Peace After The Affair
By Julie Walsh
Jerry Rogers had a dead-end job and a dull marriage.
He could usually cope on the job, but not at home. "After years of being with
the same woman," says Rogers (not his real name), "the desire to have sex with
another woman was overwhelming." When the opportunity for an affair came along,
he couldn't resist. "The affair helped me escape," Rogers says.
Escape is a nearly universal attraction of affairs. Some people cheat to escape
boredom; others to escape conflict in the relationship. Whatever the reason, the
sense of escape is exciting. Only later comes the psychological trauma with its
cascade of negative emotions. Spouses who cheat often feel angry, desperate, and
guilty. Those who are cheated on also feel angry, not to mention abandoned and
fearful.
How you face these emotions - and the extent to which you analyze what went wrong and what
you contributed to the situation - will play a major role in whether you find peace after
the affair, regardless of whether the original relationship endures or dies, according to
Emily Brown, MSW, an expert on the topic.
Reasons for the Affair
"It's easy to assume that an affair is about love, sex, selfishness, or trying to
inflict pain," says Brown, author of "Affairs: A Guide to Working Through the
Repercussions of Infidelity" and director of the Key Bridge Therapy and Mediation
Center in Arlington, Va. But affairs are much more complicated than that.
Having an affair is one way of communicating that emotional issues aren't being met by the
other partner or the marriage, according to Brown. Having an affair lets one partner
get the other partner's attention and communicates that the cheating partner is in pain.
Sometimes affairs happen when one partner is a sex addict. But a sexless
extramarital relationship can also be an affair, if a strong emotional connection exists
that is kept secret from the spouse, Brown says.
Infidelity Happens Often
Although hard-and-fast statistics are difficult to come by, infidelity is common. One
study of 300 subjects, published in August 1992 in the Journal of Sex Research, found that
44% of husbands and 25% of wives had engaged in at least one episode of extramarital
sexual intercourse, says Shirley Glass, Ph.D., a Baltimore psychologist and the study's
lead author. Those numbers have remained about the same since then, she says, based
on her clinical practice and other research studies; however, she notices the number of
straying women is increasing.
But Peggy Vaughan, the Southern California author of The Monogamy Myth, says those numbers
are very conservative. Based on research done for her book, she says 60% of married
men and women stray at some point.
When affairs happen, both partners need to do some serious self-evaluation, Brown says,
because both partners contribute to it. For couples recovering from affairs, Brown
and Vaughan offer a variety of suggestions. Their advice is targeted to married
couples, since extramarital affairs have been studied the most, but it might also be
applicable to couples in other types of partnerships.
* Get the secrets out in the open. Telling the other partner what was lacking in the
relationship might help explain why the partner strayed. In a survey of 1,083
spouses whose partners had affairs, Vaughan found trust - always an underlying issue after
an affair - was more likely to be rebuilt when the couple thoroughly discussed the
situation.
* Face the emotions and heal. If you were cheated on, try to face the pain and
then move on. If you cheated, face the anger or restlessness and move on as well.
A counselor or therapist may also help; the American Association for Marriage and
Family Therapy (202) 452-0109) can refer you to a specialist.
* Avoid making major decisions. Initially, you may want to move away offile
for a divorce. Hold off, at least for a reasonable period. "I've never
seen anyone fully recover from an affair in less than two years," says Vaughan.
Jerry Rogers followed these steps. "After my partner found out and we went
through a lot of therapy - together and individually - we were able to deal with the pain
of the affair," he says. "It helped me understand what led to my
infidelity, which had more to do with issues about myself and my work rather than not
being satisfied with my partner."
