Romantic relationships are something like straight from fairytales, simply beautiful! It is an experience that one expects to receive only from their beloved and no one else. But what happens if one finds that out their partner who they thought was a cupid fix, is cheating on them? How would their partner’s infidelity affect them?

Infidelity is a deal breaker in every romantic relationship. If tried to better understand it, it is being unfaithful in a relationship and is commonly known as ‘cheating‘ in a relationship.

Indulging in infidelity, in a relationship involves:

• Sexual Infidelity is cheating by having sexual relation with someone other than the partner.
• Emotional Infidelity is cheating by having feelings for someone other than the partner.

Furthermore, it is seen that mostly reason for cheating differs in both the genders, where women cheat due to the lack of emotional support or happiness whereas the men tend to cheat due to the failure of sexual pleasure and loneliness. Yet again this was the reason for most of the cheatings!

However, one a partner cheats on the other; the person has various effects on mental health, including the following:

• losing the self-esteem
• self-blame for the failure of the relationship
• in some cases, indulging in substance abuse
• depression
• anxiety
• emotional and psychological distress

Women are more prone to feel these symptoms strongly in comparison to men. This is because women generally associate their identity and in fact themselves with their relationship, as for them making a relationship is highly important. Although that doesn’t mean that men find it is easier to cope with their partner who cheated on them. It is aching irrespective of who so ever amongst the partners is going through it.

Concludingly, we learn that infidelity has an impact on the sufferer on many levels. Yet, it is important to understand that they are not alone and so if they are finding it hard to cope with infidelity in a relationship or know someone who is going through the same, can be helped by a therapist or a counselor. Although a therapist wont explicitly tell you what to do and what not too, they can simply provide actions or suggestions for you to practice on your own as the final decision as to what needs to be done in the relationship is all yours! Regardless of your decision, remember that there is hope available to you. Depending on where you stand and whether you are willing to consider a continued relationship will determine whether or not counseling is your right choice.