How to Cope with Infidelity

A marriage is built around acceptance, faith and love in which couples are bound together with mutual respect. This bond makes the couples stay together despite bad times. Infidelity delivers a blow to this bond and it is very often beyond repair. The partner who has been cheated feels hopeless and angry after the betrayal. It poses a problem to face life daily and would involve a lot of effort and time to bring back the old times in your relationship again.

 [Read: Causes of Infidelity in Marriage]

The question before you is whether this breach of trust is significant enough to consider leaving your spouse or partner, or not. Whatever you decide, approach it with composure and follow the three steps given below:

• Get emotional support – You need to confide this into someone as for sure, it is not something you can resolve all by yourself. As hard as it may sound, you should ask your spouse to do the same. They are probably feeling the pangs of guilt and need someone to unburden themselves on. The support can come from anywhere, friends, family, a respectable clergy, or even professional counselors.
• Time heals – After you have got emotional support to prop yourself back into sanity, the next step is to give each other time before trying to move on. Your decision could be quitting the relationship or giving it another chance, but at this stage, just let time pass and see how things turn out between the two of you. It is up to you whether that would be done while still living together or apart.
• The confrontation for moving on – After both of you have resolved your emotional upheavals completely, it might be the right time to take stock. Be absolutely honest with each other and let all questions come out. If you are willing to have a conversation with your spouse, it can go a long way in healing your emotional wounds once and for all. If you find that your partner is willing to cooperate and admonishes themselves for the mistake, it might be time to get back together, especially if it is the first mistake. Just make sure that the cheating spouse is serious about it being the first and last.
  
  [Read: Ways to Prevent Infidelity]

It may not be the easiest thing on earth to deal with an infidelity, as you weigh your options, which are only two – giving it another chance or moving on with a divorce or separation. If you have decided to part ways, be prepared to face loneliness and emotional starvation. If you want to work on the relationship, know that it will take some doing to make it normal again.

Read more articles on Infidelity