[mickie1967]

I'd like to ask a question and hope someone can help me...

Can infidelity cause post traumatic stress?

[volatile]

it can cause stress and trust issues and things like that but I don't think it can cause ptsd.

[Fox]

Define: trauma

• injury: any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.
• an emotional wound or shock often having long-lasting effects

With this in mind you have to ask what sort of shock found upon infidelity. Are you expecting long-term affects from this? If so it's possible, but in all truthfullness not likely. The hurt feelings and distrust resulting is very damaging but it's not along the same lines of verbal or physical abuse in a relationship which does often lead to PTSD.

[amante]

that's a really good question, I'm not sure, but I would be interested to find out more. I'm not sure it would be classed as a factor alone for causing PTSD.

[jenkins09]

Yes it can. I know, I am living it.

I'm not sure about PTSD, but then I wouldn't be in a position to diagnose anything. However, I can see where infidelity can make you squeamish in future relationships, and it would cause an emotional scar.

If you are married, and your spouse has been unfaithful, or you have been unfaithful, and one of you is threatening divorce..there you have a trauma.

Even if it't a long term relationship and you trust that person implicitly, or they trust you and one of you breaks that trust in an age of Aids, Herpes Hepatitis etc.. I feel it is a trauma--JMO---theo

[AShadow721]

I read somewhere, not sure where, that there was a case of PTSD that stemmed from a man who was placed into daycare, since his stay-at-home mother had to go back to work. He felt like it was abandonment, so I would say yes infidelity can cause PTSD. It's probably quite different than PTSD stemming from abuse however. But I know I would probably have a nervous breakdown if my husband cheated on me.

Actually, I've been thinking about this question, "Infidelitity" would imply that one has made a vow to be "faithful" to another person.

That being the case,
Absolutely, YES! One person breaking that vow of Trust would cause Trauma to the other.....How much trauma would depend on the personJMO

[Evening]

I personally think that no it can't, and almost every definition of PTSD I've seen has specifically said that although a break up can't be traumatic, it does not cause PTSD.
For someone to be diagnosed with PTSD they are meant to have experienced something that implied death or severe physical or emotional damage, i.e. a war, car accident, child abuse, rape, coming across someone who has been killed or committed suicide, etc. and have a certain amount of different symptoms (there are 2 or 3 groups of different symptoms and you need to have a few symptoms from each group, nightmares, hypervigilance, avoidance, flashbacks, etc.).
If the infidelity was part of something bigger, e.g. abuse, then it can add an aspect to the PTSD. But infidelity alone doesn't really threaten your life like a war or abuse does.

Having said all of that, the trauma of infidelity shouldn't be downplayed as you've been hurt, humiliated and betrayed.

During my 16 year marriage, my ex had a voracious appetite for sex-he wanted to have sex 4-5 times a day, I thought that was normal, and being the good wife i tried to be, I complied-though it became a chore i dreaded and came to hate.
The diseases began 5 weeks after our first child was born-hpv...very painful and he insisted we have sex even before i went to the dr. to be diagnosed. The Dr. was horrified--"they're all the way up to your cervix--YOU"VE been having sex!! " he was disgusted with me(as if it hadn't been painful enough to have the sex to begin wit!!)

Of course the disease came "from the air" and my cervix had to be cauterized and frozen with the risk of cancer in later years.

Later years brought with them may other STD's, happily not AIDS or Hepatitis.

They too came from "the air".
I beg to differ with anyone here---I was severely traumatized, and carry one disease to this day which has kept me over 20 years celibate; for I would be too embarrassed to tell anyone I have it, even though statistics say 1out of 2 Americans do have it---
it still embarrasses me.

And for me to be intimate on that level with anyone, I would have to care very deeply about that person, and I would require myself to tell them the truth.

I have been deeply traumatized by Infidelity--and so have millions exposed to and
dying of AIDS through no fault of their own!!!!!

I DO think DYING of AIDS because you trusted your partner is a Trauma=PTSD.

[lynn P.]

I don't know if it can cause PTSD or not. All I know is, I do feel traumatized by what happened to me and I feel changed forever because of it. I also feel pesimistic and cynical - I don't like feeling this way because I'm normally a peaceful person.

[Evening]

But that was abuse, and abuse can cause PTSD. Putting you at a risk like that, making you have sex more than you wanted to, giving you a disease, on top of other things.
Is the person who made this thread talking about something that severe, or just cheating in a relationship? I don't doubt that something severe like that can cause PTSD, but I am saying that something like coming home one day and your partner telling you they've been seeing someone else and then getting divorced as traumatic as it may be isn't something that would be classed as PTSD from what I know.

Hi Evening-I wasn't just abused (wah, wah-i shoulda gotten out sooner-but the powers that be let me off lightly) but I caught just about every STD you ever heard of. The man had a sex addiction. 4-5 times a day, and then cheating too? ugh! Forget my story! Hell, I was lucky (i guess)!?

The AIDS Epidemic in the world stems from Unsafe sex with multiple partners.....look at poor Africa.

"...just cheating in a relationship..." is not a "just" anything.

It exposes the other partner to diseases; such as AIDS,and Hepatitis.

It is the cause of the Aids Epidemic in our world-It is Irresponsible Sexual Behavior.

I have met, and have nursed several such innocents, who, through no fault of their own, were in their last days- one was only 19 years old, had a Left CVA, and I took care of him at Bellevue in NYC per diem--it was heart-breaking. He had no idea his partner had been cheating on him all along.

You can google the Gay Mens Health Crisis Center in New York and ask them if getting AIDS by way of your partner cheating on you causes PTSD-----

You betcha it does. But not for long. Be well-theo

Hi Lynn-I don't know what happened to you, but I assume it was in reference to infidelity. I am sooo sorry! Once the trust is gone from a relationship, it is over.

If you want to talk more-you can pm me--You sound as if you are in great pain.
I send you (((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))) you are not alone-theo

[Evening]

What I am saying is not about people who catch diseases, etc.- HIV/AIDS will kill somebody, there is no doubt that can cause PTSD. I am only talking about someone cheating. No diseases, no abuse, no forced sexual encounters, just finding out your partners has been cheating and being hurt by that. When there was more to it than the cheating- catching a disease, being pushed into sex, or being abused- the yeah. Finding out they've been cheating and then breaking up because they betrayed you- I don't think so, because the definition of PTSD doesn't class that as something so extensively traumatic as something that has threatened your life.
I'm not very good at explaining things sometimes so I hope that makes sense.

cheating and abuse are two different animals, i apologize for thowing you off course with my personal story. You are absolutely right- one has nothing to do with the other.

On the other hand, the point I'm trying to make is that there are people in this world who do not tell their partners that they are having multiple sex partners outside their relationships with their main partners (not all married, and not all heterosexuals).

They expose their innocent partners to AIDS and kill them by way of INFIDELITY.

I honestly did not mean to throw you off track with my story--but, as a nurse, I have witnessed a great deal of this.

Most Unfaithful partners do not tell their mates they have been cheating, and continue to have affairs on the side; by doing so, they open the door for their partners to contract AIDS and die.

They do not confront them and admit that they have been unfaithful. They continue to have sex with their mates and others at the same time-exposing their mates to all sorts of life threatening illnesses-mine is not an isolated case.

They continue to behave irresponsibly, and expose their mate to life threatening ailments.

Have you ever seen the Movie "Philadelphia"?--be well theo