March 21, 2010
by Rod Smith
“I cheated on my wife. She was easy, telling me daily about her lack of love and missing a man. She had a husband but confided in me. My wife worked a lot to better our finances. I wish I could undo the affair. Men lie to get sex. I didn’t think of her until the next time I went back for sex. She used the ‘love’ word and to make sure I got what I wanted I used it too. Even if my wife had left me she wasn’t my type. Men do lie. I made her think I cared. I’d send her cards to make sure I got what I wanted. When my wife found out she threatened to leave and says I ruined her life. The other woman wanted me but I didn’t want her. I would rather stay with my wife and not have love than to be with the other woman. She was ‘okay’ in bed, but that’s all.” (Edited of derogatory terms for women)
No, sir, not all men lie – but you do. Once you see there is more to life than sex, and more to people than objectifying them, you might (it is a possibility) move beyond your apparent fixation with your private parts and discover real joy.
Posted in Affairs, Betrayal, Boundaries |
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December 27, 2009
by Rod Smith
“Not every married man’s situation is the same. I have a friend who is a married man who happens to be so unhappy it just makes my heart break. He has been nothing but the sweetest guy for me. Whether or not we end up together isn’t the end goal, it’s ALL about being happy and sharing that with each other. It is true an extremely happy marriage won’t leave a spouse ripe for an affair, but to tell someone they have to stay miserable while in one and have no way to share happiness with another human being is absurd.”
Deal with what you have, first.
Any relief a married man finds outside of his marriage will be short-lived and heartbreaking to all concerned. The issue regarding “your” unhappy man is not whether he can be “sweet” to you but whether he can be honest with his wife. Of course I am aware that not all marriages must continue for some are beyond toxic, but the solution is not reached by searching outside of the marriage while a person is still in it.
Affairs are seductive, seducing you away from the real problem, and preventing an arrival at its solution. If it is ” ALL about being happy and sharing with each other” and you choose to do so with a man who is married, it will ALL be very powerful, and very temporary.
Posted in Affairs, Anger, Attraction, Betrayal, Blended families, Boundaries |
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December 23, 2009
by Rod Smith
Some things are overrated for their power to shape people. Before I am barraged with mail, kindly note I am not suggesting these things are not important. I am suggesting they are offered more power to heal or hurt than appropriate:
1. Parenting: While of course it is important parents do all they can to be good parents, do the right and loving thing, and be available to help and correct and love their young – multiple factors influence and shape children into adults. Thank God my children are infinitely more than, much more, than a product of my parenting.
2. Empathy: Counselors spend much time developing their ability to embrace the experience of the client – as if understanding the client, feeling what the client feels, is in itself the silver bullet of greater mental health. Empathy is not, in itself, a useful end. Thank God my professors offered me personal challenges, invited me to embrace change, while also attempting to understand and embrace my experience.
3. Childhood: I believe our self-help culture has managed to convince the masses that, pivotal to ensuring healthy adulthood, is a happy childhood. While no one in their right mind desires an unhappy childhood for any child, an unhappy childhood does not preclude a person from a full, purposeful, and prosperous adulthood. Look around you: many men and women with the most troubled of childhoods have risen above it all and changed the world – for good.
Posted in Adolescence, Affairs, Anger, Attraction, Betrayal, Differentiation, Difficult Relationships, Forgiveness, Friendship, High maintenance relationships, Leadership, Love, Manipulation, Parenting/Children, Past relationships |
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November 9, 2009
by Rod Smith
Your brief question leaves many unaddressed variables. That you desire sex might be considered a positive thing in the wake (no cheap pun intended) of your loss. Yet, if you have used sex in the past as an escape, rather than as a means to contributing to a mutual, respectful, and equal relationship, you will be furthering behavior that is ultimately destructive for you. Then, if you adhere to a faith tradition which precludes you from engaging in sex outside of marriage, you might find some short-term relief in sexual behavior, but you will ultimately self-inflict emotional and spiritual discord.
But I will assume you, an adult who has endured a significant loss, are understandably reaching out for love and affection.
Three things:
1. You are not betraying the deceased.
2. You and your faith tradition decide on when is acceptable to you to have sex (it is not up to anyone else).
3. You will take into account that sexual behavior is never purely recreational.
It is impossible to do something so profoundly intimate with your body that doesn’t also impact every other aspect of your emotional and spiritual life.
Posted in Affairs, Anger, Attraction, Boundaries, Communication, Differentiation, Difficult Relationships, Faith, Friendship, Grace, Grief, Listening, Living together, Love, Manipulation, Marriage, Sex education, Sex matters, Sexual abuse, Sexual compatibility, Voice |
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November 5, 2009
by Rod Smith
My ex-girlfriend won’t let go. We have been broken up for three years and had many conversations covering the reasons the relationship did not work. She continued to buy me clothes, make me food, send me cards, and try to see me for one last thing she needed to understand. I think I have been very patient but everything I say has to be broken down into precise meanings and explained to death. Here is the simple truth: I don’t want to be her boyfriend any longer and she doesn’t seem to get it. When I tell her I am free 
She won't let go....
Do not enter into any conversations in the attempt to explain yourself. You will not end viral activity (she is not a virus, being “locked on” to you is evidence of an emotional virus) if you continue to feed or facilitate the virus in any manner. Change your phone numbers and your email address. Accept no more gifts of any sort – and return, unopened, gifts that arrive.
Posted in Affairs, Anger, Attraction, Betrayal, Boundaries, Communication, Differentiation, Difficult Relationships, Voice |
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September 20, 2009
by Rod Smith
“My husband checks my emails, my cell phone and computer history, and my credit card statements. He also grills me daily about my conversations. He’d really prefer me not to work so he knows where I am and what I am doing but we need the money. You’d think I have a history of indiscretions the way he goes on. He’ll even know I have written this email to you and he won’t be happy about it. What can I do?”
Stand up to him....
you are going to have to take back the legitimate power you have over your life. Jealousy and controlling behavior are NEVER signs of love. The man has a virus and cooperating with it (the virus) will only make things worse. While you have been conditioned to think you have few or no options, you have more than you realize.
Understanding you will pay for your actions, stand up to him, change your passwords – do whatever it takes to secure your privacy. That you have nothing to hide doesn’t mean anyone (even your husband) ought to have the freedom to look. Men who have the need to control their wives usually have real control over little else. If, as a result of your stand, he gets a life of his own, he won’t have the need to monitor or be so consumed with yours.
Posted in Affairs, Anger, Betrayal, Boundaries, Differentiation, Difficult Relationships, Divorce, Domination, High maintenance relationships, Triangles, Victims, Violence, Voice |
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September 2, 2009
by Rod Smith
Take up your life
I am struck by the frequency of letters I receive with a common theme. It goes like this.
“I have a ‘special relationship’ with my boss. He relies on me more than he does on his wife. I know more than she does about his life, business, and finances. It is totally non-sexual. It is because it is not sexual that we CAN talk about anything. He pays me less than he should but I understand. One day he will make it up when things improve. I get jealous about where he spends his time. If he wants a friend, I am his friend. When he wants to be the boss you’d think we were almost strangers. This hurts but I can’t tell him because them I sound like his wife. I can’t leave. I know too much about the business and he needs me. Yet, I am too emotionally attached. Pleas help.”
Bailing out and letting the chips fall where they may is the only option. While the boss requires a course in growing up, the employee ought to learn to get her emotional needs met outside of the workplace. Both are at fault – but the boss, being the one with the power, is responsible for the (mis)shape of the relationship.
Posted in Affairs, Attraction, Betrayal, Boundaries, Communication |
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July 12, 2009
by Rod Smith
There’s a segment of women in the wider community who, for some reason, are primarily attracted to unavailable men (married, committed, etc.) can you explore that as a topic of discussion?
It's self-esteem
to unavailable men have a low self-esteem (lack of a healthy sense of self). The confident exterior is a façade that covers the inadequacy they feel that lurks underneath, haunting them. They are drawn to the “chase” and the secretive way of life as it brings a sense of intense emotional intimacy that cannot be achieved without the third person (the wife or girlfriend). The focus is on the shortcomings of the third person of the inability to maintain a healthy relationship of her own.
From Canberra
within the family structure, we learn to relate. It is in the family that we learn giving and receiving of unconditional love – we learn ‘you are special, you belong, you are such a significant part of this family.’ This message meets and nurtures a very deep need inside of each us.
I know, I know, not many of us have that experience!
Any childhood wounding, from a lack of love and nurture, will influence greatly how we relate as adults. It sounds very simple, but life becomes very complicated as a result of our drive to get our relational needs met; to receive those messages that never came to us as children.
I ask women with a history of being attracted to unavailable men, what it is about the men they found attractive. They often tell me it was the man’s sensitivity and ability to ‘connect’. And/Or, they tell me that there was something in the man that turned was like their father. One speaks of the relational need, the other: unresolved issues from family.
Jo Russell, Scotland
wondering if women who are attracted to unavailable men are actually unavailable for relationships themselves. They say they want to be in a relationship, and they may think they want to be in a relationship, but then choose unavailable men as a way of then avoiding the reality of relationship. To love someone, and to be loved by someone can be devastating, particularly if our experience of loving thus far has been complicated by disappointment or hurt. It is easier to manage our fears when we don’t embrace the risks, and we believe we are inoculating ourselves from further pain. Far from advocating initiating a relationship with a man who is married or committed to someone else, find those who are already your friends; love them, and learn to let them love you.
Posted in Affairs, Attraction, Betrayal |
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July 9, 2009
by Rod Smith
“I am the other woman in a relationship of five years. It just came out, and now the wife is leaving. I feel horrible. Should I contact her and confess? I have felt guilty for years but never ended it. I probably never would have ended if this wouldn’t have happened. The guy wants to still continue to see me but I just can’t.”
From Canberra
, feeling valuable and significant in a special someone’s life can override any of value/belief systems. Confessing to the wife will not alleviate your guilt. Perhaps this present circumstance is a good time to explore deeper why you put yourself through such inner turmoil in order to get your needs met.
Stay out....
Don’t fall for the “closure” nonsense. You will be no help to the wife, and, it is already established that you and the husband are no good for each other. Five years is a long time to deceive. I have no doubt deception will have become a way of life for you, possessing somewhat of an addictive quality. Although you have contributed to significant damage for this couple, you cannot participate in their, or her, healing. Don’t try. Your complete disregard for the sanctity of marriage reflects on your apparent disregard for yourself. It is going to be a long road, but I hope you find the one that leads you to a realization of your own inestimable value.
Remove yourself....
that you became the “other woman.” Feeling guilty for years is the direct result of living a lie. It’s interesting that you ended it after the wife found out and is leaving. A confession would serve to alleviate some of your guilt perhaps, but is irrelevant and may cause more hurt to the wife unless it is something she requests for her own healing. Remove yourself. Allow them to deal with the pain that is the consequence of an extramarital affair. Learn from your feelings of guilt, sit with them, and allow this to stop you from dating married men again. Spend energy working on yourself consider the possibility of becoming involved in a healthy relationship that is open and free.
Posted in Affairs, Betrayal, Boundaries, Differentiation, Difficult Relationships, Divorce |
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July 1, 2009
by Rod Smith
“I’m 30, 6′2″ and Christian. I am a former athlete and model with two masters degrees and still a virgin. Recently I had an affair with a married man and I broke it off but he text-ed me yesterday and I changed my mind. Me? The other woman! Never. He’s well known, charismatic, a leader/mentor/father and is almost 20 years my senior. I’m tired of being alone and somewhere close to the twentieth bridesmaid dress. Men come along, but they’re significantly shorter than I am. I always like feeling protected and taller guys are preferred. My friend asked me, ‘What is it about you and unavailable men?’ Please help.”
Write to us...
Desperation, no matter how educated or decently packaged, is unattractive to healthy men. Ironically, it makes you a sitting duck for predators as in the “leader/mentor/friend.” Seeing a married man will not land you in your own wedding dress.
Here’s my suggestion: Get your focus completely off finding a husband (or someone else’s husband) and make peace with your parents and the members of your family who are one generation immediately before you. Get legitimate protection – then you will not need to seek it at all costs.
Welcome, Kathryn!
You are a quick fix, a way for him to escape into the illusion of love that only holds the attention for so long. Lasting relationships are founded on truth, if marriage is what you desire.
Consider spending time discovering who you are, what it is you need and desire out of a relationship and hopefully, when you begin to know yourself better, you may become the bride. Cut all communication and remove yourself from the situation.
Posted in Affairs, Attraction, Betrayal, Communication, Differentiation, Difficult Relationships, Divorce |
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