Affairs
and Infidelity
The Reasons Cheaters Cheat
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Dr. Frank
Gunzburg
Baltimore Maryland |
Unfortunately, there is
not one simple answer that addresses why all people who get
involved in affairs do so. People are complex and engage in
infidelity for different reasons. When we talk about the
“reasons” the affair happened, it might seem as though the
affair were inevitable or somehow a justifiable course of
action. I don’t want to give you that impression. As such,
it might be better to think of these as themes for the
justification of the affair, rather than the “reason” it
happened. Here are a few themes that seem to come up again
and again:
» Some people cheat because they aren’t getting their
needs met inside their relationships. They are under the
deluded notion that going outside their relationships is a
legitimate answer. It isn’t.
» In some cases, people cheat because they have never
learned to honor boundaries. They know the boundaries are
there, but they have little hesitation about stepping over
them.
» Some people are thrill seekers who just can’t pass
up the opportunity to get a thrill. The very fact that these
people are doing something that is taboo compels them to
engage in the affair.
» Similarly, some men think that they are not a real
man if they turn down a sexual invitation from someone
attractive.
» Some people have low self-esteem, and they get a
sense of self-worth through finding people who care about
them.
» In some cases, people have sexual fetishes that
their partners have problems with, so they go outside their
relationships in order to fulfill these sexual desires.
» A very common theme is that people cheat because
their partners no longer make them feel special. These
people go outside their relationships thinking that another
person might fill this gap.
Whatever the underlying
reasons, cheaters cheat because they have the mistaken
notion that going outside their relationships will solve
their problems or fulfill some aspects of their characters.
Some people have a
defective sense of commitment. (I most commonly see this in
men.) They might expect themselves to be totally honest in
other situations, but feel they don’t have to be when it
comes to women. Although they usually vehemently deny it at
first, these men have a denigrating view of women, putting
them in a second-class position. I am assuming that the men
reading this book are much less likely to be in this group
because you are devoting this time and energy to repairing
your relationship, which requires equitability between you
and your partner. In the end, the reason why cheaters cheat
is not of paramount importance. You can ask why they did
what they did until you’re blue in the face, and each
scenario could present a different answer.
The typical reason it
is so important to the injured person to find out why the
affair happened is based on the mistaken notion that if you
want to stop or change a behavior, you have to know what
triggered the behavior in the first place. If you don’t know
why it happened, the thinking goes, you can’t stop it from
happening again. Unfortunately, if you try to find out why
the affair happened, the best you will probably get is some
kind of justification for why it started, or perhaps a list
of factors that are built to make the infidelity seem like
less of a crime than it is.
More importantly, you
don’t have to know why an action happened to keep it
from happening again. In some cases, exploring what went
into the cheater’s choice to cheat can help protect them
against the possibility of cheating again, but this isn’t
universally the case, and it isn’t what is going to keep
your partner from cheating in the future. That will take
hard work and commitment. Neither you nor your partner needs
to investigate what lead to the affair to recommit to being
faithful to each other.What is important is that both of you
want to heal your relationship and are ready to do the work
necessary to achieve that objective. The techniques this
book is founded on will help you restore your relationship
regardless of why the cheating partner decided to have an
affair.
It is time to let this
question go. Recognize that there may be reasons that this
happened, but that figuring out the reasons doesn’t take you
that much closer to rebuilding your relationship together.
What will move you in that direction is figuring out
what you need in this relationship, how those needs have
been neglected, and how your needs interface with your
partner’s needs.
"Discover How to Restore the Trust After An
Affair - FREE Course"
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"I'll
show you how to end the
pain, restore the trust, ask
the tough questions, and
most importantly, determine
exactly how your marriage or
relationship can be saved
after an affair
AND how likely it is that an
affair will happen again
(and what you can do right
now to prevent it)..." |

Dr. Frank
Gunzburg
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Download this
FREE new 7-step email course from Dr. Frank
Gunzburg and start learning today how to
restore the trust back into your
relationship.
You'll
learn...
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How to
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affair
-
How to
cope with initial trauma of the affair
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sane
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How to get
the images out of your mind
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How to
talk about the details of the affair
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Why the
affair happened and how to prevent it
from happening again
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part 1.
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Dr. Frank Gunzburg is a licensed counselor in
Maryland and has been specializing is helping
couples restore their marriage for over 30 years. He
is also the author of How to Survive an Affair, a
step-by-step healing system that can help a couple
repair their relationship after it has been
shattered from an affair.
If your relationship has been damaged by an affair
and you would like a step-by-step system for
repairing your relationship, then please visit Dr.
Gunzburg's site for more information:
http://www.surviveanaffair.com
This article was used by permission from
How to Survive An Affair:
The Seven Emotional Trials the Cheater Will Face
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