Don’t jump from hurt to hate. Both the infidelity and the shame need to be taken seriously.
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A new couple greets me at my office for their Monday 11 am appointment. They enter with a polite “hi, nice to meet you” and a smile. They sit quietly listening to me explaining the counseling process and I can already feel the tension in the room.
He’s in shock of the reality of what he’s done.
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Melanie stares at me intensely, waiting to speak. Her husband, Jason, looks at the floor, then to the wall behind me, and quickly finds the floor again. I ask what brings them in to see me and the flood gates open. Quickly, Melanie is in tears telling me of the on-going relationship Jason was having with an out of town co-worker. Last week she caught him sending the other woman an e-mail detailing their next planned meet up.
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Good Men Doing Terrible Things
“I just don’t understand”, Melanie says, between choking back her tears. “This is not the man I married!”. I glance at Jason and I can tell he’s in what I would consider a “major shame attack”. He’s in shock of the reality of what he’s done. He’s blankly staring past me.
Jason is just as traumatized as his wife is. Married 8 years, 2 young children, and a beautiful wife. None of it could stop him from allowing what he says was “harmless flirting” to become a full blown affair. Now he’s left with more questions than answers and a suffocating sense of shame.
“How could someone do this?”
The truth is this is not an answerable question. The answer of “it was fun and exciting” doesn’t go over well. But that is often the truth. When it comes to infidelity, there is no “good” excuse or answer. The cheating partner often feels they are now, deep down, a terrible person. Fair? Maybe. Deserving? Perhaps. There’s an unavoidable sad truth in situations of adultery. The shame from the infidelity ends up being just as harmful to the relationship as the infidelity itself.
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Why Shame is Hard to Deal With
It’s his negative sense of self that was a big reason he sought attention outside his relationship.
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Shame is ugly. It’s so ugly, it’s the least studied human experience from a psychological perspective. We don’t want to touch it, read about, think about it, or talk about it. Even researchers don’t want anything to do with it. It’s part of the human experience but we react to it very much the same way we’d react to having a disease. It’s that awful.
It is apparent in my sessions with Jason and Melanie that Jason is a shameful person. This is evident before he married Melanie. It’s his negative sense of self that was a big reason he sought attention outside his relationship. Feeling shame has been a problem for him in the past but what he’s feeling now could paralyze him, push him away, or simply end his marriage.
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How Men Use Shame in a Destructive Manner
- Men deflect their true thoughts and feelings from their partner because they do not think they are entitled to them.
- Men can distance themselves emotionally from their partner because they were simply never taught how to be intimate.
- When desperate to get away from feelings of shame men can tend to express their insecure feelings by blaming their partner, or raging on them in anger to regain control of the situation or conversation.
- It’s common for men to attempt to shut down and give up trying to make their relationship better because of feelings of shame.
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Using “Healthy Shame” for Self Growth
We all know what shame feels like. We all know how paralyzing it can be.
He begins learning to use his shame as a reminder of how he doesn’t want to behave anymore, instead of taking his shame on as his identity.
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Shame does have a useful function. It can show us that our actions that have led to becoming shameful are not congruent to our true selves. Our true selves are the part of self that is sensing the shame. When we know we are “good person” who has acted outside of our true selves, we don’t have to become our shame. This relationship with shame is called “healthy shame”. When shame is used in this manner, it can promote self growth, understanding, and healing.
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Healing From Infidelity
A few sessions into our couples counseling, I begin work with Jason to relate to the part of himself that he knows he can be. Jason is a good guy. He’s thoughtful and caring. Jason and I spend much of the next two sessions making a different meaning for his relationship with shame. He begins learning to use his shame as a reminder of how he doesn’t want to behave anymore, instead of taking his shame on as his identity.
Melanie is supportive of Jason doing this as long as he agrees to work on their relationship. No more isolation and no more angry outbursts around the house. She wants him to be responsible for his actions but also heal enough to be the husband she knows he can be. Now he has to want it too. “Own the shame, Jason, but don’t become it”, I say. He nods in agreement.
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Nurturing the “Little Boy”
Shame can be a catalyst for a relationship. It can cause it to go one way or another.
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Ultimately, the scared and immature boy that committed the adultery is faced with a challenge. It’s the man’s responsibility to nurture and parent himself. He must work to nurture and love the “little boy” inside him. The same little boy who is selfish, careless, and sometimes cruel. It is nobody’s job but his own. Fully stepping into the person he is by stepping into his shame. It’s a curse and a gift that he has bestowed upon himself. It is his responsibility to make a choice.
Shame can be a catalyst for a relationship. It can cause it to go one way or another. Shame can further destroy self and relationships or it can promote growth and healing. Infidelity is indeed a horrible thing. It destroys marriages and families. Shame left untreated, can be passed down generations. My hope is that more men decide to step into their shame to become better men, husbands, and fathers.
(The characterizations in this article are fictitious. The story described is a compilation of my various experiences in working with couples and their experiences with infidelity and shame.)
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Photo: Getty Images
Article is incredibly spot on, in many ways. I think, however, if I was caught cheating I’d want to end the relationship due to fear of revenge/retaliation