Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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

I cheated and I am consumed by it

57 replies

sadness11 · 11/06/2019 13:52

My partner and I moved in together in a new city after being together 5 years. We both got new jobs (separate). I found it really hard to integrate at my job as everyone was in cliques. There were 3 other co-workers in my immediate team who were all very close and often went out together to the shop, never inviting me. I felt really low there.

After a few months at a work party it was an open bar and I had no food. I ended up getting quite drunk and tried to socialise more. Then at the end myself, and the three other co-workers then went into town afterwards to drink more. I remember going to one bar and then when we got to the second I remember having a drink and then nothing after that for hours. I entered into an alcohol blackout (used to get them a lot when I was at University and single). The next thing I remember is hours later and being in a taxi with one of the three co-workers. I have no idea where the other two were. I didn’t know where I was going in the taxi, but nor did it enter into my head to even question it.

We went back to the co-workers apartment and I was immediately taken into his bedroom. He did foreplay on me (hands only) and I just lay there. He then moved to have sex with me and I put my hand over my ‘private parts’. He then paused for a while then got a condom and proceeded to have sex with me. I didn’t stop him and I didn’t say no. I remained fully clothed apart from my underwear throughout. I didn’t kiss him and didn’t touch him. But I did not stop him. Although I felt too drunk to speak as I remember him saying something to me and I couldn’t respond, yet I found the entire thing very sobering. I remember wanting it to stop while it was happening but not stopping it. Not because of any physical threat but just because I am a weak person who struggles in general with saying no. I feel like the way I’ve wrote that makes it sound awful but I was probably making all the right noises for him as he was a very good looking and charismatic person that I would have fancied had I been single. However, my relationship really was perfect with my partner. There was no reason for me to do this other than pure selfishness.

After it ended I got up grabbed my things and ran out without a word. It was daylight and I have no idea how. So much of the evening is missing and I have no sense of timings of anything.
It’s been four years since that night and I am consumed with grief and guilt. I’ve been with my partner since who has no clue and now we are engaged to be married. The co-worker and I barely spoke after that and then he moved away around 6 months later, as did the other two co-workers. He was also in a relationship at the time and is still with the girl.

I know if I told my partner he would never see me in the same light and I think it is very unlikely he would be able to forgive me. This is made worse by the fact he recently had an emotional affair with a colleague that I have forgiven but gave him absolute hell over. I feel like a hypocrite but probably would have ended it with him if this hadn’t happened to me. I was able to think to myself that people do make mistakes. Since then we have been so good and I am so happy with him. But I fret about this on a daily basis. I guess I just wanted to offload my experience somewhere.

OP posts:
sadness11 · 12/06/2019 13:42

Please don't worry @lovebeingmum9 and @Biancadelrioisback I am not offended or upset by either of your posts. I am grateful to everyone who has wrote to me with tact and kindness. I thought I would be torn apart on here. There is not more to this than my original post, I have wrote down everything I know. I have no further information.

I will consider seeking counselling but I just find it very difficult to reframe what happened in my mind. I feel like maybe i have worded things wrong to make you all think this way. I think if I was still in the blackout during the sex and didn't remember it I would tend to agree with you, but my memory was functioning when we had sex so it's hard to feel like I am not entirely to blame and responsible for my own pain and suffering now.

OP posts:
sadness11 · 12/06/2019 13:44

What I mean to say is I am grateful to everyone. You have all wrote to me with tact and kindness.

OP posts:
Reallynowdear · 12/06/2019 13:53

Ah, my lovely, this was not cheating. As you've struggled with it for so long, please call Rape Crisis, they can help you, you can then decide if you want to talk to your partner about it x

user1481840227 · 12/06/2019 14:01

Bianca, I didn't see your first post but as a blanket statement I don't agree with the claim that you can't consent while drunk.

I'm sure at least hundreds of thousands of people will have sex this weekend while drunk, knowing and willingly.

The idea instead is that someone can be TOO drunk to consent, sometimes this is completely obvious, especially if sober, but there have been times i'd be out drinking with friends and the next day they might say they were completely plastered the night before and I wouldn't have been aware of how drunk they were.

Sadness, I completely understand what you mean, because I didn't say no I find it hard to paint him as a rapist, but logically thinking about it, I was underage (he knew this), there was a lot of drama going on that night and he gave me somewhere to stay, he was twice my age, I was drunk, and then got to his house and he gave me a glass of whiskey and then told me I could sleep in his room and he'd sleep on the sofa, I thought he was being kind and looking after me, after a while he came into the room and got on top of me, didn't seek consent and I was frozen so I couldn't say anything, but I do blame myself for not saying no.

I wouldn't say I was traumatised by it, sickened, disgusted and ashamed yes, but not traumatised, but he said a particular thing to me while he was having sex with me and it was only years and years later when an older man followed me into the toilet and said the exact same phrase to me that I freaked out and I realised that some part of me was definitely affected by it on a deeper level.

I think in a way that telling ourselves well we didn't say no so it wasn't really his fault might help as a coping mechanism to protect us from the trauma of dealing with with the reality of what actually happened.

Patroclus · 12/06/2019 23:03

It was rape and if you want to move towards dealing with it you shouldnt feel any guilt about doing so.

Zakana · 13/06/2019 03:50

OP, you have suffered enough and being as drunk as you were at the time (and most of us have been there at one time or another, if we are being honest, myself included) you did not form an intention to carry out an act of cheating on your partner. It’s a horrible thing which has happened to you, and I would suggest trying to get some counselling, I think it may help you realise that although you are holding all this destructive guilt, you don’t deserve to feel the way you do. As for the kindness posters are showing towards you, there is no need for thanks, it is a basic human empathy reaction to a fellow human being in some distress. Please try and get in with your life, with help from a counselling service. Hugs and best of luck with the future, hope you can start looking forward positively soon xxx

Winterlife · 13/06/2019 05:14

Are you certain you weren’t drugged? Your description sounds as if you may have been.

I suggest you not tell your fiancé. Seek counselling if you can’t forgive yourself.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page