His Wife Thinks He Has A Crush On His Therapist, So She Wants Him To Find A New One, But He Won’t Do It
by Matthew Gilligan

Shutterstock/Reddit
Well, this sounds like a bummer…
The guy who wrote the following story on Reddit has been struggling for a long time, he finally found a therapist who’s helping him…and now his wife wants him to get rid of her because she’s jealous.
What?!?!
Yes, folks, that’s what this guy’s dealing with.
Is he being unreasonable?
Read his story and see what you think.
AITA for not changing therapists despite my wife thinking I’m having an affair with mine?
“I (32) have been involved in a violent incident a few years back as one of the survivors. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but it has obviously left a mark.
At first I thought I was doing okay, but as the weeks passed I was becoming more irritable & less present. I couldn’t sleep, I lashed out & I was struggling at work.
I kept having thoughts about how I could have acted differently, or how I could have avoided the situation altogether, or how I could save people.
And sometimes those thoughts would come at the worst moments and ruin a full night’s sleep, or a great day with our daughter. It was really hard.
This was causing a lot of problems in his life.
The worst part was that I was being really impatient with our daughter (6) and I started to really dislike the parent I was becoming & even avoiding her. My wife (27) was very patient at first, but eventually she had enough as well, and we realized this wasn’t going to work long term, and I needed help.
So I started therapy & medication. And this came with two major issues – first, medication took a long time to start working & I was dealing with side effects before I ever felt the actual effect.
The other issue is that I had a hard time finding a therapist I could actually connect with. I don’t say they did anything wrong, but there was always a lot of silence & what I felt was judgement involved.
I felt guilty for not doing well, for not getting better etc. but things eventually did get better.
He found a good therapist.
Part of it I think was the meds, but another part was my therapist. She very quickly realized that silence made me uncomfortable, and tried what she herself says some of her colleagues frown upon – she sometimes just shoots the breeze with me.
So she tells me about her own experiences sometimes or even talks about unrelated stuff, and it really helped put me at ease & open up, and sessions have been going really well for months now.
I feel I’ve been doing better & better able to process things. I haven’t been sleeping as well as I hoped I would – but I’ve been doing better. I’ve been a better husband & better father, and I owe at least some of it to my therapist.
A few weeks ago my car was in the shop, and I had my wife drop me off at therapy. Then she saw my therapist and they exchanged pleasantries before my wife took our daughter to a nearby playground to wait to pick me up.
When she picked me up she clearly had something on her mind, but she wouldn’t tell me what the issue was.
Oh, boy…
After a few days of her being distant I confronted her again and she eventually confessed that she thought I had a crush on my therapist.
She said the therapist has arm tattoos, which she knows I like, and she says she saw the therapist touching her hair which indicates she’s into me as well, and she now thinks that the reason I’ve been doing better is that I’m feeling guilty about the affair I’m having.
I told my wife that I wasn’t having an affair. She’s not my mistress, she’s not even my friend, she’s a professional I pay to help me deal with my issue, and me doing well speaks for itself.
And besides she could probably lose her license for dating a patient so even if there was something there nothing would ever happen, to which my wife said that I shouldn’t have an issue changing therapists then and finding someone less attractive (I don’t find my therapist particularly attractive, though I don’t think it’s relevant anyway).
He’s not budging.
I refused. I’ve been trying to explain that changing a therapist I actually get along with and is helping me is a bad idea. And besides, I don’t want to reward what I think is unreasonable behavior.
If my wife can’t trust me, then I think our issues are bigger than me changing or not changing my therapy. But how do I bring this up delicately?
And this is an issue I don’t know if I’m comfortable bringing up with my therapist because I worry it will make it more difficult for her to keep treating me, but also hiding things from my therapist clearly isn’t going improve my treatment any.
Still, AITA if I don’t think the answer is to just change therapists because my wife got jealous?”
Reddit users shared their thoughts.
This reader offered some advice.

Another Reddit user chimed in.

This individual spoke up.

Another reader shared their thoughts.

And this person had a lot to say.

He’s not getting rid of this therapist, that’s for sure!
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.



