My gf [F24] of 8 years cheated on me [M25]. I spent months trying to win her back. I was on the cusp of giving up. Then she got raped.

You're acting like a few months of your support when you aren't sure you want to be with with her is what she needs though when it's actually doing her and you a huge disservice. She needs to get support from people in her life who are 100% invested and trust her fully. That can come from other social support in her life or that could come from trained advocates, therapists, etc. But it isn't going to ever fully come from you and it's unhealthy to create an illusion that it will or otherwise let her become dependent on your relationship to get through this when you're already partially checked out of the relationship. After being in something that unhealthy the best thing for her is for all the relationships around her to be healthy ones. Your relationship is so unhealthy already because of the lies, the cheating, you pursuing her when she articulated it was over, the fact that there is a major part of you that wants to be single and date other people, the fact that she is wanting this at least partially as a result of recent trauma and crisis, the fact that she recently survived something traumatic, etc. With just one or two of those factors it could work, but with all of them you know you're doomed, you're even saying here you think you'll only be in it for a few months. What then happens to her after a few months when you've become a major component of her coping and healing process, her trauma symptoms are impacting your life and you want out and realize you still don't actually trust her or can't forgive her? Unless you're positive your relationship is going to last in a healthy way knowing that both of you will likely be extremely impacted by recent events, continuing to be her emotional support and promise a deep and intimate level of connection that you really can't deliver forever would be a big mistake and likely more detrimental to you and her in the long run. Be her friend if you can, give her a little space to heal and develop resilience in healthy and appropriate ways, and then if you still want to date her go for it. But if you jump into this relationship at its unhealthiest point, very little good will likely come out of it and you both have the potential to do a lot more damage to each other. For her own good she needs to learn to take care of herself and be single in dealing with this, I know that sounds harsh, but it really isn't. Running back to you when she knows she has always had you is not an act of love, it's an act of survival in trying to get emotional support from someone she thinks will always be there for her. The problems are that you won't always be there (so she is learning an unhealthy way of coping rather than learning to get her needs met in ways that will be feasible for her entire life) and that she wants to be with you for reasons other than because she wants a relationship with you for you.

/r/relationships Thread