Betrayal Takes Many Forms
Some of us have been betrayed with pornography or prostitutes, fantasies with which we can’t compete. For some of us, the other woman takes on many faces – one-night stands, the co-worker, our best friend, or faceless names on the internet.
All forms of sexual betrayal reflect unhealthy emotions in our partner. And because we are touched by it daily, we, too, become emotionally unhealthy and spiritually bankrupt. Our illness shows itself in many ways also. We obsess, we rage, we stalk, we withdraw, we bury ourselves in denial or work. The one unavoidable constant is our pain.
BUT, we can choose what to do while we’re in pain.
We can try to ignore it, to bury it so deeply inside that for the moment we can’t feel it. Others of us may focus on our pain, magnify it, hanging on to our victimhood.
Or we can choose to focus on the behaviors that will free us from our pain, behaviors that will bring us relief, healing, and recovery. We can choose counseling or prayer. We can focus on forgiveness. We can find the support of healthy people who understand our pain because they’ve been where we are.
What we feed will grow; let us feed our recovery.
Today I will respond to the unhealthy circumstances in my life with healthy behaviors. I will feed my spirit. I will begin the process of healing.
~ Alice May
Dr. Janice Caudill is the founder and Clinical Director of McKinney Counseling & Recovery. MCR offers individual, couples, group therapy and multi-day intensives for partners of sex addicts and wounded hearts struggling with sex addiction, infidelity, love addiction or love avoidance, intimacy anorexia, or relational trauma in the McKinney, Plano, Allen, Richardson, Frisco, Carrollton, Lewisville, Dallas and surrounding areas.
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