Those of you who cheated, why did you do it? Rather than breaking up!

I did once in college. At the time I couldn’t tell you why, but on reflection I was quite numb from antidepressants, my best friend just died, I was young and had poor communication skills and low self-awareness, my partner was aggressive and I was scared of him. He’d lose his temper out of nowhere and trash the place and break my stuff. I found out he was texting a friend of mine behind my back and was planning to meet her. He’s also been meeting other friends who were girls and lying about where he was. I tried to break up with my him but he refused. I was in a low place and felt lonely and lost, a guy at work was so nice to me and I confided in him about my relationship problems and he kissed me and I let it happen. It made me forget for a minute how bad things felt and, this is difficult to admit, it was comforting and I felt like someone cared about me. After a few kisses I felt extremely guilty and was suicidal, I set a boundary, cut off all contact with the guy and then left that job. I told my boyfriend and honestly thought he would kill me but he didn’t. I don’t think he believed it was just a few kisses though. I often see things on here of people saying they don’t believe that. I think when it has occurred for emotional reasons a kiss is enough to both meet a need and also tear you apart with guilt. I still wish it never happened, I can understand now why though and have worked on building my self confidence and communication skills and I have never and would never do it again.

/r/relationship_advice Thread