- Date posted
- 1y
Cheating event, should I confess?
Months ago I was constantly worrying about cheating on my partner. We were in a long distance relationship, and I was a different school. I avoided many things such as making friends, speaking or even looking at attractive people. I told myself I would only keep the friends I already had, since I knew I had no feelings for them at all. I constantly alert, making sure I did not mess up. I reminded myself daily of the consequences of cheating. Hurting my partner, loosing my friends, breaking up, etc. During those months, I had many events where I convinced myself I had cheated. I would confess online and luckily everyone told me that I had nothing to worry about. I was doing alright for a couple of days. One day, about a month ago, however, I did something that I have not been able to get off my mind and it gets triggered when I see something about cheating on social media. I was responding to my best friend on instagram (she's also my girlfriend's best friend). I was responding to her reels. I had finished going through all of them. I suddenly thought about her being attractive, of how I wanted her. I sent another message, but it was associated with the reel. It wasn't suggestive, but I was trying to be flirty, to make a move on her. I sent it and exited the app. I was thinking of the picture where I thought she seemed pretty. I was going to go see it, but I stopped myself. I thought of how disrespectful it would be to my partner. But as soon as I stopped myself, I realized what I had just done, The message I had just sent. I panicked and tried to unsend it, but I didn't. It wouldn't undue what I did, I knew I did something wrong. When I tried to think back and remember why I did that or what I had thought, I couldn't. I wasn't sure I was remembering properly or I simply didn't want to because I was scared of the answer. I've always been cautious. Earlier that day I had an intrusive thought about cheating with this friend and I argued heavily against it with myself. I was also going to respond to people on this sub-reddit, but as soon as I started typing, I felt a weird sense of attraction and flirtatiousness and I didn't send a reply. I don't comprehend why I didn't recognize this and stop myself from sending that extra message to my friend. As for this friend, I love her, but not in that way. I've always felt jealous when she hung out with my girlfriend. I wished that were me instead. When I called my girlfriend and my friend was there, I wished she would fall asleep so I could have time alone with my partner. I am now back home, and I constantly find myself hoping my friend is busy so I can spend time with my girlfriend alone. This makes me feel guilty because I know I should spend time with my friend too. I have confessed to a therapist and they told me to not confess. But I just saw a TikTok saying that texting someone with flirtatious intent is cheating and how it is a dealbreaker and it triggered me. I feel like I should confess. This event keeps being in the back of my mind. But if I were to confess I feel like I would just sound stupid, because I don't remember the details and maybe they wouldn't believe me. But at the same time, I did something wrong and I technically cheated and I feel like a liar.