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Frankly I am scared to post this, but I believe I need to have this attitude to go all in on reconciliation. My wife from the jump has indicated she wants to stay together. I know it is early and subject to change and I think that has kept me from fully embracing this wonderful gift. I am afraid she will decide one day the reasons she wants to stay are not enough to overcome the reasons she should leave. That keeps me from being fully open emotionally for fear that the pain if she leaves will be so much greater if I am fully open and vulnerable.

I am really just starting to unpack long buried emotions going all the way back to my childhood trauma and understanding the impact it has always had on me. One thing that is clear is that I have very much underestimated how much my own experiences created a fear of being rejected by those who should love unconditionally. This has been one of the things that contributed to me projecting the person I thought people wanted rather than living as my authentic self.

Knowing that does not seem to lessen the anxiety that I feel about my wife potentially leaving, but helps me to understand why I have that anxiety in the face of her reassuring me she is with me for the long haul. I am fully aware the choice to reconcile is fluid, but we are coming off a great week of vacation in one of our favorite spots and for the first time I am realizing that I need to embrace this chance fully despite the knowledge that if she changes her mind the devastation will be exponentially worse. I refuse to sully her gift by holding anything back. She deserves 100% of my effort.

We have a long road ahead. Despite this being a great week we both had some triggering moments, hard conversations, and both shed tears. That said I feel closer to my wife right now than I ever had. Feeling safe enough to share the darkest parts of you with someone is something I have never felt. We are building a new relationship from the ash heap of the one I destroyed and for the first time the foundation is one of total honesty.

She is an amazing person. I have always known this and that adds to the shame and guilt of the damage I have done, but also really drives me to be better. I have a long way to go to get in the same universe she inhabits, but her love and support anchors me and tells me that I have worth. She would not be putting in this effort if she did not see something that makes it worth it.

Does not change the fact that I will be beyond utterly devastated if she eventually chooses to leave me, but I refuse to let that inhibit our chance to build a relationship that will stand forever. So grateful for my wife.

I am afraid she will decide one day the reasons she wants to stay are not enough to overcome the reasons she should leave. That keeps me from being fully open emotionally for fear that the pain if she leaves will be so much greater if I am fully open and vulnerable.

A couple of thoughts here, friend.

I don't like the word "should" being used in the context of human behavior. In science, it's a reasonable term. If you're holding an object and let go it should fall to the ground. Perfectly reasonable and true. It is not reasonable and true that a betrayed spouse "should" leave a marriage. It's not a law of physics.

It may seem like pure semantics until you realize how it affects your thinking. For instance, believing that your wife "should" leave precludes your acceptance of her grace. So, you "should" be afraid, which impairs your ability to be vulnerable, open and honest.

I'll let you in on a little secret, just because I think you're a good man. One of the many things a betrayed spouse is looking for in reconciliation is courage.

Courage to face the consequences head on. Courage to dig inside as deeply as possible. Courage to be vulnerable.

Rephrase it:

I am afraid she will decide one day the reasons she wants to stay are not enough to overcome the reasons she could choose to leave. That keeps me being fully open emotionally for fear that the pain if she leaves will be so much greater if I am not fully open and vulnerable.

Did not even realize that when I posted, but obviously symptomatic of the shame I still harbor. Great feedback as always. I am finding myself more and more able to recognize guilt rather than shame and feel like I am showing up way better than I thought I would at this point. Still days I feel like my wife is more supporting me, but getting better.

I am showing up

It certainly seems that way. Hense the grace.

FVL

Like your W, I have recommitted to our M after finding out the truth so many years later. Like you, my H is fearful at times that I could change my mind and pull the plug. It's his opening up and bearing his soul that keeps me in the game. All these years we've been separated by his secrets. I'd felt it. I just didn't know why. Now I do and I won't go back to the way things were. I need him showing up 24/7 with courage and confidence.

Be brave. Trust your W. Give her everything.

Great post.

One thing that is clear is that I have very much underestimated how much my own experiences created a fear of being rejected by those who should love unconditionally. This has been one of the things that contributed to me projecting the person I thought people wanted rather than living as my authentic self.

Me too! This was hard for me to recover from but I feel like being able to move towards authenticity and allowing myself to be truly seen by my husband while definitely a journey with bursts of progress and at times regression, was what healed me. His love healed so much in me, and that too was a huge gift that I don’t think k I could appreciate until my soul was exposed to the daylight so to speak.

I relate so much to your posts, and the profound recognition that you have that took me years to glean.

Being vulnerable is hard but that intimacy and connection you craves is now possible. This was your best case scenario. And while nothing is ever guaranteed in this whole walk I think you are safer to go all in than if you don’t. I feel this site is filled with pages of bs who are in misery because their ws can’t do exactly that.

I am so happy for you. Today. Not some future version of you or your marriage. The progress is unfolding and I think the future ahead is bright. Best wishes.

FVL - I'm pleased to hear reconciliation is going well. I'm now 9 months from discovering my husband's affair that ended nearly 13 years ago.

Your posts and your journey resonate with me. My husband is in IC and has also discovered he struggled to be vulnerable and authentic with me. I find myself sad that he essentially wore a mask his whole life, people pleasing, avoiding deep emotions and even close friendships (the one friendship he did have was the one he betrayed). And I realise how much his mums affair and subsequent divorce affected him as a teenager. I feel he must have felt lonely never really being authentic.

The man I have now is finally being vulnerable and authentic and I'm hopeful we can make it.

Finding out so many years later is so hard though...my husband cannot give me exact dates as to when the affair officially started and ended as he says he can't remember (I know approximately e.g. mid 2010 - mid 2012). All messages from that time are gone so it's hard to go back and verify things. It's also hard to for him to remember exact thoughts/feelings from that time and I keep wondering when did he feel guilty? When did the fog lift? How did he live with the secret for so long as now he is so remorseful?. I would interested to know if you have experienced similar in terms of recalling dates/thoughts/feelings? And how you coped with the secret for so long? If you don't want to answer that's perfectly understandable, I just would love to hear from the mindset of a man who experienced a similar affair to my husband (my husband's affair started when I was pregnant with our 3rd child and was a PA for one year followed by a sporadic year of sexting) and also seems to now be a truly remorseful husband.

First have to say thank you to everyone and especially hikingout. I have been reading responses with my wife and it is emotional, but helpful.

Evio - your husband's experience resonates with me. I also started drinking heavily and abusing substances (in retrospect that seems to have been a numbing / coping mechanism) so remembering exact details is difficult. I can give firm dates on a lot of the time period as I keep meticulous financial records and actually had a designated category for money I spent on / with AP. This helped me put a firm timeline together. In some ways I wish I did not as the details have been some of the most painful aspects to my wife (ie sending flowers, overnight stays in hotels when she was out of town, etc).

Although I have a timeline and can recollect many details (I have a steel trap photographic memory) lots of our discussions result in me expressing that I feel like I am describing someone else. I have changed so much over the last 20 years (largely due to the influence of my wife) and remembering my choices and actions often feels like I am remembering a movie I saw long ago. I can remember scenes and dialogue, but feel like I am often guessing at the underlying feelings and motivations.

To answer some of the specific questions you have:

When did I feel guilty - just the other day I was explaining how much of a wall I had during the affair and in the 3-4 years after it. The ability to compartmentalize is hard to describe when you have not lived your life hiding parts of yourself so long that it becomes an unconscious reflex. My wife often asks how I was able to project the person I presented with so much trauma (lots from before we met that I never disclosed and much after including the affair). I cannot explain it other than to say when I was in one world I never thought about the other and think that is my brain protecting itself as I would have likely had a mental breakdown (and almost did when the wall in my mind started to dissolve). I still remember the first crack in the wall and it happened almost six years after the affair officially ended. I flew several family and friends in to surprise my wife for her 40th birthday. We had a weekend that started with a surprise dinner at a nice restaurant with everyone including local friends. I remember watching how happy my wife was and remember thinking wtf have I done to this person I love more than anything in the world. Those cracks become more frequent and bigger, but the wall started crumbling down in a big way when I took 18 months off after selling a company and we spent almost all of our time together. Then COVID hit and I started a new job working remotely. That coincided with becoming empty nesters. The more time I spent with her and the closer we became the more impossible it was to not feel tremendous guilt and shame. Eventually I realized I was either going to have a mental breakdown or I needed to find a way forward. I spent months (including some pretty deep depression) trying to determine if I would do more damage than good by disclosing. I started IC with a betrayal specialist to help guide that. The support from this site was also very helpful in processing how to proceed. In short, I was able to compartmentalize for years before I started to feel the guilt and shame, but eventually it became overwhelming.

When did the fog lift - my affair may have been different than some in that the limerance was pretty short lived, but the affair continued off and on for a few years. That is something that perplexes my wife and is hard for me to explain. I was self medicating in a big way and remember feeling trapped by the AP (lots of times I would make up excuses for why I could not see her). Why I was not able to just go full NC during that time is not something I can explain, but I think it was partially because there was an element of safety with the AP as she knew all of my dark secrets.

One of the key aspects of my IC has been deconstructing how much damage and trauma I brought into the marriage. I had a pretty traumatic FOO and was sexually active from a very young age. By the time I met my wife I thought I had turned my life around so never disclosed so much of my past, but was still carrying lots of shame. That really established a pattern of me hiding things I felt shame about from her. I also never processed the trauma from my own family and that really created a barrier to establishing a foundational relationship with my wife (I had no idea what a real relationship was as my FOO had none). These are not excuses as other people with similar issues do not betray their spouses, but have helped me understand both what contributed to my choices and how I was able to hide and compartmentalize during and after the affair.

Not sure how much of that will apply to your husband. I feel guilty talking about the trauma from my affair when my wife and I talk and even posting here to other BS, but I firmly believe the betrayal traumatized me resulting in my ability to compartmentalize. It may also alter the ability to remember if your husband is similar. I know that sucks and I told my wife I wish I would have journaled during the affair for both our sakes (so I could give her answers and so I could better understand why I was so fucked up). We were talking yesterday and I told her I often try to think what I would want to know if our positions were reversed. Knowing what I know now and realizing that infidelity is not the result of the BS or the marriage, but rather because the WS is broken, I would like to think I would have a better understanding; however, I am pretty sure that I would have all the same questions and hurt that she is experiencing. I will answer any question or give any information that I can, but wish I could better explain or recollect.