While there are certainly telltale signs when it comes to extramarital relationships brewing, infidelity is actually much more complex than we often think. We’d like to believe that we’re morally above these scandalous relationships, but the thing is, cheating can occur anytime. In order to gain a better understanding of affairs, it’s vital that we take the time to analyze and debunk the existing misconceptions of infidelity.
Cheating means the relationship is over
The very act of being intimate with someone other than your spouse can easily break the bonds of trust and may very well end your marriage, though cheating isn’t actually the leading cause of divorce with experts explaining that it is the lack of intentional investment in the relationship that drives a couple apart. In spite of possibly leading to other issues in the future, YourTango.com shares that over 50 percent of marriages have survived infidelity and were able to rebuild their marriage.
Affairs only happen when a partner goes looking for one
Probably the most common amongst all the myths regarding affairs is that people often assume that extramarital relations occur because people are intentionally looking for them, when in fact the majority of first-time cheaters say that it was a completely random occurrence. Documented on an infographic provided by Adam & Eve, 45 percent of the people surveyed claimed that their affairs happened out of the blue. Often these random interactions develop into a friendship, progress to intimacy, with a high probability of the whole thing turning into infidelity.
Only people unsatisfied with their relationship are unfaithful
Although a person that’s unhappy with his or her partner may be more likely to cheat than someone who claims to be happily married, studies show that only a very small percentage of men cheated because they were nearing the end of an emotional relationship. Most of them had the desire for sex with other people, despite still loving their current partner. Bess O’Connor of PuckerMob explains that women have a higher tendency to cheat for emotional reasons, but it’s still too simplistic to assume that women have affairs because they’re unhappy.
It doesn’t count as cheating if sex isn’t involved
Affairs are often regarded as a form of betrayal by means of sexual relations outside of your marriage. AskMen.com reveal the truth about infidelity, which is that being unfaithful to your partner can take many forms, regardless if you’re giving away a physical or an emotional part of yourself. Text messages, phone calls, and emails are no longer harmless when a person feels the need to hide them from his partner. Sharing intimate thoughts without physical intimacy constitutes as cheating as it heightens the temptation and lays the groundwork for a sexual affair.
