Betrayal, when realized, is a phenomenal existential feeling.
Suddenly your world is no longer the one you believed in. You question reality but most of all you question yourself. How, you wonder, could you have been so naive, blind, trusting, unseeing, unknowing? As counterintuitive as it may seem and difficult to believe, these questions are good.
You are the normal person, the one who aligns reality ("He was so nice to me, he was my friend") with a cognitive belief: "He ACTS as if he likes me, he TELLS me he likes me, I see no reason not to believe him because in my past, people who act and speak this way can be trusted." There is congruency. But not now.
Suddenly someone you trusted - a spouse, lover, family member, close friend - has been putting you down, lying, manipulating others against you, and yet maintaining a stance of intimacy with you. The world is not clear, the ground you stand on is wobbly. You will never feel good about this. But you can get over it. You can do so by realizing that no matter how awful the betrayal, you are the normal person and this betrayal comes from rage. This person envies you, is enraged about it, and must put you down behind your back. They must harm you. They have no choice because at an emotional level they are damaged goods.
But you have choices. In the world of undamaged and emotionally healthy people after we get over the shock of a betrayal we can use this experience to become stronger, help others and learn to avoid this particular toxin. We can calm ourselves by understanding that the higher moral ground is ours. We can use self talk: It's too bad this person acted as he did, we wish he did not, but we are NOT diminished by their pathology. Wiser, sadder, but never diminished.
"Trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee." - Thomas Fuller, English clergyman & historian (1608 - 1661)
