That relationships are complex isn’t exactly breaking news to any people, and that is the reason why the slim thread of hope which retains the connection collectively has to be preserved and nurtured constantly. The connection can enter exceptionally choppy waters when one of the spouses strays from the straight and narrow. However, can being ‘close’ to someone of your spouse’s sex (other than your partner, of course! ) count as ‘cheating’ when there are no sexual relations associated? Yes. Welcome into the world of emotional cheating.
Is your partner spending a great deal of time on the internet, on the phone, or at or after work with somebody else who is “just a friend”? You may be a victim of psychological cheating. But do not panic yet. Emotional cheating is ordinarily an inadvertent move. With penalizing working hours and brutal lifestyle adjustments our lives now seem to have become synonymous with, it is the small friendships that we can find along the way that make life bearable. Bear that in mind before you fly off the handle. However, it would be smart not to forget that sometimes these friendships, that start innocuously enough as office co-workers sharing lunch or a casual internet chat buddy, can develop into something more.
The graduation of this casual friendship into an intimate friendship may be a stable, barely-perceptible development, and sometimes, even those in this ‘friendship’ barely know what it has become. Some tell-tale signs of emotional cheating are if you find your partner constantly bringing up this ‘friend’ in conversations, and perhaps comparing them in a negative way; finding excuses to fulfill up or chat together whenever possible; or preventing bringing up their title whatsoever in conversations and ignoring them as a trifling issue. A lot of people believe emotional cheating isn’t really cheating because of the absence of sexual intimacy, but now is the time that fantasy has been blown up.
In the age of the anonymous internet, it is easy to share intimate details about yourself over a chat window on the internet with a complete stranger. And sometimes, it just feels quite wonderful to have let off some steam. This only gets dangerous once the friendship becomes the proverbial ‘something’. It’s simple to sustain this kind of relationship over the net since it doesn’t involve meeting up or dealing with any of those annoying aspects of one another. An individual can wind up creating a mental image of the perfection of the individual at the other end of the internet connection and thinking in this fantasy. This type of relationship is, of course, harder to find, but the harm it can cause is identical. Dealing with online psychological cheating can be difficult, but it’s simpler to prevent it if you are able to see it coming. Encourage your partner to discuss their online friendships, why they seem to want them, and if they’re becoming more. . .shall we say. . .serious.
Emotional cheating can be just as, if not more, devastating than sexual cheating because it involves letting a third person into the emotional core of the relationship of which gender is but a peripheral part. Would you feel that your partner is talking to the ‘buddy’ about your relationship, being their shoulder to cry on, or helping them get through some rough patches in life, as you stand by viewing? Does this make you feel insecure or in some way emotionally threatened by this? Then it is time you had that embarrassing conversation with your spouse. Start by describing your insecurities and be prepared for denial. The important issue isn’t lose your cool, and explain to your partner that even if there’s nothing ‘going on’, why that specific relationship disturbs you. You might even want to offer to invest some time together as a team with that individual, in order to don’t feel so excluded and ignored. The important thing is to keep the channels of communication open so that things do not go to breaking point before they could even come out to the open.
