Emotional fidelity is as important as physical fidelity because
emotional infidelity often leads to physical infedelity.
Not exact matches
Infidelity breaks up many marriages, but
often it isn't the act of sex that's so upsetting — it's the deception and lying, clearly problematic for the
emotional intimacy you say men want.
For some spouses — more
often women, Saltz says — learning of an
emotional affair can be worse than discovering sexual
infidelity.
Infidelity breaks up many marriages, as you note, but
often it isn't the act of sex that's so upsetting — it's the deception and lying, clearly problematic for the
emotional intimacy you say men want.
I
often work with couples to rebuild trust and security after
infidelity, cope with the impact of depression or anxiety on
emotional closeness, and heal experiences such as trauma, PTSD, and childhood abuse.
For some spouses — more
often women, [Gail Saltz, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at New York - Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell School of Medicine], says — learning of an
emotional affair can be worse than discovering sexual
infidelity.
When young men cheat, for example, it is
often not because of lost love, but because they struggle to deal with competing desires for recreational sex and monogamy.3 In a large meta - analysis (which is a statistical summary of the results of many research studies), men and women were similarly upset by
emotional infidelity, more so than sexual
infidelity.4 But what does
infidelity really mean?
Couples
often present with conflict,
emotional distance,
infidelity, insecurity, as well as sexual and intimacy difficulties.
The
emotional fallout from
infidelity is considerable — the betrayed spouse / partner
often feels traumatized by the betrayal;
In my experience of couples therapy, I
often find that the impact of
emotional infidelity, such as e-mail romances or excessive intimacy with a colleague, friend or neighbor transferring the affection that otherwise would go to one's partner, does more damage to a marriage than sexual intimacy.
Even if the
infidelity is «only»
emotional, it
often leads to a double life of deception and sexuality, threatening once secure marriages.
In the new crisis of
infidelity, platonic friendships and workplace relationships are turning into
emotional affairs, usually gradually,
often without premeditation.