"In September, when a stranger reached out proffering a photo album of incriminating screenshots ― a Tinder profile showcasing my husband's smiling face, in which he claimed he was "slightly married," a series of graphic sexual text messages, and time logs of hourlong phone conversations ― I realized that these earlier claims weren't exaggerated or relegated to a sensitive few. The knot twisting in my stomach proved their validity."
"I couldn't sleep. I could barely eat. I lost weight. The walk to the STD testing clinic felt like a funeral march. And through it all, that horrible movie kept playing on repeat, torturing me with all the visuals and sounds and smells that I imagined had occurred in his adulterous moments. In a frenzy of despair, I banished a couch ― "the couch of sin" I called it ― onto a truck-bound journey that assured I would never see it again."
After 16 years of presumed monogamy, a spouse discovered three and a half years of cheating when a stranger sent a photo album of screenshots: a Tinder profile, explicit sexual text messages, and time logs of hourlong phone calls. Some encounters occurred in the marital home and some without protection. The revelation triggered intense grief and a sense that the person believed to be a partner had died, along with weight loss, insomnia, and anxiety leading to an STD clinic visit. Persistent intrusive images and imagined sensory details produced ongoing torment. Initial impulse favored divorce, but extensive therapy and support from open-minded friends began to create alternative paths forward.
Read at BuzzFeed
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