I had someone reach out to me and ask to put it into context the impact his affair had on his wife. With infidelity, I’ve learned that to understand the depth of the damage that has been done you have to experience it, otherwise you’ll never understand. Each situation is different. This isn’t like in TV or the movies; this is real life.
I did reach back out to this reader with this article from YouTango that provided a better example of what the impact of an affair.
Your spouse’s emotional pain knows no boundaries.
There’s no way you will ever know and understand how traumatizing your affair is to your partner, even if this has been done to you before. Everyone responds to affairs and traumatic experiences differently.
If you’re concerned about your partner’s pain, I challenge you to imagine the worst thing your partner could ever do to you and multiply that by 10. And then imagine having no idea when that pain will go away.