Marriage Counseling: Emotional Infidelity

How Can Emotional Infidelity Affect Your Marriage?

Emotional infidelity is a relatively new term that you hear today, especially with the advent of the Internet. Most couples realize that a sexual affair can be harmful to their relationship. Yet, there is a difference between emotional and physical infidelity. One is an emotional attachment and the other involves having sex with another person. However, emotional infidelity can often lead to sexual infidelity.

Examples of Emotional Infidelity

Flirting with a co-worker, admiring another person through social media or an online chat or sharing intimate details may plant the seed for emotional infidelity to grow.

In fact, emotional infidelity can manifest in different ways and the following are some examples:

• Complaining about your partner to your new friend
• Feeling like your new friend understands and appreciates you better than your partner does
• Imagining or fantasizing about sexual feelings for the friend
• Sharing more about yourself with your friend than you do with your partner
• Preferring to spend time with your friend instead of with your partner
• Hiding your feelings about the new friend from your partner

(Reference: Psychology Today)

Underlying Reasons for Emotional Infidelity

A lack of intimacy and closeness along with growing apart are what 80% of couples that divorce give as their reasons for ending the relationship. In fact, cyber cheating is often just as threatening for a marriage as a physical affair is.

What it comes down to is feeling like there’s a hole in your life. Your relationship is no longer satisfying or exciting, and you’re looking outside of it to find fulfillment.

By rekindling the dynamics of your relationship, you can replace the desire to find closeness and intimacy with someone else. The key is often addressing your relationship before it reaches the point of failing.

It’s very likely that therapy can help you repair your relationship. However, if you’re dealing with any of the following, they must be addressed first:

• A physically or emotionally abusive relationship
• Substance abuse
• A firm decision to separate or end the relationship

What Can You Do?

Tell us about your relationship and your desires to make it better. Our therapists at Affordable Therapy Los Angeles can explain how we can help you.