.Wow it's actually amazing to hear how many Craigslist victims are out there. CL should offer free support groups for betrayed spouses.
So to share my story.... a few days before my 1year anniversary I began to have a nagging feeling inside. Something seemed odd about my husband when he left for one of his many business trips. (He travels a lot, which I don't like, but not much I can do about that.)
Anyway, I know he spends a lot of time on CL looking for old cars and parts so I figured he probably swayed from automotive to the personal ads at some point. We all have out of curiosity....But I just didn't know how far he had taken it.
So that odd gut feeling gnawed at me all day that something was up and I decided to trust my intuition and I placed an ad on CL in the city he was in. I used a fake picture and made up a silly story about wanting to meet a man at the bar in my hotel that night.
Eight minutes after I hung up the phone with him saying our good nights and I love you's, (and only 45mins after I placed that ad) he responded to it.
I've never been so crushed in all my life. Once I could breathe again, I called him and explained to him that he just replied to his own wife.
I'm sure you can imagine how the rest of that call went.
Since then he has admitted to doing it in numerous cities all over the US. Although he claims he's only had 2 women actually reply back and he's never met up with any of them. He said he only wanted validation that he was still desirable because he didn't feel like he was anymore.
Not sure if I believe him or not. I keep trying to believe him but it's still too fresh in my mind.
It's been a few months since this happened and he has started going to counseling. He is also doing everything he can think of to prove to me he is being faithful. He claims he will never seek attention from another woman, but I honestly don't believe that. I think he has to have it to feel good about himself. Even though I treat him wonderfully, and pour the attention on him, it's just not enough.
I only wish my pain could stop as easily as his has. He seems ok going on with daily life where I'm still struggling to eat and sleep even after 4 mos. Some days I'm okay, but others my entire world just shatters around me and I can't function at all. All I can see in my mind is his response to that ad and his pic attached. It still makes me sick to my stomach.
The worst part of all of this though is what it has done to my brain. I can't stop myself from looking on CL in every city he travels to now. I continue to post ads just to see if he will respond again. It's become a sick addiction that consumes me. I get my kids off to school and I spend the rest of my days searching. And I know I need to stop, but I just can't seem to make myself.
I probably get close to 100+ replies an hour whenever I do post an ad. Most (nearly 85%) are married men looking for a NSA hookup. It's disgusting and has really turned me off from men and marriage as a whole. Makes me wonder why I even want to try and make it work with him. I question if it's possible for men to be faithful at all????
Part of me gets so angry that I want to take all the pics these guys have sent me and post them on the web for the world to see. Maybe that will stop the madness!
But.... I won't. It's not my job to fix their marriages.
For now I just need to find some peace for myself and try to fix my broken heart before I completely go off the deep end.