The Hardest Stage of Affair Recovery

The Challenges of Infidelity

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The early stages of healing from infidelity are often the hardest.

Triggers are rampant, causing pain and frustration for both partners.

How each partner deals with triggers can mean the difference between mending or ending the marriage.

One of the main reasons healing a marriage after infidelity is so difficult—even when both people have the best of intentions—is that recovery is anything but steady.

Just when it seems like you’re starting to turn a corner and feel a bit more like yourself again, something happens, and you’re right back where you started. Discouragement sets in. Hope begins to fade.

Then, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get yourself back on track. Only for a while, that is, until the next land mine trips you up.

The ups and downs become unbearable, leaving both spouses thinking, “Are we going to make it?” “Should we even bother trying?” “Maybe we’d be better off going our separate ways.”

If you or anyone you know is trying to heal after an affair, I’m certain that what you just read sounds all too familiar. And perhaps you’re wondering why it seems impossible to gain any traction in putting the affair and its aftermath in the past.

For the last few decades, I’ve been specializing in helping couples heal from infidelity and move past this universal quicksand in the recovery process. Here’s what I have learned about the best ways to ensure that the setbacks don’t permanently derail you in your quest to bring joy and peace back into your lives.

Accept that triggers are inevitable

Regardless of how much........

© Psychology Today