The 7 Stages of Emotional Affairs: How to Save Your Marriage

Marriage may face challenges, many of which lead to divorce. Infidelity is one of the top reasons for people to put their relationships to an end. The point is that cheating is not only about a sexual affair but emotional infidelity, too. The latter mischief is even a more significant threat to your primary relationships than physical infidelity.

Check out the seven stages of emotional affairs to spot the warning signs early and fix your relationships before it is too late for anything but divorce.

How to Save Your Marriage After Emotional Affairs

The 7 Stages of Emotional Affairs

Emotional affairs may start from nonsense, a simple friendship, or accidental acquaintance, but they are usually more challenging to deal with, and the aftermath is unpleasant for the couple. Unlike physical infidelity, emotional cheating involves a more intensive connection between partners and creates a sense of interdependence.

Explore the stages of emotional affairs to spot them early and overcome the family troubles to prevent a divorce:

Platonic Friends

An emotional affair usually starts with a platonic friendship. The most frequent candidates for emotional cheaters are used-to-be friends with close and warm relationships. Even if they never intended to become more than friends from the beginning, they often get closer.

Lack of Satisfaction with Marriage

Another feature of a ‘good’ candidate for emotional extramarital relationships is a person dissatisfied with their marriage. If a spouse is not pleased with the way their relationship develops and doesn’t want to share it with their partner, it may be a close friend to whom they decide to trust their troubles to. As a result, the friends will only get more intimate, and online divorce Texas may be a preferred option for all sides.

Intimate Friends

As the emotional affair develops further, it becomes more difficult to distinguish whether you are still friends or more than that. You begin sharing intimate details of your life with your friend. Then you often think about them and look forward to meeting them. You prefer staying with your friend to meeting in a big company. You communicate and share less with your spouse but opt for your friend instead.

Important Life Decisions

Soon, your friend becomes so close and important to you that you value their opinion more than your spouse’s. So that when you need advice on life-turning decisions, your friend will be the first person you will look up to. And vice versa. You will help each other with significant life choices and eventually play the top roles in each other’s lives. This will be an offensive move concerning your spouse since they will feel ignored and lose any authority and importance in your life.

Complaints about Marriage

It is not only about a person being dissatisfied with the marriage, but soon they will start complaining to their close friend about the failing relationships. Whether you find the prenuptial agreement unfair, have trouble with your social life, or feel irritated with your spouse, your dear friend will know about it first. Moreover, they will listen to you, discuss your marital hurdles, and grant advice. This will only bring you closer to each other soon.

Emotionally Detached Marriage

As your friendship turns gradually into a more serious relationship, you lose the emotional connection with your spouse but strengthen it with your new partner. This is the point when you fully qualify for the emotional cheating definition. This implies you feel generally happier and sexually excited when you are around your more-than-a-friend. Your relationships become more secretive. You feel more distant from your spouse and feel annoyed with them often.

Sexual Affairs

At the peak of its development, emotional cheating turns into a sexual affair. At this moment, there is the biggest threat to the marriage and a lower chance the couple will overcome the challenge and stay together.

How to Deal with Emotional Affairs       

For many partners, an emotional affair doesn’t mean the need to divorce. Many couples decide to cope with emotional infidelity and search for how to save a failing marriage for the best possible outcomes. Here is what you can do if you face similar marital hurdles:

Communicate

Talk openly about the problem with your partner. Whether you only suspect the emotional cheating or are sure about it taking place in your family, discuss it with your spouse before it gets too difficult to fix the problem. Your primary task here is to get to the root of the issue and try to deal with it but not fight the consequences.

Learning how to disagree without being catty and keep an honest dialogue open can help strengthen your relationship and prevent future emotional affairs. Properly understanding DBT skills and how they can cater to your needs can help you resolve conflicts in a healthy manner. Hearing the other person out is vital since it will help you understand your partner’s viewpoint while they feel heard. This may prevent things from getting too tense.

Put in Effort

If you wonder can a marriage be saved when emotional infidelity occurs, it all depends on how much both spouses are ready to commit. If both of you realize your mistakes and marital troubles, and you genuinely wish to improve your relationships, you have a big chance for success then.

Move on

Nothing will work as long as you hold a grudge against each other. One partner is generally dissatisfied with the marriage, and their emotional affair hasn’t worked. At the same time, another partner is offended by the fact that the cheating has occurred. Anyway, if both of you concentrate on the negative things in your relationships, you will hardly reach any success together.

Cooperate with Specialists

It may be challenging to deal with emotional infidelity in most situations without professional health. So, it will be easier for you to fix your marriage if you visit a family counselor or other suitable specialist.

Care about Your Health

Emotional cheating may be a severe burden on your mental and emotional health. Don’t forget to care about yourself and your wellness during hurdles so that you have enough power to overcome difficulties with your partner or apart.