{"id":4208,"date":"2016-06-08T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/?p=4208"},"modified":"2016-05-27T07:41:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T11:41:44","slug":"surprise-your-affair-is-your-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/06\/surprise-your-affair-is-your-partner.html","title":{"rendered":"Surprise: Your Affair is Your Partner!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A\u00a0Bosnian couple met online &#8212; only to be repulsed when they met in person? \u00a0It wasn&#8217;t that they found each other unattractive. The surprise was that the on-line daters turned out to be married to each other in real life.<\/p>\n<p>Unhappy with their marriage, they each created online identities under fake names and had an &#8220;affair&#8221; with each other &#8212; each complaining about their miserable marriage and thinking they had finally found their soul mate.<\/p>\n<p>But when they met, reality hit. Realizing they had only found the person who had disappointed them in marriage, they decided to get a divorce &#8212; claiming marital unfaithfulness!<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot you could say about this story, but consider what the couple was quoted saying about each other:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>I thought I had found the love of my life. The way this Prince of Joy spoke to me, the things he wrote, the tenderness in every expression was something I had never had in my marriage.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>To be honest I still find it hard to believe that the person, Sweetie, who wrote such wonderful things to me on the Internet, is actually the same woman I married and who has not said a nice word to me for years. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Could it be that the time and effort they put into their online conversations were\u00a0the necessary work needed in their marriage?\u00a0Instead of looking for a way out, a way in was\u00a0to rekindle that friendship and expressions of fondness they did\u00a0online. The novelty\u00a0brought out positive feelings towards each other.\u00a0Same people, but different responses to each other&#8211;they were open to seeing each other with new positive eyes.<\/p>\n<p>In person, our couple couldn&#8217;t see passed their negativity and built up resentment. their negativity overrode any positives that may have surfaced. When couples don&#8217;t deal with negativity and escape to new relationships, the problems follow with the next person. There are no short cuts to working through problems. Avoiding and starting over is an escape.<\/p>\n<p>The lesson in this story. Find a way to forgive, deal with problems and build back the positivity in the original friendship and attraction. When this couple had a fresh start on-line,\u00a0positive feelings emerged again&#8211;this was something that could have been worked with in couples therapy had they been willing to repair the damage and try again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A\u00a0Bosnian couple met online &#8212; only to be repulsed when they met in person? \u00a0It wasn&#8217;t that they found each other unattractive. The surprise was that the on-line daters turned out to be married to each other in real life. Unhappy with their marriage, they each created online identities under fake names and had an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[913],"tags":[920,132,1544,3526],"class_list":["post-4208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-couple-relationships","tag-couple-relationships-2","tag-divorce","tag-marital-problems","tag-online-dating"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Surprise: Your Affair is Your Partner!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/06\/surprise-your-affair-is-your-partner.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Surprise: Your Affair is Your Partner!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A\u00a0Bosnian couple met online &#8212; only to be repulsed when they met in person? \u00a0It wasn&#8217;t that they found each other unattractive. 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Unhappy with their marriage, they each created online identities under fake names and had an&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/06\/surprise-your-affair-is-your-partner.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-08T11:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-27T11:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Surprise: Your Affair is Your Partner!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/06\/surprise-your-affair-is-your-partner.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Surprise: Your Affair is Your Partner!","og_description":"A\u00a0Bosnian couple met online &#8212; only to be repulsed when they met in person? \u00a0It wasn&#8217;t that they found each other unattractive. The surprise was that the on-line daters turned out to be married to each other in real life. 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Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. 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