By David Zinczenko Provided by: Men's Health

Dave Zinczenko's Mysteries of the Sexes Explained

Can Cheaters Change? By David Zinczenko - Posted Fri, Mar 30, 2007, 5:51 pm PDT

Showing 16-30 of 4635 Comments

Leave a Comment
  • 16. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sat, Mar 31, 2007, 7:24 pm PDT

    Once a cheater, always a cheater, and never think any differently. That's my opinion and I'm sticking with it.

    Report Abuse
  • 17. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sat, Mar 31, 2007, 8:56 pm PDT

    I believe that no one should be "labeled" as a cheater. Everyone makes mistakes, and as someone said, each relationship and each situation is different. I think its stupid to tell people that either yes or no they can change. People should look at their own situation and if they need help deciphering, then seek a counselor who can help with the relationship at hand. My ex husband cheated on me, and I forgave him and stayed with him. After I divorced him for other reasons, I found out he cheated on me with 4 additional women. His cheating was for no other reason than he had to have control. Currently he is with another woman, and as far as I know, has stayed faithful to her. I married again myself, and am proof positive my husband has remained completely faithful the whole 9 yrs we've been together. So maybe we worry to much about this. Maybe what is, is what shall be.

    Report Abuse
  • 18. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 6:38 am PDT

    Not trying to defend cheating, but in Spanish we say: "ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente" (eyes that don't see, a heart that doesn't feel). In other words, cheating is one of those things that unless is known it doesn't hurt. I had a girlfriend that I suspected might had cheated on me, yet, I didn't waste any time trying to find out if she did or not, because if she did, she was really good at it, I never found out and I never suffered from it. Later on, some of her ex-friends told me that she thought about it but never dared, still, I really never cared to find out, I would only be hurting myself.

    Report Abuse
  • 19. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 8:20 am PDT

    Before I start, I do realize and have been told that I deserve all I got, but to answer ur question about cheaters...I came to care very deeply for a man that I thought was the kindest, loving, caring and actually honorable man I ever met. For the two years we were together I believed every word he said when he would tell me that he was in a marriage where love had run dry and he was not just a cheater. He didn't want to ever leave and hurt his wife and children and I accepted that. I stayed with him and rearranged my life around his schedule for so long because I truly believed him when he told me how much he cared about me. After about 1 1/2 years he and his wife agreed to separate for their own reasons (having nothing to do with me.) This scared me to death, because I knew it would be the end of us. I continued to ask myself...do cheaters ever change? could I ever trust him? Would he leave me now that he was single? Was I only there because I accomodated a hectic married man's schedule and made it easier for him to get away with it? Not only did I ask myself this, I asked him these same questions over and over, as I noticed our relationship changing over the next six months. He was always aggitated with me, cold, and never spent any time with me. I should have known but he did everything possible to convince me that this was all just due to stress and would eventually get better. He also made me believe that alot of it was just my imagination and insecurity issues that I needed to resolve for us to be together. I answered the question, just cause he cheated once on one person doesn't mean he can't be trusted at all. Besides, I didn't want him to be saddled down to another serious relationship with me right away. But I told him I needed to know if there was someone else. I believed him all the times he told me there wasn't. I endured the daily verbal lashings, and bent over backwards trying to give him the trust and space that he needed and deserved because I knew he would never intentionally hurt me. He cared so much for me and he was my best friend. He knew that by falsely leading me to believe that he cared for me would destroy me. And that's exactly what happened to me when he very coldly ended it with me. He showed feelings of indifference over my hurt. He just told me I was crazy for being hurt and glad to be rid of me. I soon found out that definitely for the six months after he separated and i think for most of the two years we were together he was building a real relationship with a college student. I haven't been the same for over a year now. I thought it was me. Until recently one day, I discovered him on a few dating sites. So i posted a profile without my picture and contacted him. we chatted and flirted back and forth, got on very well, and had plans of meeting up (until I tiold him who i was) and when i asked him about having a girlfriend, he explained that he was single. After the initial turmoil of telling him who i was, we ended up hanging out at his apartment one night. One thing led to another and we ended up in bed. This is where he decided to mention that he was dating someone and has been for quite some time. This next statement he did not tell me, but I happen to know for a fact... that this is the same girl that he was dating while he was with me. He has set nights that he spends with her, cause she works as a waitress nights, and on the nights she works he is on the internet searching for, dating, sleeping with, or forming relationship. I imagine that she isn't aware of any of this, just as his wife wasn't...just as I wasn't, just as the women on the dating site aren't. So, "Can cheaters change?"...Maybe some can, but a cheater has a basic propensity to lie and tends to master his/her craft, so you don't know if they changed until it's far too late. It's probably a safer bet that a non cheater will cheat than a cheater to r

    Report Abuse
  • 20. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 8:59 am PDT

    I am the 2nd wife of 3 and NO cheaters don't quit cheating. I suppose if they come to the realization that they have an addiction and need help it is possible but when they go around blaming the other person for their infidelitys, obviously they have a problem...espscially after 3 wives and manymany affairs. Once is a mistake...continual cheating is an addiction.

    Report Abuse
  • 21. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 10:18 am PDT

    I think my men is to afraid to tell me about any female contact or friend. like he'll tell a story about a guy, but the story would really be about a girl. its like he's trying to hide it from me. and when i confront him he makes a big deal. The other day i found a condom wrapper and he got mad at me. our sex is great maybe to good. Is there such thing as to good.

    Report Abuse
  • 22. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 11:29 am PDT

    I think you are too afraid to know the truth. Obviuosly he's doing something or there wouldn't be any condom wrappers around that you don't know about...

    Report Abuse
  • 23. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 4:19 pm PDT

    I believe that once a cheater always a cheater that's comes from dealing with this in MANY relationships/marriages their like dogs.

    Report Abuse
  • 24. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 7:08 pm PDT

    I'm have been in a cheating relationship with my husband for eight years. I remembered when he first cheated on me. We just got married after dating for two years. It was only six months in our married when he decided to cheat on me with an old lady he meet while he was working as a tow truck driver at the time. For three month I have no clud that he was doing this behind my back since worked at night How, I found out about this old lady. The lady wanted my husband to leave me, but when he choose not to, she put a note on our car that I found the next day. I was so mad and angry and felt so betrayed by him. I didn't know what to did with myself, because I still love him and wanted our married to work out, at the time. So, to make a long story short, I stay with him while hoping that he will never did it again, but he did. This time with a young twenty years old girl, he put up at a bus stop. I knew something was difference about him during that time, So I checked his cell phone one night and found her. This he time he left me to be with her. Why I took back, I don't know. I just know that I am not in love with no more because I want to cheat on him.

    Report Abuse
  • 25. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 7:08 pm PDT

    I'm have been in a cheating relationship with my husband for eight years. I remembered when he first cheated on me. We just got married after dating for two years. It was only six months in our married when he decided to cheat on me with an old lady he meet while he was working as a tow truck driver at the time. For three month I have no clud that he was doing this behind my back since worked at night How, I found out about this old lady. The lady wanted my husband to leave me, but when he choose not to, she put a note on our car that I found the next day. I was so mad and angry and felt so betrayed by him. I didn't know what to did with myself, because I still love him and wanted our married to work out, at the time. So, to make a long story short, I stay with him while hoping that he will never did it again, but he did. This time with a young twenty years old girl, he put up at a bus stop. I knew something was difference about him during that time, So I checked his cell phone one night and found her. This he time he left me to be with her. Why I took back, I don't know. I just know that I am not in love with no more because I want to cheat on him.

    Report Abuse
  • 26. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 7:41 pm PDT

    Don't loose yourself by lowering yourself to his standards. Leave him and divorce him first. Then it won't be cheating...

    Report Abuse
  • 27. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 9:10 pm PDT

    I,don't think men or women can change these habits, if they started out this way with you, it will continue through the whole re- lationship, and that's bad new.

    Report Abuse
  • 28. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 10:16 pm PDT

    The age old statement 'Once a cheat, always a cheat'. I have to admit that I agree with all that you have stated about the first part. Yes once a man or woman has been caught and then forgiven in the current, past or even future for cheating on a person; they will do it again for there was a failure to follow through with a loss. Or there was a failure to honestly care for the loss in the first place. However in your second half I would like to believe that it could be true of a "cheater" to learn from it and actually find that one that changes them. However that is a contradiction, first the cheat must change themselves. Second, assume said person does change, they do for quite some time, but then the taste of that feeling, the one that spikes the heart pace takes over. Ultimatly it has come to animal instinct, and my personal belief is that no you cannot change. You can try, you can maybe even have decades without the act. However I do feel that it is something that we have within our mentality for whatever reason and human nature is rather hard to battle.

    Report Abuse
  • 29. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 10:25 pm PDT

    I agree, it depends on how much the relationship means to them. How important the marriage is to keep it going what limits are set. I think that limits needs to be set, what one will stand for and what they won't. If a spouse does not see anything wrong with the other going to a strip bar, then they agree, but if one spouse does not approve, and the other goes anyway, they have just crossed the line and trouble will follow. IF one spouse does something that the other spouse disapproves of then its wrong and the line has been crossed. Can they change, again it depends on how important the relationship is to them.

    Report Abuse
  • 30. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Mon, Apr 02, 2007, 1:36 am PDT

    Cheaters CAN change, PROVEN BY ME, however, the temptations will always linger. Why? I've been through it. I recently cheated on my man with 2 other men at the same time. All 3 didn't know about each other. But i confessed it to my man about the others as he found out about one of them. I'm going through a really tough time now, trying my best to heal his wound. But, It has been almost a month now that I have not seen the others. However, there are occassional calls and temptations to see them and still be with them. Though, being fillial is my goal now.. and it is what as a cheater, i will change.

    Report Abuse

Leave Your Comment

Comment Guidelines You must sign in to post a comment

Yahoo! Health Videos

My Health

help

Tip of the Day

Provided by: RealAgeNov 5, 2009

Piling your favorite sandwich fixings on the right kind of bread could mean healthier blood pressure. The right choice? One hundred percent whole-grain.

Read More »

View All Tips »

Tell us what you think about Yahoo! Health - Send us your feedback