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I've come clean with partner, been forgiven, but feel consumed by guilt

 
 
Reply Fri 4 Feb, 2022 12:28 am
I've been with my partner for five years. A few months ago on a night out I was drinking with my ex-colleagues, and I was sitting by one who leant in and kissed me, I let the kiss go on for a few seconds before pulling away telling her I can't. After a week of trying to get over this myself, I couldn't contain the anxiety it was causing me and had to tell my partner. She was furious, but was willing to forgive me.

However, I hadn't been entirely honest and later confessed that a month into our relationship I had gotten extremely drunk at a club, kissed a girl and even took her number. I regretted it was a terrible mistake the next day, deleted her number and blocked her on facebook because it was a genuine mistake and I had no interest in talking to her or seeing her. I tried to rationalise it at the time as a drunken mistake that I would learn from and that I didn't need to hurt my partner by telling her. Again my partner was furious but forgave me (again) telling me that I was out of chances and gave me the opportunity then to lay all my cards on the table.

This is the problem, I didn't immediately again lay all my cards on the table. About a year into our relationship I was again on a night out with some friends of mine and there was a girl there who I got on well with and I drunkenly told her I liked her. Nothing happened, and the next day I apologised and told her it was a mistake and that I loved my girlfriend. And I haven't spoken to that girl since either. I eventually confessed this mistake too, and a further time that I had slow danced with a girl before my friend decided to step in and separate us.

These now are truly all my cards on the table, I have just told all last night and once again my girlfriend was furious. She explained to me that each of these events on their own is not break-up material but it's the fact that they've happened a few times, and also the fact that I haven't told her about them straight away. She is more annoyed that I essentially took the choice about what to do with the relationship away from her. I made the decision myself that they were stupid mistakes and that I should just get over them and resolve to be better.

I have been out loads of times and drink and normally I can control myself, but it does seem that now and again if I do drink I end up doing things and saying things, and putting myself in situations that are destructive to me and hurtful to the person I love. I can resolve to not drink or not go on night's out anymore, but I am still consumed by guilt by these mistakes I have made and the shadow they have cast over the relationship. I have been trawling through messages me and partner send each other and I was messaging her the very night I ended up kissing that girl and I found this particularly upsetting to see as I didn't even remember messaging her that night. We were in a really good place until all this came out, but now I am consumed with guilt and anxiety and I do not know how to get over it. I don't want to keep going over it with my partner, because it's not fair to keep bringing it up and dragging her into it but I also feel like I should be punished and that I do not deserve my partner or this life we have built together to the point where I cannot even sleep or eat. Is this something I can get over now that I have told her the truth - she is willing to forgive me and to work on the relationship but I am so guilt ridden I am becoming emotionally unavailable and feel like I don't deserve her even though she tells me that's not true. This is all very raw and I just do not know how to stop feeling like this.
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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 1,666 • Replies: 7
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jespah
 
  1  
Reply Fri 4 Feb, 2022 06:30 am
@Dasein1882,
This is exactly why therapy exists. Discuss this with an impartial professional, either together or by yourself.

Talk to them about not just this, but also how to better recognize when you're getting to a point where the bad behavior is about to recur. It's probably a sign for you to pay your tab, call a cab. and go home.
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Dasein1882
 
  1  
Reply Fri 4 Feb, 2022 06:55 am
Yeah I’ve reached out to a counselling service this morning. Despite the reassurances of my partner, I find myself combing over all my past behaviour and scrutinising it all to figure out when I was being less than an ideal partner to the point that I’m getting paranoid about my pay behaviour. She’s reassured me that in many ways I’m the best partner she’s ever had but I still can’t shake these thoughts and I’m dwelling in the past and can’t enjoy my current moment.
Frank Apisa
 
  1  
Reply Fri 4 Feb, 2022 10:41 am
@Dasein1882,
Dasein1882 wrote:

Yeah I’ve reached out to a counselling service this morning. Despite the reassurances of my partner, I find myself combing over all my past behaviour and scrutinising it all to figure out when I was being less than an ideal partner to the point that I’m getting paranoid about my pay behaviour. She’s reassured me that in many ways I’m the best partner she’s ever had but I still can’t shake these thoughts and I’m dwelling in the past and can’t enjoy my current moment.


Lots of us do that same thing.

I'm 85...and never a day goes by that a past indiscretion doesn't come to mind and cause a pang.

You just have to get over it...and one way to start is to realize this is not something unique to you. We all feel those kinds of things.

Another way to deal with it is the way Jespah suggested. Get some professional therapy.

And...you seem to be chalking up a lot of "questionable" behavior while drinking. Maybe...just maybe...you are doing too much of that. Cut it short.
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bobsal u1553115
 
  1  
Reply Sat 5 Feb, 2022 03:18 pm
Control of an outcome is an illusion, what we can control is our reaction to the outcome.

Go and sin no more. Fretting is unproductive, stop fretting.
0 Replies
 
Leadfoot
 
  0  
Reply Mon 28 Feb, 2022 12:49 pm
@Dasein1882,
The idea that we should/must love only one other causes so much agony doesn’t it.

0 Replies
 
Mrknowspeople
 
  0  
Reply Fri 11 Mar, 2022 05:39 pm
@Dasein1882,
Alcohol...man, that is a hell of a drug. It IS to blame - good luck letting yourself off on that excuse unless you've got the eye of the mind on your side. The world will try to say you don't get that excuse also.

Whatever. So we are talking about your guilt, right? I think the guilt is, in part, that you are unhappy with your life's consumption of time. You seem to return to a place that welcomes change when drunk auto-pilot takes over.

It is about everything in your life. It is their fault or it is your fault It matters. You are either responsible for them or you are not. Your girl forgave you but might be hoping you actually have this bro.

Do you think God exists in a way that allows "it" to know you, or at least, capable of knowing you? If so, why aren't you married?
Leadfoot
 
  0  
Reply Fri 11 Mar, 2022 08:12 pm
@Mrknowspeople,
Quote:
Do you think God exists in a way that allows "it" to know you, or at least, capable of knowing you? If so, why aren't you married?

That’s exactly how I used to think.
Turns out that the Bible is not very pro marriage. Paul even said it would be better to remain as he (unmarried). For some, that is the right answer.

Why is it that people think seeking God is synonymous with family?
0 Replies
 
 

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