. While I was there I was having fun loved looking at rings I was perfectly comfortable etc. occasionally thoughts from my childhood worries would come like “omg imagine he just touched me right now or says something inappropriate or weird and ruins my whole life etc.” remember how this was my biggest scare after watching that movie. But I would ignore the thoughts and still enjoyed the day. And then when I got home the anxiety came flooding in. Idk if it was because I wasn’t able to tell my mom where we were and I was scared she would suspect something weird since we had “lunch” for four hours (becusse she didn’t know about the ring and I can’t tell her) or idk if I was scared she was going to ask me what’s wrong or if I looked weird or something and I was going to have a panic attack because I know my OCD would be like omg lie to her tell her he tried something tell her this etc (childhood again), but pretty much yesterday was NOT a good day for me and I really don’t want to ruin my summer and go into a big slump because of this. I am getting a dog next week and I am so excited and I really just want my OCD to stop ruining my happy days.
If you could please give me some advice on both of these topics I think it would make my entire weekend maybe put me at ease put things into perspective. Because right now I’m thinking I’m some crazy person who was screwed up as a kid and now is still screwed up as an adult for thinking all these weird things. I just want to forgive myself for my previous stupid mistakes and I want a relationship with my dad that doesn’t have these ridiculous thoughts.
Thank you always.
June 3, 2017 at 9:00 am #151758DanielleParticipant^ its not showing up that I wrote something on the recent page ^
June 3, 2017 at 9:13 am #151760AnonymousGuestDear Danielle:
You are welcome. Regarding your day with your stepdad: what happened is that your childhood experience following watching the movie, being interrogated by your mother, repeatedly, was triggered. It was triggered because you were supposed to keep a secret from your mother (the buying of the ring for her).
You have been avoiding this trigger by being the Confessor to her, as you shared with me before, telling her EVERYTHING: no secrets- no triggers.
So the very keeping of a secret yesterday triggered and brought to the surface the anxiety and distress of your trauma of childhood, the interrogations, her trying to uncover secrets that didn’t exist (sexual abuse that didn’t happen!)
Regarding the topic you shared on the other thread, which you mentioned here: I couldn’t have written there that a person is deplorable if they make a mistake more than once. If you’d like you can copy what I wrote there on this thread next, with a sentence or so before and after (for context), and I will clarify.
For the child that you were, and for a young person at the beginning of experiencing life, sexual sensations are very powerful and the person is very motivated to experience those sensations again and again. It is part of nature, the reason animals go through all the trouble, all the energy expenditure it takes to mate. That is their motivation- how good and exciting and powerful it feels.
There was nothing abnormal in your motivation to experience the stimulation you did. Naturally, you wanted to experience it again and again.
It makes me feel uncomfortable thinking of a dog being used that way, just like it makes you uncomfortable. This is one reason why I don’t feel comfortable with that thread. We both disapprove of that behavior. Thing is, that behavior of long ago does not indicate you being a bad or deplorable person. It indicates the powerful force of sex in nature. We are part of nature.
The fact that this behavior is in the past and has been in the past for a long, long time; that as an adult you didn’t repeat it, means you are okay with me, not deplorable.
Let me know your thoughts/ feelings about what I wrote here.
anita
June 3, 2017 at 9:48 am #151764DanielleParticipantAnita,
Thank you once again for always taking time out of your day to help me.
I absolutely didn’t think that yesterday was going to trigger me because we have gone to lunch before spent the day together etc, but you are absolutely right. Its the fact that I am lying about what I was actually doing with my step dad, which was my worst nightmare as a child. So I feel calm knowing yes I am experiencing anxiety, yes I know why, and yes it is understandable. So I just have to let that pass and act as normal as I can to let myself know that I am not going to let this trigger me and put me down for weeks. What happens is since all my old emotions came flooding in last night, they started flooding in about everything I have ever been anxious about in my lifetime.
And I remember the day I found out what I was doing was wrong, it was the worst 2 months of my life after that. I was so young and my OCD was SO strong and I remember thinking omg God wants me to die for doing that I should turn myself into the police, I avoided anything remotely sexual for a VERY long time, didn’t even want to talk to boys not even a simple kiss because I felt that I did not deserve to show any love in that way. It was a nightmare. So whenever I think about that incident when I was 14, it was the worst mistake of my life and the hardest thing I have ever had to go through personally because it wasn’t a thought it was FACT. Its crazy how when you’re a kid you really don’t know what you’re doing and grown ups were always right when they said you didn’t. That was the hardest lesson of my entire life and I think I am going to punish myself over it forever because as much as I say its common I am not the only one, that wasn’t me, that was young immature naive unknowing me, its still so hurtful that I would ever do something unmoral in my own eyes.
I completely agree that it is so uncomfortable, I would think you’re crazy if you said it was fine and comfortable because it is not! As many times as my OCD tries to convince me “omg you must like animals” “omg you’re a crazy person” “omg you should be in jail” I try to tell myself constantly that if I was any of those things, I wouldn’t have cared, I wouldn’t have panicked for months, I wouldn’t feel so guilty and horrible, I wouldn’t have stopped because it was what I wanted. BUT IT WAS NOT. Ever since that day I have never never never again or even been close to it, NOTHING. I don’t even like my dog sleeping under the covers because I am traumatized and think what if she does it herself. I want to make sure nothing like that even happens by MISTAKE. I know its not who I am and I shouldn’t let a decision made 7 years ago as a child effect me because its not who I am, it never was, its like you said sexual desires by all kids are so strong because its when we are becoming aware, and that is just part of being a human and I couldn’t control it. Another thing is as kids you know were always taught never touch anyone and never let anyone touch you, but no one ever teaches us that was wrong I just thought it was weird and unheard of, so I went in innocent minded and thats the only reason I let it happen, I try to remind myself about that too when reading the other posts in the other thread involving actual children siblings etc, I was never TAUGHT that specifically what I did was wrong obviously so I have to also tell myself that, I am not a bad person, I just didn’t know it was bad at the time because I was naive and innocent minded like all children.
June 3, 2017 at 10:25 am #151772AnonymousGuestDear Danielle:
No need to keep punishing yourself over that so to prove to yourself, again and again, that you are a good person. It is better for you in each and every way to stop suffering over that “childhood mistake” (title of that thread). You can still trust yourself to not repeat that behavior while you are no longer suffering over it.
Yes, you were innocent, the child that you were. As children, it takes time and teaching, correct teaching, to learn to control our impulses, within reason. No child is born with that sense of control. If a child is taught nothing, the child will behave like any other animal- impulsively do what it feels like doing.
I believe in thinking what is true, what is congruent with reality. And reality is you didn’t know yet, at the time, that it was wrong. There was no violence involved, for one, no signs of pain (you probably knew at that point that inflicting pain was wrong), and it was not anything you heard of or were told that to be wrong.
So how could you possibly have known…
Stop suffering over it, if you can: there is no reason or purpose for it, no benefit to it in real life.
anita
June 3, 2017 at 11:35 am #151778DanielleParticipantI couldn’t agree more with you Anita.
Tell me what you think about this. I think in the back of my head the problem I am having is that I am pretty sure it is illegal. So I’m thinking I deserve some type of punishment. But it is known that children don’t go to jail…. unless it is something insane like murder and sometimes even then they don’t. Do you think the reason children can’t be tried as adults is because of this innocence? This belief that they aren’t fully developed to know what they did was so wrong and to fully understand the consequences of it? I know what I did was only done at the young age of 14… i HAD no idea. How can I explain this to myself? So I can stop thinking I deserve this horrible punishment. I think that’s a really big reason subconsciously that i don’t allow myself to be happy. How can I rid of this?
June 3, 2017 at 8:44 pm #151788AnonymousGuestDear Danielle:
You asked: “How can I explain this to myself?”- read the post I wrote to you earlier today, right above yours, the one I am responding to. I explained it there. Re-read it and let my words sink in. Re-read my posts on the other thread, to other members. Let the words sink in.
anita
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