To put it as simple as possible, an emotional affair is when a man cheats in the relationship, but there has been no sex taking place.

This does not mean that there's no physical attraction, it just means that bad timing, lack of opportunity or even lack of proper venue has contributed to there not having sex. As simple as this may sound, it can have devastating effects on any relationship even more so than cheating that involves sex.

How Does This Happen?

This happens when a husband withdraws emotionally from the other. This means no intimate conversation, intimate looks or even touches. The husband chooses to withdraw that energy from the relationship and focuses elsewhere or in this case focuses it on another woman.

A Simple Example

An example of this is having something on your mind that you would normally express to your wife but for whatever reason you now discuss with another woman. You find yourself laughing and joking with them because you realize that they are so easy to get along with and to talk to. What men fail to realize is that most women seems easy to talk to at first because they only know the part of you that they see in that little time that they do see you. Thay have not lived with you and gotten to know your faults and quirks and your negative points as yet. So of course they seem easy to talk to, their opinion of you have not been jaded.

This is having an emotional affair. Most women do agree that once you are removing anything from the relationship, it is cheating. We all know that women are emotional creatures, so this type of affair affects them greatly. It is easier for a woman to get over a sexual affair than emotional one. This is so because they know that men are mainly physical. This means that after sex most men loose interest in the whole "catch and release" of the affiar until their urges peak again.

If a man is having a sexual affair but treats his wife no different, meaning there is no lessening of the emotional aspects of the relationship, there is a great likelyhood of her getting over it and for the both of you to move on after it. My advice is not to cheat, but if you are, do not suffer the emotional aspect of your relationship. In any relationship, the first and most noticable indication that something is going wrong, is emotionally.