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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

Would you stay with your husband if he was a sex addict?

86 replies

Newliferequired · 09/07/2023 17:36

Just this. I'm leaving. I feel so guilty and scared but feel I have no choice. Been going on at least 9 years. I've known for 4 and nothing has changed.

OP posts:
gogomoto · 10/07/2023 07:58

Sounds like an excuse for affairs to me. The answer is no

Needanewnamebeingwatched · 10/07/2023 08:08

Can't you turn it on its head?

He is cheating on you with lots of other people, no-one should put up with that level of disrespect.

He has broken his marriage vows, no matter what childhood trauma he has had, what help has he got for it?

None I bet and he is using it as an excuse to shag other people, while keeping you compliant.

pendleflyer · 10/07/2023 08:08

This reply has been withdrawn

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

hairybean1 · 10/07/2023 08:21

I don't really use mumsnet. I just stumbled on this thread by accident looking for something else and I commented as it's something I have experience in.

I think some of the comments on here could be very damaging and none of us really know your situation well enough to be able to comment. Your husband could be an arsehole just using addiction as an excuse or he could have a serious mental condition in which case you need specialist help to navigate the co-parenting relationship that will be in if you stay or leave.

I would advise you to seek your own therapy. Or at least confide in a non judgemental friend if therapy is beyond your mean. You can't change him but you get support to manage yourself and your own journey through this.

usernother · 10/07/2023 08:31

What damage are you doing to your children staying with this man OP?

Wallywobbles · 10/07/2023 08:34

Your life is about to improve so much. God this must have been so toxic for you.

TheoTheopolis23 · 10/07/2023 08:58

guineacup · 10/07/2023 07:55

It's the guilt I feel for leaving someone with an addiction

And where are your DH's feelings of guilt in all this?

So much guilt that he's never stopped over nearly a decade.

TheoTheopolis23 · 10/07/2023 09:08

Incidentally, as extreme as it sounds, every affair he has raises his risk of encountering an unstable woman who could try to hurt you or your kids when things don't go her way (he doesn't leave for her) after he's fucked her and got her attached & invested. A woman tried to kill the wife of a man she was having an affair with in my local region.

Women who get into affairs with married men often tend to be vulnerable and unstable to begin with.

He's risked you in every way. 5 years of risking your health and that of your unborn kids. 9 years of risking your mental health, he hasn't stopped even after you became aware .... And finding out a out the 5 years would have been enough to damage many people's mh let alone another nearly 5 years in too of it

Your family & marriage reputation must be in tatters; people find out a out these things and gossip.

Does he spend (family) money on his affair partners?

He's lost his intimacy with you .... Also not enough to stop.

9 years of treating you like shite ..... But it's an "addiction". Well, no matter what it is, he always puts his needs and pleasure first; and is ok with shitting on you and yours.

You've also apparently been faithful during the 4 years since you wisely stopped intimacy with him, so you lose out and don't get your needs met on that front either.

Do you think this is in any way an equal or fair relationship? Everything's a out him, he gets everything he needs and wants, you get nothing you are entitled to in any decent relationship.

TheoTheopolis23 · 10/07/2023 09:12

Seriously, leave before he whittles you away to nothing.

You know what I think will happen ... He'll get a new partner and act exactly the same way to her. He'll do it til he can't do it anymore cause his sex drive goes or his pecker won't work well enough any more.

(You may or may not know about it, if it's hidden well enough by him (and her). After all it took you 5 years timbecime aware of what he was doing to you).

guineacup · 10/07/2023 09:47

So much guilt that he's never stopped over nearly a decade.

Or even tried...

Superdupes · 10/07/2023 09:51

You didn't cause the addiction and you can't fix the addiction. Only he can address his issues and he hasn't - surely that tells you all that you need to know?

You have absolutely nothing to feel guilty for - so why do you feel guilty? I think you need to look at why you feel responsible for things that you can't change and have no influence over.

Don;t let him destroy you and your kids along with himself.

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