Dday, it looks as though you were lucky that your wife was an anomaly, because everything that Michele WD, our MC, and other piecers here wrote, indicated that spouses generally feel an addiction to their OW comparable to, say, heroin addiction, and require a similar kind of withdrawal.
Well, I wouldn't exactly say she's an anomoly. More like the good church kid who spent every waking moment doing something good. Then he and his friends got older and his friends got mixed up in those "bad eliments" in the drugs and what not, but the good church kid wanted nothing to do with it. Then all of the sudden, something changed, a family fight or whatnot and the good kid acted out and joined those bad seeds and did those drugs and knew it was wrong all along. He wasn't neccissarily addicted per sae, sure excited and euphoric in the begining, but then all the sudden he didn't like what he was doing and knew it was wrong, but he couldn't find the inner strength to stop.
That is how I sum up (x)W. She was so laden to shove it in my face at first how OM was the greatest thing over deep fried twinkies at first. But all the while, you could tell it was all an act and over time it really showed. The way I see it, (x)W was that addict who so long wanted help but couldn't muster the strength to get it until one day she was so disgusted with her ownself she made herself get clean, and like any remorseful addict, glad to be off and free of the filth that destroyed her life. So much that she is back to preaching to prase, albeit in hypocritial that cheaters are the most vile persons to roam the earth.
Me 35/XW 33 S13 & S12 M: 10/17/98 OM & S: 07/08 D final 06/09/09 12/03/09 - 06/13/10 "Piercing" 06/13/10: Engaged to Re-marry 10/17/10 06/25/10: Expecting baby #3 2/14/11