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Cheating depressed DH

27 replies

CheatedUpon · 12/02/2014 16:14

DH has been suffering severe chronic depression and anxiety. We struggled with it for many years, but the past 2-3 years he became more and more distant and withdrawn. Basically, our love life came down to pretty much nothing at all. I always put it down to his depression and never wanted to discuss it with him. Did not want to embarrass him, and not to make him feel even worse about himself. And yesterday accidentally found out he has been cheating on me . I was so shocked as you probably know that having depression in the family is not fun and I always tried to help/support him through it. It is also so out of character. He had a major breakdown last summer, was off work for a month. It took ages for things to get back to normal. I think the affair happened before the breakdown. What do I do? Afraid that talking about it will make him feel worse he has serious self-esteem issue. Our 11 year old adores him. We are not that young either, in the late 40th... If he was a "normal" man, I would just probably leave him but this is different.

OP posts:
harrap · 14/02/2014 09:47

Cheated- I'm very well-have pmed you back.

To those of you who say "depression is not an excuse" etc. I agree but (and I know your aim is to be supportive) "crazy", impulsive and inexplicable behaviour can be a symptom of depression.

Now please believe me when I say I am not giving all depressed men or women a free pass for having it off with any passing stranger but these things are more nuanced than they might first appear.

The OP might decide that this is too much for her and end the relationship but I know from experience that when in crisis I clung on to the first explanation that made sense of my partner's behaviour and if I'd listened to very well meaning friends, I would have left him and been "justified", but I am so very relieved that I didn't.

The OP should trust her instincts, preferably helped by a good therapist about what to do but she should not -in my opinion- do anything hasty.

All I'm saying is it might not help the OP for her to be told in effect, "he's a cheating, selfish git and you'd be a fool to put up with it."

It might well be the time to call it quits permanently. But this might be the chance to demand some changes in the face of- obviously unacceptable behaviour- and come out stronger.

livingzuid · 14/02/2014 17:38

harrap I totally agree with you. I have bipolar and when untreated I'm a different person. This isn't a time to be rushing into decisions..
Good luck op Thanks

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