Inadvertently crossing a line of conduct that should not be crossed is easy to do. Before it’s too late, you should learn to distinguish between emotional infidelity and genuine friendship.
At times, we need our partner to have more emotional intelligence than they currently display. What’s it like when you’re in that position? If so, then you may have pondered the fine line between emotional cheating and genuine friendship. You say it’s less clear than you expected?
Maybe you feel like your lover just doesn’t get you. Perhaps they are preoccupied with their own issue, making you feel like your own concerns are being overlooked. As often as not, this occurs. The fate of your relationship hinges on how you choose to respond to this challenge.
One such response is to seek assistance from a third party.
That doesn’t imply you have to physically cheat on your relationship with someone else, though. Cheating means something completely different. There are many people who view kissing as crossing an invisible line. Someone else could find that entirely excusable.
So, when you or your partner turns to another individual to fulfill emotional demands, how can you know if it’s emotional cheating or friendship?
Emotional infidelity versus close friendship.
Let’s dissect these concepts to see where emotional infidelity and friendship overlap and where they don’t.
The meaning of friendship is not lost on any of us. They’re just friends. There’s no hope of a love relationship developing. You’re like a family in the way that you love and care for one another. The extent is determined by the strength of your friendship and the length of time you’ve spent together.
The majority of people have friends they trust more than their own blood relatives. Furthermore, they have buddies that aren’t quite as close to them. They are not the object of any romantic interest.
When we’re in a jam, we go to our friends for support because they know and understand us best. This implies we can receive assistance and care from them until we are physically and emotionally stable enough to provide for ourselves.
What, therefore, precisely entails emotional infidelity?
Once again, hardly one agrees on a single definition.
Many people define emotional cheating as one partner turning to another to satisfy their emotional demands when they really want something more from their partner. Even if they don’t realize it at first, their friendship soon blossoms into something more passionate.
When a requirement arises, that's when things get too far.
When you really need to have that conversation, when you’ve been waiting anxiously to see that person, when your stomach starts to do flips as they enter the room, those are the moments you need to speak with them. When it happens, you’re in deep water. When this happens, the relationship has moved beyond platonic and into emotional infidelity.
Obviously, you’re not physically cheating on each other; you may never kiss, never sleep together, or never even hug each other for more than an absolute minimum of time. The depth and intensity of the emotions involved make it much more challenging to recover from emotional adultery than physical cheating.
Warnings that you're emotionally cheating on your partner.
1. You tend to get together with them or contact them at weird hours.
It’s common knowledge that there are prime hours for romantic encounters. Warning signs include getting together with this person at inconvenient times (such as after work or bedtime) or contacting them when you should be spending time with your partner.
2. You trust one another with intimate details and secrets.
Consider whether you have crossed a line if you find yourself opening up about your personal issues or secrets with this person.
3. It's going to be hard to wait to meet them.
Have you ever experienced butterflies just thinking about meeting this person? What gives? It’s not appropriate for you to be so enthusiastic if your relationship is merely platonic.
4. As a result, you plot activities to engage in with them
It’s a serious problem if you’re spending more time thinking about when you can see this individual than you are with your current romantic partner.
5. To rely on their guidance is to put your trust in them.
Inquiring into the opinions of those close to you is natural, but placing excessive stock in the opinion of one person may signal that things have gone too far in a relationship.
6. You can't decide if they're attracted to you or not.
Cheating on the emotional level is not necessarily followed by actual physical activity. If there was no physical contact, that does not absolve you of responsibility.
7. One of the first people to come to mind is this person.
If you could have breakfast with anyone, living or dead, who would it be? With the exception, of course, of the barista at your favorite coffee shop. You need to back off fast if it’s the person you’ve been growing feelings for. Thinking about someone other than your partner so frequently is unhealthy.
8. You should pause and think about what you're doing.
Take some time to reflect if you find yourself in this position and wondering if you’ve gone too far. The fact that you’re debating whether or not this behavior constitutes emotional cheating rather than simple friendship indicates that things have progressed beyond a healthy level.
Maybe you think your lover is cheating on you in this way because they’ve developed feelings for someone else.
When weighing the pros and cons of emotional infidelity versus friendship, it’s important to keep in mind that neither the former nor the latter necessarily has to come out on top. The friendship may be genuine and sincere. It’s easy to mend the separating fences with a little talk between partners.
Arguments on both sides of the emotional cheating versus friendship argument can get heated. We all need our friends, but if they’re constantly there to prop us up, we might want to reevaluate our actions.
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