Emotional cheating can be difficult to define because no physical boundary may have been crossed. This article explores when friendship becomes betrayal, why secrecy matters, how emotional energy shifts outside a relationship, and the questions couples can ask when deciding whether trust has been broken and whether it can return.
When we think of cheating, we tend to think of something physical. It involves sex, kissing or contact of some sort. Emotional cheating is less straightforward as nothing physical may have happened and yet, the same levels of betrayal can be felt by the partner.
The difficulty with this it that emotional intimacy is not unusual outside romantic relationships. We share personal thoughts with friends, seek their advice and enjoy their attention. Being in a relationship should not change that and it is folly to think that one person can meet all of our emotional needs. The difference between friendship and emotional cheating is not always obvious.
It becomes clearer when we consider what might be being hidden. Someone might start to delete messages, change the way they describe the friendship or avoid mentioning communicating with them. They might start to share thoughts with the other person, leading to the situation that communication reduces in the relationship. They may become highly defensive when questions are asked and might even dismiss the whole situation because nothing physical happened.
