For starters, emotional cheating occurs when someone establishes a close, intimate connection with someone who isn’t their partner. Some see this as harmless but that harmless flirting may not be as innocent as it seems.

Emotional cheating is not only when your partner shares emotions with someone else but if and when they constantly siphon quality time, finance, attention away from your relationship towards someone else.

The thing is, sometimes people get all confused about this emotional cheating stuff that’s why I will be pointing out some behavioral signs of emotional cheating.

• When your partner spends more time chatting/talking/thinking about someone else than you
• When you notice a physical sign of chemistry around them
• When your partner always avoids mentioning them around you
• When you begin to feel less emotionally or physically attracted to your partner
• When your partner starts sharing frustration/dissatisfaction about your relationship with them
• When your partner starts comparing or wishing you could be more like them

In the beginning, emotional cheating always feels a lot more like casual friendship, in most cases, emotional cheating creeps in when a situation creates an unwanted space between you and your partner. Perhaps, your partner started spending longer time at work, picked up a new hobby that you have no interest in.

This is a very sensitive issue and should be handled with care. Communication is the key, whenever you decide to confront your partner with such a sensitive issue, it is best you start with questions.

Ask to find out if they are still happy being with you, if they are happy in the relationship. Carefully state how you’ve noticed changes between you both and how you feel disconnected from him/her.

If you are comfortable being blunt and getting straight to the point, a more direct question to know if they have connected with someone else other than you is better and more effective.

In doing this, you should understand that the answers to these questions will be painful to hear but it will give you a clear vision of what needs to be worked on in your relationship.

Getting over this can be quite difficult if you come to the conclusion that your partner actually cheated on you but it is possible. If your partner came out clean, was honest, and explained to you what happened and what caused it, agrees to repair the trust it will be a lot easier.

When you both establish a way to rebuild the trust, it is also important to look at the areas where there are lapses in the relationship that created space for cheating because while you may not be the one who cheated, you may have pushed him/her without knowing. So work on every area that might lead to what happened and continuing leaving happily again!