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Relationship Blindsided!

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Emski

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Hi there, I have been in here reading and reading for a few weeks now and I feel I am now ready to post to help me overcome this grief I feel at the moment :,(

I know my husband has been struggling now for a good while. He is ex RAF and served 23 years and was de mobbed just over 4 years ago. I knew it was going to be a struggle for him but he seemed to be coping okay. He has hated every job he has had since leaving and for the past two years has been working away from home.
It has been hard but I thought we had maintained the bond we have, btw we are 15 years married.

He had been trying to get work back home during these 2 years. I knew he was struggling over the last few months with anxiety lack of sleep ect...we have such a lovely relationship just that quirky little bond, love spending time together and love laughing together...this man worshipped me as I do him. I told him I was here for him anytime any hour of the day. On his last visit home 4 weeks ago he never spoke or came near me for 4 days..got up on the Saturday packed his bag and left a day early...he told me he had to get away, I was gutted to say the least but let him go.

He then rang half way through his journey and told me he was sorry but he just couldn't be around me he hadn't missed me this time! I was devastated.

Over the last few weeks things have gotten worse he didn't want to talk over the phone and texts where very short...I felt I was losing him rapidly! It was like talking to a stranger...he had been offered a job back home which I thought that's all he had wanted for the last 2 years, he then expressed he didn't know if he wanted to come home or be with me anymore!

He has been seeing a therapist for at least 7 weeks which I was over the moon with. Then nearly two weeks ago I got a message from his land lady saying she had kicked him out as she couldn't handle the atmosphere any longer...I immediately rang him to see what was going on. He told me she had of accused him of having a affair with a girl who also lives in the lodgings! Well the penny dropped for me there and then, I asked him where he was going to go and he said the girl who he had been accused of having affair with had sorted him a room with a friend and her husband but she was moving in too!!

I was livid..I begged him to come home...his coldness has cut me too the bone! He then told me they have been having days out and such since august and that he has feelings for her which he has told her about and it was not felt the other way...so he has been having a emotional affair for months I feel like he has been hedging his bets and is coming home tomorrow to start a new job but thinks he has done nothing wrong because there was no sex!! I have dropped 28lb in 4 weeks been on the verge of panic and he couldn't give 1 shit about me! I don't know what is coming home to me in the next 24 hours I am ill :( sorry if this seems to jump all over the place but that's how my head feels at the moment! I feel like someone has died. Any advice greatly appreciated x
 
I am so very sorry you are going through this. Only you can decide what is right for you and your relationship. Infidelity of any kind is heartbreaking. I am navigating through this personal Hell myself. PTSD certainly isn't an excuse, but definitely linked to certain actions (in my experience). I don't know the specifics of your husband's PTSD, but I do know for my husband his combat injury was the starting point. Losing part of his identity, misusing medications, withdrawing, having mood swings, shutting people out, and infidelity...it's been devastating. But know this: it has absolutely nothing to do with you. Remind yourself often of that (hard, I know, with all the emotions you are experiencing right now). Let him know you are committed to working through everything as long as there is transparency. No more lies. And all communication with "her" must stop immediately. If he is unwilling to do any of that then you need to make hard choices. I wish you all the best.
 
I am so very sorry you are going through this. Only you can decide what is right for you and your relationship....
Thankyou so heartbroken for your reply. I am so sorry to hear of your troubles at this time :(
He is to return home tonight and I've never been so frightened in all my life. I truly believe that had she reciprocated that he would of ended our 15 year marriage over the phone and just not come back! All this has emerged over the phone whilst he is 350 miles away, and I can't get the feeling of being his fall back plan out of my head.

He asked me if I would stop phoning and crying down the phone to him as I stressed him out! Basically I've had to curb my feelings because in his words he has done nothing wrong and I have nothing to worry about!
He says he is sorry for hurting me but then adds I've done nothing wrong so really his apology means nothing.

I really really love my husband and can't imaging life without him, but at the same time how can I bury these feelings of betrayal so I can help him through this?

I'm so scared that there is going to be no affection towards me when he sees me tonight as his coldness has took the wind out of me. I can even pinpoint down to the day that he changed towards me..stopped using my pet name and just became distant over night! He said this is not true that he had been unhappy for a long time, but can't tell me when? Has he just been going through the motions? Has it all been a lie? I'm just so confused and frightened of what is to come. I know he wants to get better and try to cope better with his condition and I want the chance to be there for him as I always have, but like I say the feeling of being second best is soul destroying :,(
 
I don't have any words of wisdom, I'm afraid. I'm just so sorry for you, I can't imagine how shocked and broken hearted you are. That is terrible and he absolutely did do something wrong, even if she didn't reciprocate his feelings and they never slept together... it's still cheating. Don't let him get away with that shit. You deserve waaaay better.
 
I don't have any words of wisdom, I'm afraid. I'm just so sorry for you, I can't imagine how shocked and b...
Thank you peach! He is on his way home now and is about 2 hours away...I feel sick with nerves, I have felt like this now since finding out.

I've dropped 2 stone also in 4 weeks and I'm not feeling like I'm strong enough to face this head on! He starts a new job on Monday and I want him settled back at home and not feeling like he doesn't belong (he said his home no longer felt like his home) so I don't know how I'm going to approach this! My chest feels like it's going to cave in and my heart is going to stop any minute! I can only hope as his treatment progresses that his conciseness will prick him and he will know how much damage he has caused.

Thank you again x
 
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Dear Emski,

It was explained to me that affairs may be related to ptsd in the sense that a sufferer has little sense of continuum, they live for the moment or for what is in front of them because the part of the brain that considers cause and effect is damaged. There is no more past (fried) and no more future (fried). This also effects the prevalence of lying because it's just survival in the living moment. It's mind-boggling the damage to the actual brain that trauma can do.

This affair business also happened to us. Relationship, family and a home, and being accountable to a real, reciprocal relationship was just impossible for my severely suffering guy. It was easier to find an damsel in distress outside of the home who he didn't have to go home to, could answer or not answer to--in a text, and with whom have little consequences to erratic behavior. I really believe it is because the only parts of his brain that isn't scar tissue-lizard-brain, the reasoning, cause and effect, relational part were cooked. It didn't seem to matter how much he wanted to be a husband and a father, his desire to reach someone got distorted and skewed and he could only be attentive to pseudo friends and flaky women. I am sorry if I have offended any suffers out there...I would have stuck it out with him if he would have not left.
 
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