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

Husband slept with someone else because he was depressed.

128 replies

Barney77 · 17/01/2020 21:48

So. Long story short, been together over ten years, several children, recently married. Other half super busy at work and became depressed. He then had a bit of a crisis, had some time off, saw the GP, is on antidepressants, CBT, counselling. Feels he is doing much better. Has now confided in me that while depressed, and convinced he would/had lost me, couldn’t see the Point in going on, he slept with a woman at work. He had apparently never fancied her, but knew she fancied him. She had to pop to his office, she flirted so he flirted back so they had unprotected sex in a disabled loo at four in the afternoon. He regretted it afterwards. No contact since. Until she messaged him to say he needed an STI test as she had chlamydia.

He told me at this point. But apparently would have told me anyway as he felt so bad. But in the meantime had carried on sleeping with me and had never thought to get tested or do anything to protect me.

I have no idea what to do with this situation. But the bit I keep coming back to is that fact that he genuinely believes he only acted like this as he was depressed, so if not depressed it could never happen again. I find this bit difficult to accept. Can you be so depressed you ‘accidentally’ do something this fundamentally crap?

I am fairly flat on most other aspects. Have had every STD test under the sun, a good long weep at my GP, rants with friends, and we are separating. But I still get stuck in the fact he really believes that the depression was the sole cause of this behaviour. Thoughts?

OP posts:
user7522689 · 18/01/2020 10:59

No. People who love you build you up and are excited to see you thrive.

They don't work on gradually breaking you down.

AnotherEmma · 18/01/2020 11:00

"he has also managed to suggest that the fact that I am bit of an overachiever is exhausting for him. Stupidly competitive job plus all the children plus I run and do a few other things. I guess I can be a bit ‘much’"

Nonsense. He is jealous and inadequate. He can't handle a strong and capable woman because it affects his fragile male ego. Twat.

SandyY2K · 18/01/2020 11:05

If you want revenge anonymously tell his HR that persons have been shagging in work time in the toilets

As a HR professional with over 20 years experience, this wouldn't go anywhere. There's no proof.

Ive dealt with similar allegations...the version the 2 accused gave uf she was upset following relationship issues and he was supporting and consoling her...she didn't want to cry in public.

We didn't believe it..but we don't have cameras in our toilets and the CCTV footage didn't show they were in there for very long.

loserssaywhat · 18/01/2020 11:06

He slept with someone else because he wanted to sleep with someone else.
Using a mental illness to justify shitty behaviour is despicable.
I wouldn't hesitate to end it.

Barney77 · 18/01/2020 11:08

I am trying to be pragmatic. Sobbing them it at work probably won’t do anything useful, and tbh if he loses his job both of us are worse off... though thinking about sorting houses and finances and childcare is frankly too much just now.

Just post a night shift and a bit wobbly and weepy and heading to bed. Will maybe spend tonight looking at counselling and some legal advice if it isn’t too manic and I get a chance.

OP posts:
SandyY2K · 18/01/2020 11:12

He's full of stupid excuses. Your success and achievements are ridiculous reasons, perhaps the truth is he's one of those men who cannot take a woman being equal and achieving. It's too much for his fragile male ego.

His stupid excuses would actually really piss me off.

How dare he give your number to her.

Barney77 · 18/01/2020 11:12

Dobbing them in at work, not sobbing them it. Can’t even bloody type this morning. Ho hum.

OP posts:
Lipz · 18/01/2020 11:12

He is a liar. He is trying to worm his way out of this.

I suffered depression for 2 years. I had it 6 months before I went to gp and started meds. There was not a hope I wanted sex in the first 6 months before meds, actually my libido was decreasing slowly before then and I have a high libido. When I started the meds I went off sex completely the gp told me it was VERY common when people suffer depression that they have little or no sex drive and many relationships don't survive because of this.

My dh then about 3 years later suffered depression, getting himself out of bed was a challenge never mind having sex with anyone.

He's trying to make you feel sorry for him, using depression as an excuse. Anyone I know who has or had depression will tell you that sex is the last thing on their mind.

Scarylady · 18/01/2020 11:25

Hi OP, I’m so sorry that you’re going through this.

My best friend suffers with depression and what others have sad about low libido is true, however, I know when my friend is down she also suffers low self esteem. She hasn’t done this since we were a lot younger but when she was struggling she would seek male attention on nights out to help boost her self esteem. She would, however, NEVER go as far as to kiss them, let along sleep with them behind her now husband’s back. She would also then be racked with guilt for days after.

She still suffers with depression and no longer drinks so she doesn’t find herself in that situation.

I’m not excusing what your husband did at all, I’m just saying it could’ve started like that but he should’ve had the respect for you to stop it going too far.

category12 · 18/01/2020 11:37

I am bit of an overachiever is exhausting for him. Stupidly competitive job plus all the children plus I run and do a few other things. I guess I can be a bit ‘much’"

Wow. He's really done a number on you.

You're fantastic and he's a jealous inadequate fuckwit. A decent person would be proud of you, encourage you and be happy for you, not try to drag you down and make their failings your fault.

ThatThereWoman · 18/01/2020 12:21

Yes he has done a number on you. Here you are saying poor him, he's depressed, he can't deal with you being an overachiever, you're hard work.

Of course that left him with no choice but to put his penis into someone else?

There are lots of depressed people who manage not to be unfaithful. I do not buy that at all.

my ex-dp (who has been serially unfaithful to everyone he's been involved with ) used a variety of excuses to justify his behaviour, and abuse, including, once, that he had c-ptsd. That it was my anxiety that led him to be unfaithful. That he was being abused by the person that he was sleeping with at the time? That he was depressed as a result of being divorced in mid life. That he was having a mid-life crisis. It's all bullshit. They make a choice.

And you have a choice too.

BurtonHouse · 18/01/2020 12:27

Utter cobblers. I've suffered from depression on and off for years and managed perfectly well never to shag a random in a toilet, or anywhere else for that matter. He sounds a class act. He needs to take responsibility for his actions instead of 'I couldn't help it Your Honour, I have a condition.' The only condition he has is that of being a cheating bastard.

zelbazinnamon · 18/01/2020 12:28

OP, you sound fantastic & you will be able to walk away from this & thrive. He, on the other hand, is a lying twat.

AnyFucker · 18/01/2020 12:46

It's true that inadequate men like him often "trade down" when they do there ego-boosting fucking around.

What a pathetic cliche he is. My contempt for him would be colossal.

Barney77 · 18/01/2020 17:52

Trying to channel contempt but am just enormously sad and feeling a bit battered by it all. Totally unrealistically I just want it all to go away.

OP posts:
chenilleblanket · 18/01/2020 18:22

It'll come back around, having been in a similar situation myself you'll probably feel all sorts of conflicting emotions, and eventually all you'll feel is hatred and disgust, and that's when you know you're done.

Thanks for you. He's an utter shitbag

fantasmasgoria1 · 18/01/2020 18:25

His depression is no excuse. I have severe mental illness and I do not cheat and never have or will. Depression can cause people to behave differently but if he's still managing to work he not so unwell that he cannot make rational decisions!

Purplewhitelie · 18/01/2020 18:29

Depression normally causes ED even more so if anti-depressants are prescribed FYI.

LurkingFather · 18/01/2020 18:33

As a few others have said, depression has different effect on different people.

Also while some of the common drugs lower sex drive, others raise it and can result in inappropriate and character incongruous actions. This is not an excuse, but it needs to be understood.

Low self esteem in a man combined with lowering of sexual inhibition thanks to disease and drug can lead to quite different actions than in in a woman. FWIW, a bizarre, but not uncommon presentation of depression in middle aged women is shop lifting. Different thing than shagging a stranger, but in its own way usually character incongruous and an odd choice of acting for someone who was law abiding all their life.

SSRI drugs and relatives slow down for men orgasm but do not necessarily lower erection likelihood or libido. Mirtazepine seems to have no sexual effects whatsoever whileTrazodone and MAOIs can increase libido to quite spectacular levels.

LurkingFather · 18/01/2020 18:35

None of the above is meant to give your husband a get out jail card, but the matter of depression and effect on sex drive is not as black and white as some other posters seem to believe.

Interestedwoman · 18/01/2020 19:39

'I think it is more likely to highlight how skewed his thinking is and hopefully help me feel clearer and better about leaving him for what he has done. '

He will just lie his arse off in counselling. Why wouldn't he? What would be the advantage he'd gain from telling the truth- unless he decides he wants to come out with it and split up? You and PP's are right- get counselling just for you, to help you deal with things and feel better in yourself.

'Oh and apparently he doesn’t fancy her, she was just ‘there’ '

So, he's not discerning at all, and will shag anyone, whether he fancies them or not. Reassuring, eh? What if he 'depressed' enough to do that again? Ah and if he's still depressed, he gives himself carte blanche to do it again!

'Sorry. That bit was uncharitable. But he has also managed to suggest that the fact that I am bit of an overachiever is exhausting for him. Stupidly competitive job plus all the children plus I run and do a few other things. I guess I can be a bit ‘much’'

All of that is great, though. :) Don't let him control you or make you feel bad by him saying that your (excellent) activities made him cheat or something.

Imperialmeasurements · 18/01/2020 20:34

So sorry you’re going through this Flowers

Alfiemoon1 · 18/01/2020 20:36

Depression doesn’t make you loose your morals and shag other people and saying you are hard work is just trying to shift blame onto you
So sorry you are going through this op

YouJustDoYou · 18/01/2020 20:41

There was a thread here a few months ago, about how people are "shit these days" because they "never stand by a partner with depression through thick and thin", and that "everyone who leaves a partner with depression, no matter what, is a fucking prick". I quote several different people.

Personally, having had depression myself (and managing it still as best I can), it is NO fucking excuse to behave like an arsehole, just because you "have depression". You don't deserve what happened to you. He is responsible for his own behaviour, not his fucking depression. Funny how they cheat, but don't go punching a policeman in the face "Because they've got depression". They cheat because it's easy. Because they're pricks. Not because they've got "depression".

YouJustDoYou · 18/01/2020 20:47

FWIW, a bizarre, but not uncommon presentation of depression in middle aged women is shop lifting

Statistics link for that please? I've looked but can't find.