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I went to bed on Saturday night feeling peaceful. I had a lot of healing still to do, but I felt like I was on the right track. This morning, BW woke me up with a question about past bachelor parties. I started to answer confidently, then suddenly had a realization completely unrelated to bachelor parties. I said “shit” with a sinking feeling and then shared with her a memory that had just surfaced. It involved an interaction with the AP that I hadn’t previously shared with her. I spent the day in some dark places, dredging up memories that I had buried. I shared new information with her on a couple fronts, including an incident from early in our relationship, a year before we were married, and some of my darker and more delusional/arrogant thought processes from the run-up to the A.

I feel awful about this. I know that I’ve hurt her. I’m frightened of what I’ve done to our chances for R. The thing is, I truly thought I was being open with her. I’ve lied to myself as much as to her and I’m terrified that I'm still forgetting or suppressing something. I’ve suppressed a lot of stuff and also have been so secretive my entire life that prior to the A being discovered I hardly shared ANYTHING with her. I'm not hiding things from her deliberately at this point, but since I never told her anything previously (and that’s not nearly as much of an exaggeration as you probably think) there are lots of things that I haven’t given any thought to in years and PROBABLY aren’t important but how do I know? She deserves to know everything about her husband, but I don’t know how to suddenly share the past 12 years with her in the way that I should have done originally.

She is hurt and angry, as she has every right to be. She recognizes – recognized long before I was ready to – that I’m seriously unhealthy and have a lot to work on. She said tonight that we should work out a schedule for when I would spend time away so we could both have the peace we needed to work on things. I’ve said myself recently that I could use some downtime to work on my shit, but when she first brought this up I bristled at it, thinking she meant more of a separation than perhaps she does. (Regardless of what she meant, I realize that bristling was an unhelpful reaction.) I don't know exactly what she's thinking about it - we shifted into other topics and then she fell asleep - and I'm trying to keep an open mind. Acknowledging her right to make herself feel safe and work on her own healing is easy, intellectually, but it still hurts to face the prospect of being sent away from her, the kids, home.

I love her now more than I ever have. My perspectives have changed, my attitudes have changed. I’m not the man I was. I know that I have a lot more healing still to do. But damn, it sucks to face the fact that she will be happier if I’m not around. I just want to bury my face in her hair and breathe her in, wrap my arms around her and let her know that it’s going to be OK. But that won’t work, because I’m the one who’s making it not OK. This all just sucks so much.

I, unfortunately, have no words of wisdom. I only have my own experience, which is sadly very similar. So much suppressed, hidden away from my own eyes...

I will just say that you are not alone. Keep your chin up and keep working on you. It's the very least that we owe ourselves, and our spouses.

[This message edited by Wayflost at 11:29 AM, February 5th (Wednesday)]

I am going through a major TT. I have held back from my BS and have come to the conclusion that the truth is the only thing that will save us. I find that whenever I share a truth it is far more helpful than it having to be pulled out or otherwise discovered.

Thanks for the replies, and the support. BW and I had a good conversation on Monday night (not that we haven't talked since then), and I do think we'll figure something out with respect to getting some alone time. She took a weekend back in the fall and just got away entirely, and it was helpful for her. I will perhaps do something similar, or maybe do something more.

For those who read some of the workaholic posts a week or so ago, that behavior pattern feeds into distortion and denial, as well. I was secretive already before what I would consider my "escape" into workaholism, so the tendencies were probably more pronounced than usual for me.

WS here.

I feel for you. I have TT'd 5 out of the 6 years I have been married. The mind justifies this behavior somehow and one has to ride the wave and realize that it's nonsense and that we have to tell the truth. Hang in there!