An emotional affair or as otherwise known, emotional infidelity and emotional cheating
, is an affair that does not engage any physical connection from either party. In this kind of affair the person puts their emotional energy into it which can eventually take a toll on ones married life. A relationship of this type might have started out innocently enough as a friendship, but at some point it takes a more serious turn, but lacks any physical intimacy.
What can happen is a friendship will grow into something more than just friends. These best friends may spend more time with each other than with their spouse and the spouse may not even know of this friend. In this emotional affair, one of this couple will be able to confide in their new friend all aspects of their life that they feel they can't tell their spouse. Even though there is no sexual contact between them, this relationship can have a negative effect on a marriage if not brought to an end.
Many times one will resort to emotional cheating because of some issues they experience with their partner. If this issue is resolved at home with the partner the chance of this emotional relationship happening will be greatly reduced. If not resolved at home, the cheater may have this affair so they have someone they can confide in. It may not have been planned to happen, just sometimes they make an emotional connection with someone.
Some signs that someone is in an emotional affair are some loss of intimacy with their spouse. They may be emotionally distant from their spouse and care more about their friends feeling than their spouse. They may have more fights with their spouse over perceived or real problems they are having.