Emotional Cheating in a Relationship

Many people believe that having a friend of the opposite sex amounts to emotional cheating, and hence, infidelity. This is not entirely true. Emotional cheating is the phenomena that has a person being more emotionally open with another person, other than their spouse or partner. Emotional affairs do not start off with any kind of physical intimacy, however, it has been observed that, most of the emotional affairs do turn into full blown affairs, with sex and everything. As such, emotional cheating in a relationship may not start with physical cheating, but there is a good chance that it will happen. Emotional promiscuity and relationships are closely linked, let's see the side effects.

Signs of Emotional Cheating in a Relationship

Before I begin with the emotional cheating signs, I'd like all my readers to know that, like all other relationship problems, these signs should not be held as proofs of infidelity. Make sure that you investigate into these signs of emotional cheating in marriage or a relationship thoroughly before drawing any conclusions.

If the answers to most of these questions is 'YES', then there is a definite chance that your partner is emotionally cheating on you.

• Does your partner or spouse not share his/her emotions with you freely?
  
  This is the basic question that needs to be asked. If your partner is not being emotionally open to you, there is a chance that he/she is spending that emotional energy on someone else.
• Does your partner or spouse hide or lie about his/her her day?
  
  When emotionally cheating, a person will keep his/her "friendship" a secret from their spouse or partner and will be very secretive about the time they spent with the "friend".
• Are you and your partner or spouse, suddenly, having a lot of fights?
  
  Often when a person is, knowingly or unknowingly, emotionally cheating, he/she will start believing that the partner or spouse doesn't understand him/her. This leads to many fights circling around "you just don't understand".
• Is your partner or spouse denying confrontation?
  
  Denial is often what takes over the mind when emotionally cheating. If asked for a confrontation about the sudden changes, one will deny the need for it, and will be irritable about his/her spouse or partner seeing the need for it.
• Is your partner or spouse keeping sexual distance from you?
  
  Emotional cheating often leads to the cheater keeping sexual distance from their partner or spouse. It is often, also observed that the cheater will fantasize about the "friend", which leads to sexual tension between the two.
• Has your partner or spouse started keeping his/her social activities a secret?
  
  An emotional cheater will find some degree of guilt in letting his/her partner or spouse know about his/her social affairs. This is a major warning sign that one needs to watch out for.

These emotional affair signs are an indication that the partner or spouse is emotional cheating, or is on the verge of it. If most of the answers to the above questions are NO, but a few are YES, take it as a warning and start working on the relationship. Read about warning signs of infidelity.

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Emotional cheating in a relationship does not necessarily spell doom for it. If you believe that "every dark cloud has a silver lining", you should also be willing to accept that, "you need a dark cloud to see a silver lining". In case your partner or spouse is emotionally cheating on you, you can mend the issue by opening the gates of communication, a little bit wider. Be willing to experiment, befriend the "friend", and find out what is it that he/she brings to the table, that you don't. A successful relationship is one that can endure the hurdles, and come out stronger. So work towards that. If your love is strong enough, then your ego will take a back seat when it comes to reacting to the emotional cheating in a relationship. This is where I sign off! Take care.