What To Do When You’ve Been Caught Cheating. In working with couples in Affair Recovery I refer to the person who cheated as the Affair Partner and the person who was cheated on as the Hurt Partner. As a Marriage Counselor I see couples whose affair has just been discovered or in other words they’ve just been caught cheating and are at a crossroads in having to minimize doing further damage. Some individuals will deny until they are blue in the face. Others will become defensive and skirt around the subject digging a deeper hole for themselves. Don’t let yourself get caught up in a delayed disclosure where damage control only reveals the necessary information to get through the initial crisis. The story you tell will change daily as your partner continues to push for more information to confirm their findings. As you receive more pressure you’ll start to divulge the true details and incriminating facts which then become significantly damaging and even irreparable for redeveloping trust and recovery.
What To Do When You’ve Been Caught Cheating
What you can do to minimize further damage:
1. Be truthful. – Clients often tell me that had the Affair Partner been 100% truthful and fully incriminated themselves from the beginning of the discovery, the relationship could have been saved. As scary as it is to come clean and admit, continuing to lie makes it worse. Surprisingly, the Hurt Partner can endure the pain of hearing the awful truths but cannot and will not endure the agony of having to dig for those truths over and over again.
2. Caretake your partner’s needs. – Typically after getting caught, the Affair Partner will create even more damage by taking care of the hurt feelings of their Lover as this person may also be distraught and devastated as they too are now in a crisis. Any attempts to comfort or continue to communicate with the Lover will be seen as further betrayal. It is important to show remorse, be transparent, be readily available for your partner and show empathy for them rather than continue to defend yourself or caretake your own feelings at this point.
3. Be committed to finding out what went wrong. – Acknowledge the impact of what this has done to your partner and show commitment through your behavior that you want to understand why this happened. Find a Marriage Counselor or Couples Counselor that specializes in Affair Recovery so that you both know what is needed to repair your relationship.
4. Develop Empathy for your partner. – Having empathy for your partner is imperative as it shows you are able to understand their anger, intense sadness, hurt, and loss even though you are struggling with your own feelings of shame, guilt and fears. Knowing you are caretaking the needs of and showing empathy for your partner will help you avoid saying things like, “I’ve answered that question already, why do you keep asking me the same questions, I told you I was sorry, when is this going to end, I’m not going to answer that, what about my pain? etc.”
5. Be Transparent. – Moving forward. Being transparent means when there is any communication between the Affair Partner and the Lover via email, phone, text, face to face, in-person, through another person, etc., you are to share that information with your partner with no exception. You may think this is counterintuitive as it will further anger/upset your partner. Not doing so will be a damaging choice. It will be even worse if it is later discovered that you once again “hid” something. Telling the truth means no lying, no filtering, no lying by omission, no editing, no withholding, no rationalizing, even if it incriminates you. This is how trust is rebuilt.
6. Self-Care. – Finally take care of yourself during this challenging time. The crisis stage is a time when couples don’t know whether they want to stay together or split. Emotions run like a roller coaster. Develop a support system of people you trust and who can give you support. Don’t share the details of your relationship problems as this is private information between you and your partner. Getting some Individual Counseling to manage depression and anxiety would be helpful while your partner decides whether they want to pursue Marriage/Couples Counseling. Don’t inappropriately act out your emotions through excessive drinking or behavior that can worsen your circumstances.
What To Do When You’ve Been Caught Cheating
Getting caught cheating can be very worrisome. During the crisis stage emotions run rampant and people don’t always think clearly. It is important to seek professional help sooner rather than later so you don’t lost the opportunity for further damage control.
Please call me at (858) 735-1139 so I can help you both talk about what happened, why, and how to move forward through the process of Affair Recovery.