I (36M) have been married to my wife (32F) for a few years. She has AuDHD, a very high sex drive, and a history of childhood abuse. I know those things are part of her life, but I'm struggling to figure out whether my reactions are reasonable or if I'm letting the past control me.
When we first started dating, within the first week she cheated on me with her ex. Not long after that, I found out she was also making plans to sleep with two other men from a former job, including her boss. She promised she would stop, but a couple of months later I found Snapchat messages, explicit pictures from other men, and plans to meet up with them. In total, she cheated on me with three different men during our first year together.
I broke up with her and told myself I was done. She continued trying to contact me and eventually came to my home asking me to give her another chance. I reluctantly agreed.
The cheating completely changed me. Before all of this, I was a pretty outgoing and social person. Afterward, I became angry, isolated myself from friends, and struggled to trust anyone. I eventually turned to religion. We both joined an Apostolic church, and after talking to my pastor about everything that had happened, I was encouraged to forgive her and let God handle it. I felt pressured into marrying her before I had actually processed what she'd done, and after we got married I eventually left that church because I didn't feel like my mental health had really been considered.
Since then, things have improved in some ways. We live together, she's been promoted twice at work, and we're finally becoming financially stable. As far as I know, she hasn't cheated since that first year.
The problem is that I still don't feel emotionally safe.
Her current job has a lot of male coworkers. She learns very personal details about them, like their birthdays, relationships, hobbies, favorite foods, and talks about them fairly often. One male coworker texted her "miss you" after she got promoted. Instead of simply shutting it down herself, she replied, "Hey. OP doesn't like when you say you miss me. Can we make sure this doesn't happen again?" That response bothered me because it made it seem like the boundary came from me instead of being one she wanted herself.
Earlier in our relationship, she also argued with me about staying friends with a man who had literally sent her explicit pictures, insisting they were "just friends." As another man, I felt like his intentions were obvious, and it made me question her judgment around boundaries.
When I asked why she cheated back then, she told me she has attention-seeking behaviors and struggles to control them. That answer has stayed with me because it makes me worry that this is something that could always happen again.
We've been to couples therapy, and it has helped some. She hasn't given me concrete evidence that she's cheating now. At the same time, I live with constant anxiety whenever male coworkers are involved because of everything that happened during our first year together.
I don't know if I'm reacting to what's happening now or if I'm still reacting to what happened years ago.
Am I overreacting for still not trusting her, or is it understandable given our history?