To genuinely love someone is to be there for them, to encourage them to be the best version of themselves, and to be somebody they can trust and confide in on their most difficult days. While most aspects of dating or marriage are pleasant, they are not without their own set of hardships.
You must think about someone other than yourself every day and consider their happiness before making any decisions.
All of this can change, however, when one person cheats.
Infidelity is a common source of marital stress, and it can play a role in the decision to divorce. When married partners form close, sexual relationships with those outside their relationship, interpersonal affairs or unfaithfulness can evolve without a sexual and physical element.
Keep reading to learn why cheating is absolutely wrong – and why it can ruin your relationship.
Table of Contents
1. Your Affair Cannot Stay Hidden Forever
If you haven’t cheated yet but plan to do so in the hopes that your partner will never find out, be aware that your affair can’t stay hidden for long. Your partner will probably realize your act of unfaithfulness and infidelity – no matter how well you try to hide it.
If you haven’t cheated on your partner yet, consider the world of hurt they’ll go through when they find out.
2. You’ll Live in Constant Fear that Your Marriage May End
You wouldn’t be interested in making an effort to get to know someone else romantically if you were in a healthy marriage or relationship.
Don’t let your apprehensions about what might happen if you tell your spouse what isn’t working affect your judgment. It’s always better to spend time working on your marriage than on loving someone new.
Find out how to enhance your marriage to the point where it brings you the same joy it did when you first met your spouse. You owe it to yourself, your spouse, and your children to put forth the effort to repair or gently end things with them.
3. You’ll Constantly Worry About “Covering Your Tracks”
Infidelity necessitates secrecy and the use of deception to hide your tracks. Despite the initial thrill – guilt, anxiety, and concern will consume an increasing amount of your thoughts.
Because you’re living a lie, you’ll start to feel worse about yourself as you delve deeper into these feelings.
Leading a double life will make you feel conflicted, nervous, and upset. In one of these lives, you’re happily married – and in the other, you are having a torrid affair.
4. You’ll Break Your Partner’s Heart
You will emotionally and psychologically harm your partner if you cheat on them. You’ll break not only their hearts but also their trust in you. You’ll squander their faith, honor, hope, and dreams that they had with you.
You’ll cause them great grief, leading to heartbreak and other mental illnesses like depression. They will lose faith in love; because of what you’ve done to them, their broken and conflicted hearts will be consumed by hatred.
5. You’ll Break Your Children’s Hearts
Your affair will rob your children of the joy they’re entitled to. You’d be ruining their chances of having a happy family.
They’ll see you as a bad parent who tore the family apart. They’ll grow up without proper supervision from their parents if their family is broken, and their lives will be more difficult for the rest of their lives.
6. Your Family Members Will Also Feel Heartbroken
You’ll also upset your loved ones (and your partner’s), such as parents, siblings, and friends. You will be a huge letdown for them, and you’ll be embarrassed by yourself.
Your own parents, siblings, and friends will be surprised by your actions, and it will cause a great divide between them and you.
7. Your Marriage Will Come to an End
While it’s true that some couples can overcome the havoc an affair can cause a marriage or relationship, it’s also true that the charm and innocence of their love become tainted and will come into question.
If you cheat, you’re going to ruin the relationship you’ve worked so hard to build. You will decimate your relationship and end up losing your romantic partner, possibly forever.
8. The Trust People Have in You Will Be Gone
You’ll be labeled a cheater, a liar, and someone who lacks ethical principles. You will be undeserving of honor and respect.
Even if your spouse forgives you, your relationship or marriage would never be the same after that. It would be more difficult for your partner to respect you and believe what you say.
9. You Might Contract a Sexually Transmitted Disease
When having an affair, you’ll be more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes, HIV, and AIDS.
The more sex encounters you have the more likely you are to jeopardize your lifespan (and that of your partner’s!) – not only because of the risk of contracting STDs but also because of other physical and psychosocial issues.
10. You Will Lose Sleep
You’ll have sleepless nights and will be haunted for the rest of your life by the weepy eyes and sad faces of the people you’ve hurt, particularly your partner and your innocent children.
Plus, there’s no guarantee that the person you cheated with will love you forever. Maybe what you have with them is purely physical.
11. Karma Will Come for You
What goes around comes around. You’ll reap what you sow. You can’t expect to reap truth and honor if you plant deceit and unfaithfulness. You will be humiliated – and will lose your integrity.
Be prepared for what you’ll receive in return for the sorrow, discomfort, and hardship you’ve caused your partner and those close to you. Bad karma manifests itself in a variety of ways.
It could be physical, monetary, emotional, mental, behavioral, or spiritual in nature.
12. No Good Can Come Out of It
The perks of an affair may only last for a short time. The gratification you can gain from this affair won’t last very long.
On the other hand, the pleasure you can get from giving love, respect, and kindness to your partner can last a lifetime – and you can even share these feelings of love and kindness with your children and other loved ones.
13. Cheating Will Only Make Your Marriage Worse
If you have a problem with your partner, find the right solution. If your partner isn’t affectionate with you, why not focus on loving them and not expecting affection in return?
If your partner always doubts your loyalty, why not prove that you’re a person who can be trusted?
Whatever your problem in your relationship is, there is always a proper solution.
14. It Can Affect Your Standard of Living
Depending on what you do for a living, you can lose your job. Many people are forced to leave their homes. Because cheating is usually the forerunner to divorce, most people end up paying astronomical court fees.
Wronged spouses have a way to make you pay – and it’s always a high price. Each check you write will serve as a daily reminder of your mistakes.
15. Rebuilding Your Life Can Take Years
Even if you could weather the financial storm, it’ll take years for you to recuperate emotionally. It takes years to rebuild your reputation. It will take a long time to re-establish trust.
It might take a lifetime for you to forgive yourself.
16. You’ll Lose a Lot Of Loved Ones
You’re going to lose many friends – even friendships that have lasted a lifetime. Close friends who have aided you numerous times won’t be there to assist you. Even family members who are supposed to love you unconditionally will disappear.
A cheater’s life can be extremely lonely. Many individuals who used to call you a friend are finding it difficult to get past your ill-thought-out decisions.
17. The Grass Isn’t Greener on the Other Side
The grass always looks greener from the other side, but that’s seldom ever the truth. We only think it’s greener because we’ve never been on it. The minute we come to that patch of grass, it changes color.
The same can be said for your affair.
18. This is a Decision You’ll Come to Regret
Cheating tends to make sense in the spur of the game. It feels good, and it even makes sense at times. Feelings can be deceiving.
Isn’t it true that we’ve all had enough remorse in our lives? Why add another thing to the list – especially one that’ll obliterate everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve?
Don’t do something you’ll regret.
19. You’ll Have Separation Anxiety
When a relationship is about to end, we experience what is known as “separation distress”. We grieve not only for the loss of the relationship (good or bad) but also for the possibility of finding another who will meet our needs.
Separation distress lasts a different amount of time for different people. Some people may believe it is worthwhile to rejoice over the end of a bad marriage, but they’ll still be distressed somehow.
If the couple was still in therapy when they chose to quit their relationship, the therapist could help them work through their judgment in a way that minimizes hurt feelings.
20. It’s Hard to Re-Navigate Your Life With Someone New
Most couples can’t survive an affair and end up getting a divorce or breaking up forever. Even if you decide to go separate ways and choose to live with the person you were having an affair with, what’s the guarantee that you will stay happy with them?
There is no guarantee that you’ll feel happy with them. Instead of having an affair, you should work on yourself and figure out why you want to cheat this badly.
Why Do People Cheat?
Married people cheat for a variety of reasons. Infidelity affects up to 40% of married couples – and despite the high proportions, most people (even those who cheat) believe that cheating is wrong.
Mental illnesses, early life issues, a lack of maturity, and contributors like social media can increase the likelihood that a person might have an affair while in a committed relationship.
Discontent in the relationship is also a key contributor to why people decide to cheat. The cheater may have sought to fix issues in the relationship but had no success, thus taking an alternate path.
Perhaps the straying spouse has early life baggage- neglect, abuse, or a cheating parent, making it difficult for them to remain faithful to a relationship. The cheater is less likely to value monogamy, lack compassion, or simply be unconcerned about the repercussions.
The most common reason for cheating on your partner is a lack of emotional association or the feeling that you’re not being treated like you deserve. Anyone could succumb to cheating to try and find everything they were missing in their previous relationship.
The Bottom Line
Cheating will only exacerbate your relationship’s problems and issues. Solve those problems if you have an issue with your partner.
Whatever your issue is, there’s always a suitable solution. You don’t have to cheat or use your terrible relationship as an excuse if you genuinely believe your relationship is harmful, disruptive, and won’t work anymore. You can tell your partner that you want to terminate your relationship right now.
