Could grief cause someone to cheat? No, I’m not talking about someone using that as an excuse.
Here’s the thing… I had my suspicions after my husband lost his mother. Looking back there were signs.
Because grief brings intense sadness, could it force one to seek ways out of that sadness to to level out the highs and lows of one’s own life? Has anyone ever cheated while grieving for this reason who wouldn’t normally cheat or been cheated on?
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It’s possible.
People will say “no, grief can’t cause someone to cheat, only bad morals will cause someone to cheat.”
Which is true, of course. But it’s more complicated than that.
There are some people who never plan to cheat, are 100% against cheating, view it as evil…and then life knocks them on their ass and they find themselves behaving in ways they would never expect. If you head on over to the infidelity subreddits, you’ll find plenty of cheaters who fell into that hole.
So, yeah. Cheating often happens because someone chose a really shitty coping mechanism during a really bad time in their lives. Again, if you read the infidelity subreddits, a lot of people cheat when they’re experiencing unprecedented stress, negative emotions, etc.
Note: that’s NOT an excuse. I’m not excusing cheating. But when you dig deep down to investigate why people behave the way they do (especially when it comes to destroying your marriage), these are the answers you find. Most cheaters are broken people that don’t know how to handle life’s problems in the mature way.
I’ve read many stories on Reddit and other websites about death/grieving prior/leading to cheating.
It’s definitely not an excuse, but forcing us to look at our own mortality certainly can have negative/positive effects.