What Emotional Cheating Is and What to Do About It

Maybe you feel like your partner is having an emotional affair and feel them drifting away from you.  What can you do?  What exactly is emotional cheating and what can you do about it?

Defining the Beast – What Exactly Is Emotional Infidelity?

Well, emotional cheating is difficult to strictly define since it revolves around feelings and emotions instead of solid facts and action.  But here are some simple ways to tell if your partner is having an emotional affair or not.

Save Your Relationship from Infidelity and Cheating

Excessive Emotional Intimacy – When one partner invests more emotional energy into a relationship with a “friend” than they do with their spouse, there is an inappropriate amount of connection and intimacy.  When this happens the relationship between them and their spouse is bound to suffer.

Lying About Seeing Their “Friend” – If your partner ever begins to deceive you about spending time with their “friend” or omits that they saw them at all while talking about their day, then they know that what they are doing is inappropriate.  This is a huge sign of emotional cheating.

An Increased Amount of Arguments – If your partner has become infatuated with a new person, then it isn’t uncommon for him to see this new “friend” and all good, while at the same time only seeing faults in you.  In fact, your partner may even blame you and your shortcomings (perceived or otherwise) for his attraction to the new person.

Sexual Attraction or Flirting – Flirting and other forms of chemistry may develop based on a physical attraction for the new person.  Perhaps you notice your partner taking extra care grooming themselves before meeting their new “friend” that they wouldn’t take with someone else.  Maybe they seem overly eager to go out of their way to please this person by doing them favors.

If you’ve noticed one or more of these in your partner’s activity, then your spouse may in fact be having an emotional affair.

Emotional Infidelity is infidelity none-the-less.  It disrespects the committed relationship, can do untold damage to marriages, and hurts just as bad as a sexual affair.  Unless you and your partner have an open relationship, then emotional cheating should be viewed just the same as actual physical cheating.

The Road from Here – What to Do About Emotional Cheating

First things first, it can make you feel very insecure about yourself to find out that your partner is having an affair, emotional or otherwise.  Do not feel like you need to change anything about yourself in order to become more like his “friend.”  Although you may need to invest more energy into improving your relationship, don’t change who you are as a person in order to be “more attractive” for your partner.

Emotional cheating is the result of unfulfilled needs and desires in your relationship.  You will need to have an honest, heart-to-heart talk with your partner.  Make sure he understands how his actions make you feel.  If you feel like he is drifting away from you, tell him so.  But most importantly, tell him that the emotional cheating has to stop.  If the two of you are to remain in a relationship, then he cannot continue to knowingly do things that are going to hurt you.

If you are looking for a great next step to help you recover from an emotional affair, I suggest you check out Marriage Sherpa.  This website is put together by a professional relationship expert that has helped countless couples save their marriages from emotional infidelity and much worse.

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Who Else Wants to Discover How to Recover from an Affair and Make Things Better Than Ever? Dr. Gunzburg, author of How to Survive an Affair, has over 30 years of professional experience working with couples and counseling marriages. His program will show you how to tame the haunting images, get your emotions under control, reconnect with your partner, and rebuild the trust in your relationship. I strongly suggest you check out Marriage Sherpa today.