“Limbo” – that place between knowing your sexually addicted spouse is not in recovery, and feeling like there’s nothing you can do about it, except divorce, or just “live with it.”
I’m here to tell you, that you don’t have to stay there. There is a way out of that life-sucking limbo: boundaries.
I was there for over 20+ years, of my 28 year relationship. Then I finally understood boundaries and felt sane for the first time in my wounded marriage.
Boundaries are what freed me from that limbo. Boundaries gave me the data I needed, to know if my sexually addicted husband could change and become a safe person, or not. Boundaries gave my husband choices, to either seek recovery or choose his addiction and experience the consequences of me choosing to leave the relationship.
Boundaries don’t seek to change other people. They communicate what YOU will do, in response to another’s behavior that makes you feel unsafe physically or emotionally.
It’s important to express how you feel, and what emotions and values you have based these boundaries on, when you communicate them. Your voice is important.
For example, you can set a boundary around:
- Consistent recovery activities
- A relapse prevention plan.
- Your partner sever all ties and no longer have any contact with an affair partner
- That there be no pornography in your home
- That you will not be in a relationship with an addict who is not fully embracing recovery and following all treatment recommendations
- That you not be touched in a way that causes you discomfort, or without your permission
- Your boundaries are communication about what you will and will not accept.
- Anything that you’re not comfortable with, or causes you pain.
Your boundaries, and other people’s response to them, will give you important information about whether or not your relationship is salvageable or not.
A boundary not enforced, is not a boundary. In other words, if you don’t constantly and continually enforce your boundaries, you are disrespecting your own feelings and values, and sacrificing yourself for the sake of the relationship. If you don’t enforce boundaries around your safety, because you’re afraid of abandonment, you’ve already abandoned yourself. You deserve better, and you can have it.
This is the formula and script I was taught to use by my awesome therapist:
I WILL/WON’T ( what you will do to feel safe, for example, ask you to sleep on the couch, invite you to my therapist’s office, go to xyz’s house, enact an in house separation and not be in relationship with you — whatever makes you feel safe until he can change the behavior)”
So if you don’t seek recovery, I will ask you to leave this home. If you cannot leave this home, I request that you sleep in another room. I will not be in relationship with you. I will not provide you with relationship comforts such as sex, physical touch, emotional conversation, and we will only discuss housing, shared financial responsibility and co-parenting. This will be in effect while I consider my options regarding the future of this relationship. Meanwhile, I will seek counseling with a qualified trauma therapist, and seek support groups for spouses of sex addicts. My hope is that you will seek recovery, so we can work towards a healthy future together.”
These are expressions of a boundary, not an ultimatum. An ultimatum is said with anger, and says bluntly, “Stop, or I will leave you forever.” That does not foster an environment for the addict to make a better choice or leave any room for “progress, not perfection” which is required for recovery from a disease like sexual addiction.
You have the courage to enforce it, and a group of recovery support friends to encourage you, keep you grounded in reality. I encourage you, to get with a qualified therapists and read that to him in their office, where the addict can’t play word games, gaslight, minimize, justify, blame, guilt you, with his response.
Boundaries set me free from the insanity of limbo. In my case, my husband choose recovery.
I won’t sugar coat this: Some men may not choose recovery, and in that case, that’s data you can use to decide your own future.
Either way, it frees you from limbo, so you can pursue joy again.
For a limited time our Recovery Boundaries Support group is open. Join and get support on the who, what, when, where and why of boundaries for recovery from intimate and sexual betrayal trauma, so you can feel safe again.
Recovery boundaries support group. Get support for boundaries to guard against gaslighting, blame, denial, minimization, manipulation and isolation.
Recovery resources: Therapeutic, Support Groups, Online Communities, Books
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