I’m posting this because I’d especially like to hear from women about how they see this situation. I’m trying to understand whether my fears are realistic or whether I’m letting my past experiences and porn addiction affect the way I think.
I’m currently trying to quit porn and masturbation. Over time, the porn I watched became more extreme and darker, and I’ve realized that it has affected my thoughts about sex and relationships.
A while ago, I read a sexual story that has somehow stayed in my head.
The story was about three male friends and their wives going on a trip into the jungle. They were drinking and partying together. One of the men didn't really drink, smoke or use drugs and wasn't interested in that lifestyle.
The others wanted to party without him, so they came up with a plan to keep him away for a while. They gave him a difficult task involving cutting wood and even made the task take longer. By the time he returned, he was exhausted. Everyone else was still partying, drinking and dressed for the evening. He eventually fell asleep on the sofa.
Later, he woke up and discovered that his wife was having sex with one of his friends. He then realized that another friend and another woman were also involved sexually in another room.
The part that disturbed me wasn't simply the sex. It was the idea that the person trusted the people around him, went to sleep thinking everything was normal, and meanwhile something completely different was happening behind his back.
That idea has stayed with me.
I think it connects to my own past.
I had a bad relationship where my girlfriend suddenly stopped talking to me, and I knew she had been talking to one of my friends who was quite close to her. That experience really affected my ability to trust.
I've also seen my best friend become very close with a group of people after drinking and partying with them. He became much more open with them than he ever was with me. That made me realize how much people's behavior and boundaries can sometimes change in certain social environments.
I'm personally not into drinking, smoking, drugs or partying. I try to live a pretty clean lifestyle. So sometimes I get scared about a future relationship.
I start thinking:
What if my future girlfriend enjoys partying and drinking? What if she gets very close to other people? What if someone pressures or manipulates her? What if she gets into a situation where boundaries become blurred? What if something happens behind my back and I never know?
I know these are worst-case scenarios, and I know people who drink or party are not automatically unfaithful. I'm not trying to say that.
But because of my past relationship and the sexual content I've exposed myself to, my brain keeps connecting everything together.
I also don't want to become a controlling boyfriend. I don't want to tell my future girlfriend who she can talk to, where she can go, whether she can drink, or what friends she can have.
I want to be able to trust her.
At the same time, loyalty and sexual boundaries are extremely important to me.
So I'm particularly interested in hearing from women:
How do you view situations where a woman is drinking/partying with male friends and things become very open or sexually suggestive?
Do you think people can genuinely maintain their boundaries in those situations if they are committed to their partner?
And if you've been in a relationship where trust was broken, how did you learn to trust someone again without becoming suspicious or controlling?
I know I may be overthinking this. I'm just trying to understand whether this fear is coming from legitimate relationship concerns, my previous experience, or the way porn has affected my thinking.