When your partner cheats

The first step towards lessening the pain is to verbalise the trauma. Talk out your experience with a friend. It helps reach a logical decision as your mind is clouded with conflicting thoughts making you incapable of taking a decision.

It was a crumpled hand written love note that marked an end to Rahul and Samaira’s (names changed) five-year-old relationship. “I found it in his car. The discovery that Rahul has been sleeping with Rupali, an intern in his office, brought my world crashing down. I reacted like a lunatic, sunk into depression, and popped sleeping pills at night,” shares the 28-year-old HR executive. Two years post her break up, she can laugh about it: “It happened for good. I lost 8 kg in 2 months flat!” On a serious note, she says, “It seemed the end of the world then. The realisation that my man was cheating on me was killing. But thank God I found out before it was late,” says Samaira.

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Samaira is not the only one to have faced such an ordeal. Recently Shania Twain shared in an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show how she penned down her anguish in a letter she wrote to her friend Marie-Anne, who allegedly had an affair with her husband Robert Lange, pleading her to leave her husband. A breakup can be devastating if the cause is another man or woman, say experts. “There is loss of trust, angst and despair. There’s a major emotional setback too,” says psychologist Dr Sandeep Vohra.

People also often experience disbelief when they discover that their partner is cheating. “When you love someone, you think that the person is incapable of hurting you. It takes a while to accept the truth,” says relationship expert Dr Kamal Khurana. But counselling and support from your loved ones can help cope up with the trauma.