Warning- long.
I am engaged to N and would consider us to have a happy, healthy relationship. We have been together for four years and are getting married in August.
I met T at work and felt a strong physical attraction. As we began to talk more I really developed some emotional bonds with T. We began to have an affair and are in the throes of NRE.
Honestly, I felt I was going crazy because the thought of loving and caring for two people at once was so crazy. I always just thought people looked for affairs when they were unhappy in their relationships. I was very happy with N when I met T, but then began to doubt my relationship with N, because how could I love two people at once?
N and I have discussed poly because we both have been intimate with other people and we have discussed opening our relationship sexually to others, or if something happens, it being okay. We never discussed being emotionally attached to others, because both of us felt that you can't love more than one person at once. I am finding this to be untrue.
I know T wants me to be in his life, no matter what. Even just as a friend, if that's all I can do. I want to be more than friends with him. For so many reasons that I won't go into now (emotionally and logically) I don't think T and I would really work out if I left N to be with him.
I guess I am just discovering via an affair that I am poly and monogamy is not for me. N knows that I would like to be open sexually and I know I will have to tell him one day that I am poly, but it terrifies me to lose him.
I am also struggling with the idea of accepting that I am poly. I feel that this is me, but it's not the societal norm and I find it hard to go against the grain. I am also struggling because I know lying is wrong and cheating is wrong. But I am so happy with T. I have some issues with self-harm and don't want to beat myself up so much about my actions and end up hurting myself.
I know what I am doing is not poly, because that requires you to be honest, which I am not doing. I am also having an amazing time and am very happy with both of them, and I don't want the happy time to end just yet.
Help.
I am engaged to N and would consider us to have a happy, healthy relationship. We have been together for four years and are getting married in August.
I met T at work and felt a strong physical attraction. As we began to talk more I really developed some emotional bonds with T. We began to have an affair and are in the throes of NRE.
Honestly, I felt I was going crazy because the thought of loving and caring for two people at once was so crazy. I always just thought people looked for affairs when they were unhappy in their relationships. I was very happy with N when I met T, but then began to doubt my relationship with N, because how could I love two people at once?
N and I have discussed poly because we both have been intimate with other people and we have discussed opening our relationship sexually to others, or if something happens, it being okay. We never discussed being emotionally attached to others, because both of us felt that you can't love more than one person at once. I am finding this to be untrue.
I know T wants me to be in his life, no matter what. Even just as a friend, if that's all I can do. I want to be more than friends with him. For so many reasons that I won't go into now (emotionally and logically) I don't think T and I would really work out if I left N to be with him.
I guess I am just discovering via an affair that I am poly and monogamy is not for me. N knows that I would like to be open sexually and I know I will have to tell him one day that I am poly, but it terrifies me to lose him.
I am also struggling with the idea of accepting that I am poly. I feel that this is me, but it's not the societal norm and I find it hard to go against the grain. I am also struggling because I know lying is wrong and cheating is wrong. But I am so happy with T. I have some issues with self-harm and don't want to beat myself up so much about my actions and end up hurting myself.
I know what I am doing is not poly, because that requires you to be honest, which I am not doing. I am also having an amazing time and am very happy with both of them, and I don't want the happy time to end just yet.
Help.