Emotional Cheating

Even though infidelity is defined as unfaithfulness to one's partner, with or without any sort of physical involvement, many people misinterpret it as unfaithfulness in context of physical relationship. One such aspect of infidelity that many people knowingly or unknowingly get involved into, and that too without any sort of remorse, is emotional affair.

Some people do argue that emotional cheating cannot amount to infidelity, as there are no sexual desires towards each other, however, these are the people who fail to understand what infidelity actually means. More importantly, emotions do play a crucial role in any relationship, and therefore emotional cheating in a relationship undoubtedly amounts to breach of trust.

Emotional Cheating

Irrespective of whether you are married or dating, your relationship is based on the trust between the two of you. At times, however, differences do crop up, and you find yourself at logger heads. In such a situation, some couples prefer to sort things out, while others prefer to let things settle on their own. In case of couples who feel sorting things won't work, there comes a point of time wherein either of the partner, or sometimes both, starts feeling that the other is not understanding enough. This makes the individual seek solace in some other person - a so-called 'best friend'.

With time this friendship just increases, and reaches such an extent that the relationship can be called a full-fledged extramarital affair. At one point of time, the individual feels more comfortable with this friend than he/she does with his partner. This makes them share some of the most personal things, including the problems with their steady partner. The only difference between emotional cheating and physical cheating is that the former doesn't include physical involvement, while the latter does.

Signs of an Emotional Affair

Emotional cheating is as difficult to detect, as it is to avoid, since it just happens without the person even knowing that he/she is getting involved in any such thing. Given below are some emotional affair signs which will at least warn you if you head into the wrong direction.

• The individual will make excuses to spend time with his/her 'best friend', even at the cost of the happiness of his/her steady partner.
• He/she will share his/her joys and sorrows as well as dreams, hopes and fears with this 'best friend', something which is ideally expected to be done with the steady partner.
• Though they will always hide this friendship from their steady partner, they might even disclose the most personal problems they face with their partner to this friend.
• Sex does involve emotion to a significant extent, and hence a person who is lacking emotional attachment for his partner will invariably become disinterested in sex.
• They will be least interested in their steady partner's life, but even seeing this 'best friend' talking with someone of the opposite sex will trigger pangs of jealousy in them.

Other than these obvious signs, you will also see some small changes, such locked cell phone, deleted call logs, empty sent messages folder, password protected folders on the PC, spending more time outside the house etc. One thing to remember though, is that the person doing might not even realize that he/she is doing all these things, until and unless the involvement reaches the point of no return or towards physical intimacy, both of which can cause serious problems in life.

How to Deal with Emotional Cheating?

The fact that there is no physical involvement in emotional cheating doesn't mean it is not as bad as physical cheating. In fact, it can be a sheer mental torture to find out that your partner is emotionally involved with someone more than he/she is with you. Basically relationship issues, like emotional affairs, crop up owing to the differences between the two partners. That being said, the best measure to keep such issues at bay is to ensure that differences don't arise in the very first place, and if they do, then they are resolved at the earliest. You also need to make sure that your relationship is fun-filled, and not an obligation on your partner.

Talking is the key to relationship problems, and doubts, if any, have to be cleared before they become major issues. Use of "you won't understand" and "just" is best avoided. It is a normal human tendency to expect things from people around, and you and your partner are no exceptions. The important thing here is how you convey your feelings or how you live up to your partners expectations. One of the most important thing is to ensure that you prioritize your things. Friends and profession are indeed important, but not at the cost of your loved ones. Your partner does deserve to feel special once in a while, and the onus is on you to make sure that it happens.

Emotional cheating involves several factors, including lies and mistrust, that come with physical cheating. In fact, emotional affairs are much more difficult to overcome, as the breach of trust is bound to leave your partner in dismay, thus making it all the more difficult to carry on with the relationship.