Emotional Infidelity

Emotional infidelity, also known as emotional affair, is another definition for cheating.

So what is an emotional affair? It is an affair that excludes physical intimacy whereby the spouse withdraws from his/her marriage partner and gets intimate or emotionally involved with an ‘other’, which might be detrimental to a marriage.

A spouse may be somewhat assured there is nothing physical going on with the other party yet, perhaps nothing more just than a mutual friendship. It could be an issue of time before any party crosses the line. Communication between spouses is always essential to sort things out before such an incident goes too far.

Emotional Affair With Co-worker?

Spending about 8 hours a day at work together, being involved in the same project, facing the same deadlines, spending days in meetings, travelling out of the country for business meetings, receiving support from superiors for ideas and contribution, confiding and sharing information that is normally meant for the spouse’s ears. The above are some of the common influences that inches a platonic relationship to form an illicit romantic love affair. Under such settings, one may be tempted to progress this office ‘flirtation’ to a higher level.

Emotional Affairs With Friends Or Neighbours?

Yes, friends do share common interests and activities and like to converse about their feelings pertaining to various issues. If your own spouse or partner is being frank and outright about the relationship, it is very likely for it to be a normal and true friendship.

There are people who share their marital issues with their friends and use a problem-solving approach during the discussion, but there are also those who are constantly seeking a new relationship to offset their marriage. These are the ones we have to look out for.

Pam Gerhardt, a reporter wrote an article titled ‘Emotional Cost Of Infidelity’, which stated that all relationship or affairs will go through 4 stages.

Stage 1 - Developing emotional bond through communication.

Stage 2 - Spouse keeping their relationship secret from their marriage partner and friends.

Stage 3 - Both party started seeing each other out of marriage or present relationship. They start doing things together.

Stage 4 - Crossing the line, transitioning from friendship to extramarital affair.

It is important to understand the contrast in emotional affairs as compared to a physical affair; it's not about the physical sex, there is also the element of attraction involved. In most cases, this attraction brings about some returns for the ‘stray’. In others, it could be a one-sided infatuation. And an emotional affair might cause deeper scars on one’s spousal relationship compared to a physical affair. “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. If even the ‘stronger’ spirit of a person’s will falters, what more can we say about the flesh?