Health

Why Do People Cheat and How Does It Affect Your Health?

Why Do People Cheat and How Does It Affect Your Health?

The influx of dating sites has made it easier to avoid being single and find a new partner and there are quality sites, that help people find partners even when they’re married.

Perhaps cheating is not a good idea, as relationship expert Jennifer Lorusso explained in her article,

“Cheating, whether in relationships, board games, cards, or taxes, is a selfish attempt to get everything or as much as possible.”

Whether you should or should not be dating when married is a different debate but there are triggers that can justify why someone would look for love outside their marriage. For instance:

  • Men, in particular, cheat but so do plenty of women. They’re not happy in some way with the quantity or quality of sexual intimacy they have in their relationship.
  • Many people seeking emotional gratification cheat. If you feel unloved and undervalued in your marriage, you are more likely to be drawn to someone you feel will appreciate you.
  • Some people truly believe they’ve fallen in love with someone else. Even if it turns out not to be true, there’s the excitement of exploring a physical and emotional novelty. The attraction provokes such strong feelings it can be hard to see things as they really are.
  • Some people revenge cheat as a punishment after discovering their partner.

Playing the cheating game rarely ends well and relationships in marriage are often so complicated there are no rights and wrongs even though some people find it simple to pass judgment.  If you are unhappy as you are and an opportunity presents itself, it’s easy to throw caution to the wind and use your affair as a catalyst for change.

Even so, when our society makes moral demands on monogamy the guilt of cheating can lead to serious health consequences. For example,

  • Women who are being cheated on sometimes blame themselves for the situation. They begin to question all that they are and all they do, to reason out the reason for the affair. The emotional turmoil suppresses the appetite or the need for comfort increases overeating. The additional stress may increase alcohol intake and other forms of self-medication.
  • The stress of cheating and infidelity in a relationship has been linked to more serious health issues such as dangerous increases in blood pressure that place stress on the heart. Some studies have confirmed that men who cheat have an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks. The same is true for older women who may have to deal with broken heart syndrome, a stress-induced cardiomyopathy.
  • Women who are being cheated on are more likely to develop clinical Those symptoms are much more than the typical feelings of sadness and often include difficulty sleeping, poor motivation and debilitating panic attacks.
  • Cheating on your partner means you live with the guilt and that it also means constant lying that adds to an accumulation of stress. Left unmanaged, it piles up to negatively affect your overall mental health.
  • The chemicals produced by being in love works like an addictive substance on the brain so knowing someone has betrayed your trust can leave feelings misdirected, raw and very intense.

It is too simple to say people shouldn’t have affairs. Even when the church and the laws said don’t, people did anyway. Despite all the rules dictated by society and religion, affairs have always happened and always will. Relationships are never black or white and the hormone- driven thrill of an affair can be an overwhelming motivator. So although an affair could be bad for your health as an individual, it could be good for our species as a whole.

South Florida Caribbean News

The SFLCN.com Team provides news and information for the Caribbean-American community in South Florida and beyond.

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