How to revisit/process memories from addiction without being triggered?

One of the things any human has to do to be healthy is live in the real world, not the fantasy world.

I don’t get healthy by ignoring my eating habits. I get healthy by consciously working on my eating habits: learning about them and changing them where necessary (with the support of relevant teammates [family or friends / peers] and professionals, for example nutritionists).

I don’t get healthy by ignoring my sexual habits. I get healthy by consciously working on my sexual habits: learning about them and changing them where necessary (with the support of relevant teammates [sober group peers] and professionals/mentors: therapists, counsellors, sponsors).

Getting healthy is not something you keep secret. Getting healthy doesn’t work if you’re trying to hide it. You waste too much energy hiding, concealing. (Concealing something wastes a lot of emotional and mental energy. That’s the reason lying is such a problem, about anything. It’s a huge waste of energy and attention.)

When I joined my sex addiction sobriety group I spoke with my wife about it and I asked her to join the recovery group for partners, which was being run in the same clinic. I said it was her choice but I said it would mean a great deal to me if she participated. I am immensely blessed that she did. It helped her gain perspective she wouldn’t otherwise have had.

Ultimately it is your wife’s choice whether she wants to join a support group for partners of sex addicts in recovery (for example, S-Anon, or one of the groups listed at the bottom of this post: Resources for our recovery - #64 by NealRecoveryCA), but you need to be clear with her that you are doing this because it is the right thing, it is the human thing, and it is the wise choice for long term health (for you of course, but also for any relationship that matters to you, including your marriage). She may see that or she may not (yet), but she cannot be the deciding factor of whether you work on your health (your sobriety) or not.

There’s a good selection of sexual sobriety recovery groups (for people like you and me, in recovery) in Neal’s post here:

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