4 Main Types of of Cheating In a Relationship

Cheating is a heartbreaking thing to discover. It’s not as simple as just sex however, as there are several types of cheating in a relationship.

Cheating isn’t usually black or white, and the grey areas are never easy to read. But however you look at it, there are a few main types of cheating in a relationship that brings the relationship to a grinding halt.

If you’ve ever been cheated on in the past, you’ll know how heartbreaking it is. Everything is suddenly turned on its head and the security and comfort you thought you had in your relationship is gone. You can’t look at your partner in the same way and you have a huge decision to make about whether to continue the relationship, or end it there and then.

I should point out before I go on that you might decide there are several other types of cheating in a relationship besides the four I’m going to describe. This is because, as I’ve already said, everyone has different boundaries and decides what is cheating versus what isn’t.

* Physical/sexual cheating

This is by far the most common type and can cause a huge amount of hurt. It’s one of the biggest betrayals possible, but how you deal with it depends on how you see the event. Was it one time? Was it more than once? Was it with one person or more than one person over a series of events?

This type of cheating can take a long time to repair if the two parties decide to stay together. Building up the trust again and probably even being physical again together will take time. Only you can decide whether the time is worth it.

* Emotional forms of cheating

For me, I think this is worse. What do you think? Emotional cheating is when someone forms an emotional attachment with another person behind your back. It may include sex, but not always.

If a partner cheats in this emotional way, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t love you anymore, but you do have to question why they formed an intense emotional connection to another person if that is the case.

* Online cheating

This is one of the hardest types of cheating to catch, because anyone can be a totally different person online. This type of cheating means talking and flirting, perhaps even having video or phone sex with another person on a dating site or social media site.

The person may have no intention of actually having actual sex with this person, i.e. in a physical way, but the trust is still broken.

From all the types of cheating in a relationship to catch, this is the hardest. But if you do find that your partner has been indulging in this type of activity, perhaps monitoring their internet usage for a long time to come afterwards is the only way to rebuild the trust.

* Sexting

The final form of cheating is very similar to online cheating, but it usually means that the person knows the other person they’re talking to. Sexting is basically sending sexually charged text messages or social media messages to another person.

There may or may not be actual physical contact and there may or may not be an emotional connection, but the crux of the matter is whether the sexts are a precursor to the person intending to meet up and cheat physically or not.