"Finding Emails from Husband to Other Women" - Mr. Marriage Counselor

  

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Q: Me and my husband have been married almost 2 yrs, together for 3. We have 2 wonderful children but the whole marriage has been a struggle in one form or another. At first he was controlling and physical, I say that because he has never actually hit me. We have gotten past that and it hasn't happened since. Now I'm finding emails from my husband to other women, pics of himself that only I should see are being sent, and he's talking to women in an inappropriate manner for a married man which is basically telling them that he wants to sleep with them. My daughter is 6 months old and I found out right before she was born that when my son was a week old, he is now 2, my husband cheated on me. He also lies a lot. Even about small things and has excuses for getting caught while doing it. I have also caught him several times doing his "thing" watching porno at times when he hasn't tried to touch me in a week or so. His collection is enough to fill a small video store. I'm tired of being hurt by his lack of loyalty and honesty let alone him being faithful. I don't trust him at all whether I'm next to him or 1000 miles away and I'm suspicious about everything. I've told him I'm fed up and done with it, he asks what I want to fix it and I suggest counseling and he outright refuses to go. What do I do, I'm not feeling any better and I don't know how to fix the affection, trust, or the entire marriage for that matter. I love him with all my heart but there's only so many "mistakes" I can take.
--Shirley V.

A: I'm glad to hear that there's a limit to how much of this you can take.  Too many of us put up with much more "mistakes," and for much longer, than we ever should.  What you're experiencing is abuse.  It's the same as physical abuse, just in a different form. 

When our partner does not respect, love, or value us, its abuse.  You've accepted it too long already and you need to stop accepting it.  You can't stop his behavior of abusing you, but you can stop your accepting it.  When your husband sends emails to other women, he's not loving you the way you deserve, so start valuing yourself more and do something to change this.

You also need to go to marriage counseling without him.  A lot of men use refusing to go to counseling as a way to keep the things from changing.  And unfortunately too many wives accept this and keep putting up with being abused.  You don't have to accept his refusal or his abuse, so don't. 

Find a marriage counselor who can give you the support and guidance you need to get things to change.  As you realize, there's a lot in your relationship that needs to change.  And it can -- with or without him going to counseling.  A marriage expert on men will teach you how to do this.

--Kurt Smith, Marriage Counselor for Men

Got a question you'd like to Ask a Marriage Counselor?  Click here to submit it and I'll answer it in an up coming post.  Be sure to Sign Up by Email or RSS Feed in the column to the right so you'll get my answer as soon as it's published.

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