Some experts say that emotional infidelity can be very damaging to a marriage so damaging, in fact, that it may as well be sex. But what exactly is it?

Emotional infidelity has been called by many names such as extramarital emotional involvement, or emotional affair, to name a few. It is basically an affair without any physical connection. Instead of having sex, the parties trade deep, personal intimacies. Psychologists say that while there is no outward physical manifestation of attraction in an emotional affair, its bases remain the same the parties involved have sexual chemistry, they just dont act on it. Friendships quickly grow into emotional infidelity when two people connect with each other on emotional levels that are usually shared between husband and wife, or couples in long-term relationships.

Emotional infidelity starts when two potential sexual partners communicate intimately about problems in their respective married lives or relationships problems that their respective spouses or partners consider be too private to share. The problem gets worse when the topics of discussion involve things or issues they are unwilling to confide to their spouse or partner. This causes the emotional relationship to become deeper, pulling the two parties closer to a sexual affair.

People in relationships may find deep emotional connections anywhere, but most of them find it in offices (with colleagues), in organizations they are members of, and on the Internet. Emotional infidelity need not wreck a marriage or relationship for as long as the connections are kept at healthy levels, emotional infidelity can simply be emotional outlets, and nothing more.