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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

How to come out of an emotional affair

230 replies

benal345 · 30/04/2016 15:35

He is my manager and I can't leave my job, don't flame me, just need practical advices and tips.

OP posts:
Dozer · 11/05/2016 18:37

Yes, agree with that. For example making "close friends" with male colleagues, totally without contact between said colleague and is a no no IMO.

Reasonstostayalive · 12/05/2016 18:49

I think it's hard to know where it is going sometimes. I certainly didn't ever expect the feelings I have have. I don't like them at all as they essentially make me miserable.
Nothing good has come out of this. I have lost a friend I held dear, I've cheapened my relationship with my DH and I have neglected my family. So much else has happened in the past year that I ended up leaning on OM too much. I let him replace my DH.
It's hard having to see him every day but I am having to unlearn past behaviour. It helps that he is as determined as I am to not fall back into these bad habits but it is hard. I am only human and feelings can creep up when you least expect them.
And I know that it is no excuse at all.

DrHarleenFrancesQuinzel · 12/05/2016 18:57

Love how Im one who's been all 'squeeee' (like that means something) when Im the one who has left a job I really really really enjoyed (for many reasons) and have gone NC completely. Yes I know I had a dream and my first feeling was oh that wasn't real, but this morning I first woke up and wondered how quick I had done 10K steps. Sometimes I wake up and get annoyed its not the weekend.

However I have made the conscious decision to never see OM ever again.

Maybe I shouldn't have any feelings, maybe I should not be human and actually hurt over it. FWIW I also hurt because of how I have treated my family, which BTW Im not going to say anything to DH. There is no point. Ive chosen DH over anybody else. All I know is that I never ever want to be in this situation again.

Reasonstostayalive · 12/05/2016 20:23

DrHarleen - you are fortunate you have found a new job. I am looking hard.
Like you I have realised that actually my DH is who i should be focusing on. I don't know how you relationship is, but mine is far from perfect. And not from me not trying. Which is why I think I got so caught out with the OM.
But I am trying to fix things. I've never wanted to leave him, I just wanted to feel wanted and desired. Something my DH seems to have forgotten.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 13/05/2016 12:04

Reasonstostayalive, you really do have my sympathies because of all the posters on this thread, your posts are the ones I can most relate to, the ones that I accord with.

In my mind, the only thing that I think you can do - for your own sanity - is to mentally try to 'draw a line' under your affair and say to yourself that from this point on, your husband is your focus and your future and that, having been diverted from him, you know enough now not to ever let this happen again. That's all you can do really.

I don't know how you would feel about telling your husband that marriages need constant feeding and that without this, there really is only a shell of a relationship if one partner is left wanting things that the other partner refuses to give? Yes, you had an affair - EA or otherwise - but you have to live with that and you're still with your husband. Well, he has a part to play in your happiness as much as you have with his. Tell him how lonely, neglected, unloved, unappreciated you've felt and tell him what you need. There's no point feeling guilty, it would be a wasted emotion because it wouldn't fix anything.

You can be happy again, Reasons, you really deserve that too.

===============

DrHarleen, did I even mention your name associated with the 'squeee' thing? No, I didn't. You obviously do know what I meant by it anyway as you've taken umbrage at it instead of thinking (correctly), 'Ah, yes, those posters, pretty full on with their giddiness. She doesn't mean me.'.

My advice to Reasons is exactly the same for you and yes, I do have sympathy for your position and I'm very glad for you that you've taken the difficult decision to end contact. I know how hard that was/is - and sticking to it is just as hard because there's a 'gap' in your life now that he filled and now it's there again. That sense of loss won't be there forever but it hurts like the devil when you end a relationship like this - and have to go through the pain without talking to anybody about it... because it's TABOO.

JCreek · 14/05/2016 07:04

It's so good to have found this thread as so many of the comments resonate with my situation. I had never even heard of the term 'emotional affair', I guess I always thought of an affair as physical. My EA started about 6 months ago with a work colleague. We had known eachother for about a year and always got on well but things changed when we started studying the same course and began spending more time together, initially at work and then gradually via messaging outside of work. Before I knew it we began to talk about everything and share so much. Our situation sounds as clichéd as so many on here, the constant checking for messages, the fantastic highs and the bitter lows. I sympathise completely with everyone here as this was never something I looked for or wanted but I feel so emotionally trapped. My EA has backed off a little in the last couple of months and I know that there will never be a relationship but we're still close friends and I just can't get her out of my mind. Things have got harder as she now sits just a couple of yards from me at work whereas she was previously on a separate floor and we will be working on the same projects. I knew it might happen and it makes breaking away all the more difficult. Sometimes i take myself away from my desk and go for a walk as I just can't cope with it. I know this sounds pathetically weak but I'm finding this so draining and it feels all consuming right now. I've been trying to connect more with my wife, arranging weekends away, meals out and just creating time to talk and i just hope i can turn things round. I tried to help my EA with a job application to avoid us working together but she just lost out. I know the first step is to stop the messaging and I've been trying this but when it's been part of your life and brought you so much pleasure this is easier said than done. I even miss seeing her name appear on the screen. I've accepted too that we will never be together so things have to change before i lose my marriage. I don't want to hurt anyone and I wish the EA had never happened.

benal345 · 14/05/2016 16:58

Every phase in life teaches us something, we all have learned our lessons, we all can do it, come out on the other side stronger and better human beings. Nothing to be ashamed of, as they are emotions and however wrong they sound, they are valid at that moment.
Reason, pm me, we can have a chat.

OP posts:
colouringinagain · 14/05/2016 19:20

I've fallen off the wagon as it were Confused he reached out and I couldn't resist the attention Sad had more laughs messaging him for an hour than with 'd'h all week Sad

Proseccopanda · 14/05/2016 21:08

I've also fallen off the wagon Colouring, if you want to PM me then feel free.

colouringinagain · 14/05/2016 21:18

Thanks prosecco really appreciate that. Not much use for pm-ing tonight Confused

benal345 · 21/05/2016 12:38

How's everyone here doing?

OP posts:
Reasonstostayalive · 21/05/2016 16:46

Not having a good day alas. 3 weeks in its hurting a lot today. Just feeling fragile and missing his company.
He's been going through it too, so weirdly that helps and knowing he misses me too and wants to go back to the friendship we'd built up gives me a glimmer of hope that we will come out the other side.
How are you Benal?

benal345 · 21/05/2016 18:56

For me I think it very one sided, and when I said our friendship is over, not coz of how I feel, but off late we have lots of arguments and fights and I felt he had given up on me. Anyway, he think there is always a way forward, it's can't just be over as we have had few fall outs...I'm just going to pretend it's normal so that I can work with normalcy, and not feel suffocated. Though I'm looking for a job soon... I don't think I feel anything for him anymore, it was just an addiction and I'm getting over it soon.

OP posts:
LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 21/05/2016 20:47

Reasons... do you think you'll ever manage to be 'just friends' again? That was something that I struggled with, and perhaps more so as we weren't 'friends' to start with really. I think it must be a very difficult thing to do. I'm sorry that it's painful for you, I remember how that feels.

In the realms of fantasy now but, if you could, would you reset back to the time before you met so as to avoid the pain you're feeling now? That's what a friend asked me... I said 'no', I'd take the pain because the lead-up to it was life-affirming. I realise how selfish that sounds but I was selfish back then - and oblivious, completely oblivious to anybody else but him.

I wouldn't hit that re-set button now either because I'm over it and I think the experience keeps me safe from a repetition because I'd recognise the slips now.

benal, it sounds like you're coming out of the other side and have control of yourself now. I think you're doing amazingly well. Will it be easy/possible for you to find another job? I hope so.

Reasonstostayalive · 21/05/2016 22:09

Lying- no. Realistically no I don't. It more that I need it and hope for it. It's like that last glimmer of hope I might have and i know that's unrealistic. And that makes me pathetic

Reasonstostayalive · 21/05/2016 22:12

Equally I would not change a thing. I feel more confident, sexier and more appreciated than I have ever done. He has woken up a side of me that was lost and I will always thank him for that'

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 21/05/2016 22:27

You're not pathetic, Reasons, you're human. OW never get through unscathed, we pay for it one way or another, mostly because we have a tendency to have feelings, fall in love and it hurts, I know that.

I would say to you to grab every positive feeling that you can from this because it will hopefully help you through the very tough times. I have every sympathy for you and I'm rooting for you to come through this even stronger.

Reasonstostayalive · 21/05/2016 22:58

I never meant to be I this position which is why I think I am giving myself a beating. I do think that both of us can get through this. But yes you are right, I am the one suffering more. He was able to put how he feels in a box and I can't do that

Reasonstostayalive · 22/05/2016 10:37

I never meant to be I this position which is why I think I am giving myself a beating. I do think that both of us can get through this. But yes you are right, I am the one suffering more. He was able to put how he feels in a box and I can't do that

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 23/05/2016 11:28

Yes, I think you're suffering more than he is and more than the men involved ever really do. Putting their OW 'in a box' seems very commonplace and I think that men can generally compartmentalise very well indeed. This is why when you read of a couple having a row, the woman will often be unable to sleep, playing it over and over again in her head - whilst the man, oblivious, snores away contentedly.

It's not really different for affair partners. The only difference is that women tend to fall in love, read more into feelings and behaviours - positive or negative - and possibly misinterpret, whist the male partner thinks little or nothing of anything that he's said, it's much more 'in the moment'. So when you say, 'both of us can get through this', I think you're attributing more care and concern to your OM than he actually needs. I'm sad (for you) to say that 'lip-service' really springs to mind here. He has his whole life away from you and a completely separate 'slice' of something else, with you. There's nowhere for this relationship to go and, it sounds to me as if you and he really are at the end stages of it.

Now, if you can take a leaf out of his book and draw a mental line to separate what has been and what you're going to do next, you will not drag that baggage with you. If you can see it for what it is/was, ie. an affair, a separate and distinct relationship that always had a finite lifespan, then that may help you to get over it. I'm not concerned about him because I think men process this differently. He's already over you. He may miss you, think of you sometimes but he's already done whatever little 'healing' he needed to do. You haven't got there yet by the sounds of it and I know how that feels.

You need to look at you in isolation, just you, not as he and you, a couple. What were you before you met him? Strong, independent, happy? You're going to be that way again. Your body and mind won't let you 'grieve' for him forever, that's not how we work. How about trying to cut out the 'grief' over the loss of the relationship and see it as a positive thing (if you can). This was an ADDITION to what you already had, what you already were and you have taken very positive things from it. You've learned all you needed to learn and now you're nearly ready to do something else... whatever that is.

Don't wallow if you can help it. If you must, make it time-based and reduce the time you allow yourself to do it, every day. Know that he will not be doing this or need to do it. That's just how it is. He is not suffering. He accepts that you are, because it suits his male ego to know that he matters to you (however nice a person he is), so he tell you that he is too. Don't be under that illusion though because it will hold you back. He isn't suffering - and you won't be for long either.

There's absolutely no need to give yourself a beating. That is a waste of time and energy. You've done something that you say you've benefited from in terms of confidence, (irrespective of the rights and wrongs). This was never going to be a 'forever' thing because it can't be. That's what's making you beat yourself; you feel pain and you're struggling to see where there's coming from so you are artificially manufacturing some by beating yourself. It's pointless. Stop it.

If guilt is playing a part there then face it. Acknowledge what you've done and make a decision then and there that you won't put yourself or others through this again. Then let it go. It is that easy, really, because there's nothing else to do with that guilt. It's your conscience and it's pricking you. Salve it with knowledge that you won't do this again. Protect yourself from ever doing this again.

DoorToTheRiver · 23/05/2016 13:39

Great post Lying

Reasonstostayalive · 23/05/2016 16:36

Lying - that was the most reaffirming thing I could have ever hoped to read. Thank you for such kind and positive words.
You are very right that he has moved on and away from me. It's my turn now to do the same.
I can say that I wasn't in a Good place when it started and he certainly brought out my confidence even before things spiralled out of control. I will get back to being that person.

I will keep what you have written and I will read it when I feel that pain of missing someone who was never mine to miss.

MrsSchadenfreude · 23/05/2016 17:20

I agree with Lying too!

I had what could be described as an EA. It lasted around 12 years. We would do mad things like meet up in Paris for lunch, when I was in London and he was in the US. I'm married, he was in a long distance LTR for much of the time. We had a "no touching" policy. Never so much as shook hands or social kissing. With hindsight, we should have had a quick shag, got it out of our system and moved on.

I still see him - I had dinner with him the other week, when we were both this side of the Atlantic. No spark at all now. Nothing. Just good friends.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 24/05/2016 20:35

I'm glad if my post meant something to you, Reasons. It's very tough dealing with the outfall and aftermath of an affair that is ending. This is because you are not freely able to talk about it with anybody as it is such a taboo subject. Another might also be that you can't really talk about it with him either. OW seem to instinctively divine that there are some comments and/or questions that should never be broached because, however close the relationship, you just can never quite bridge that gap that takes the relationship to one of surety and unblinking confidence in what you have.

I don't want you to think that you didn't mean anything to him. On the contrary, whilst a one night stand or mild flirtation has little risk of discovery and subsequent consequences, an affair requires substantial trust in each other. It's that trust that brought you close, gave you the feelings of 'belonging' and it's that feeling that is so hard to finally let go of at the end. Accept that what you had, the feelings you had, were real and so was the trust. It didn't waiver during the relationship, it stopped only at the end of the relationship.

I don't believe that any person can really belong to another - not husbands, wives, lovers - not even children. None of these people belongs to us but through dint of birth, meeting and formalising a relationship, people do feel as if they have 'ownership'. They don't; any more than an OW/OM has. No, Reasons, this man was never yours to miss but he wasn't anybody's - and neither are you. You both chose to spend time together and you formed a relationship in your own right and the time that you spent was real - what you've learned from that time is real and, regardless of the fact that this wasn't a legally or morally recognised relationship, it existed and it mattered to you both. Hang on to that thought when things get tough because it's legitimately yours and it can't be taken away from you.

People do get together for various reasons and sometimes they marry the wrong people - or they marry somebody who wasn't quite right and, had they waited, or been in different circumstances - would have met and possibly married somebody else. Decision-making can be quite fleeting but the ramifications are not. Just because the affair is ended doesn't mean that you were not right for each other. Know that too. Who knows? Your relationship may have faltered, petered out, been as flawed as OM's and your own obviously was/is but, unlike the spouses you have the benefit of never knowing what might have been... and, whilst real life can be humdrum, you and he will have had the best of each other, the spark that daily relationships generally don't have. Of course, you will not have the daily companionship but this is the price that we pay. Take the best of your memories and keep them because they are yours.

I know that this post is a bit different in tone but I'm not writing to a giddy, selfish woman embarking on - or choosing to continue - an affair. I'm talking to a cognisant, self-aware woman who is actively choosing to bring to an end something that has made her happy and feel wanted. That is a very difficult thing to do indeed and I respect you very much for that decision, Reasons.

If you can try to stop beating yourself now and take comfort from the relationship that it was, you will find this transition easier. The 'firsts' might be painful but it will lessen in time and you won't go through this again because you'll arm yourself with your experience - as I have - and not fall for this again. Be kinder to yourself than I imagine you are being. You/we are human and sometimes we make very poor choices. Those choices needn't define who we are.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 24/05/2016 21:01

MrsSchadenfreude... do you ever regret or wonder what might have been? I think it's just as well that you didn't take this to a physical level because physical affairs have the emotional element just the same - they cement the feelings and make it more intense and more difficult to get over.

It looks as if you made the right decision though... a no touching policy for 12 years? You must have been great talkers!