I Want to be Close to Someone: A Confusing Type of Affair

“I want to be close to someone (which means I can’t stand intimacy)” is the seventh type of affair discussed in the ebook Break Free from the Affair.

In this type of affair, there is generally a lot of confusion. A lot of people who are going through this type of affair say, “I don’t know what to do. I’m really confused. One minute he says he doesn’t want me, and then the next minute he wants to work things out. What do I do?”

All the confusion from this type of affair comes from two things: the pain from discovering the affair, and the confusion he has about what he really wants.

Upon discovering your partner’s affair, you usually react by thinking that you want nothing to do with him, that you don’t deserve to be treated that way, and that you want out. But when your partner shows signs that he regrets what he did and he wants to try to work things out with you, you change your mind and think, “Maybe we can make this work.”

This is the hallmark of this type of affair. Because your partner is confused about what he wants, and about who he wants, it usually becomes a dragging kind of situation where both him and the other person are stuck because you don’t know what to do. A part of you pulls you in one direction – to leave him and start over – and another part of you pulls you in another – to stay and try again. And all the confusion comes from not knowing which part of you to follow.

Getting out of being stuck will take a lot of reflection and self-evaluation. You will have to decide on your own, without any regard to what your partner wants, what you want to do and where you want to go. It is the only way you will stop the confusion of this type of affair.

Cheating Against Infidelity: Is There Really A Difference?

How do you define cheating against infidelity? Is there really a difference between the two? Or do they mean just one thing?

In the course of over twenty years of working with thousands of people who experienced having an affair, or experienced their partners having an affair, there was a difference in society’s understanding of cheating against infidelity meant.

So for most people, there is a distinct difference with cheating against infidelity, and cheating is worse than infidelity. They view cheating as something that’s more strongly associated with the “I don’t want to say no” type of affair from the seven types of affairs in the e-book by Dr. Huizenga, while the other six are more of infidelity.

Cheating, mostly, is described by the stereotypical view of how extramarital affairs are seen. A cheater, for example, is someone who constantly has affairs, usually with multiple partners, and does not see anything wrong with it.

Infidelity, in the other hand, is associated with confusion, pain and doubt, where a person is having a hard time going through his or her affair because of guilt and a sense of shame for doing what he or she is doing.

Cheating, therefore, is for someone who chooses to have an extramarital affair without any regard as to how it will make his or her partner feel. And infidelity is for someone who, for one reason or another, feels compelled to experience a relationship with another person who isn’t his or her partner. These are the major differences that people see when it comes to cheating against infidelity.

So if you suspect your partner of having an extramarital affair, or even when you know for sure that he or she is having one, how would you know which one it is? How do you differentiate cheating against infidelity, and know for sure which on your partner is going through?

Seeing as how these things have different meanings, it will, of course, follow that cheating against infidelity will have different signs or clues in how they present themselves as well. You will be able to notice little differences, and you will be able to pinpoint whether your partner is cheating or involved in infidelity.

So what are these signs?

Check back for our follow up blog post to find out everything you need to know about cheating against infidelity!

Sexual Addiction: How Does it Cause Extramarital Affairs?

A kind of extramarital affair that is becoming more and more common is one related to sexual addiction. The one having the affair has a hard time saying no and instead, feels obligated to say yes when it comes to sex.

Although we all have our limits when it comes to affairs, and will, at some point, eventually say no and mean it, there are those who have a difficult time at doing so. Not because they want to continue the affair, but because they have a hard time saying no to it.

This is why sexual addiction and infidelity that is caused by it is very hard to fix, because it’s difficult to separate one from the other completely unless the addiction is addressed.

In this two-part article about the relationship between sexual addiction and infidelity, you will learn a few identifiers that will help you point out whether or not you should suspect sexual addiction as the cause of your partner’s infidelity, or if it is a different type of affair caused by other factors.

Here are some things that you should take note of:

1. The other person or persons are only seen as objects for personal gratification. Your partner does not develop a real relationship with him or her, and no true intimacy is developed. He or she is used merely for sex.

2. Your partner’s sexual addiction may have stemmed from an experience from childhood that he or she had a difficult time to cope with and hadn’t completely resolved yet – usually sexual abuse in some form.

3. Sex, to your partner, has a heightened role or value in your relationship. The need for sexual gratification is great and should be acted upon frequently. Also, other activities related to sex such as watching porn, going to strip clubs, or having multiple sexual partners is very common.

For more signs of sexual addiction, check back in a few days for the second part of this post.