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"   Cheating is something of a dirty word for most of us; we don&amp;#039;t do it and we definitely don&amp;#039;t condone doing it. But, according to Tracey Cox, many of us may be committing emotional infidelity - something she has pegged as &amp;quot;the biggest threat&amp;quot; couples can face. So what is emotional infidelity - and how do we keep ourselves from committing it? THE TELLTALE SIGNS OF A CHEAT Well, according to Tracey, emotional infidelity is when we forge a deep and passionate connection with someone and, without realising it, cross over the boundaries of platonic friendship into romantic love. Just because you&amp;#039;re not having sex with someone doesn&amp;#039;t mean you&amp;#039;re not cheating. IS CHEATING A DEALBREAKER? But, before you start questioning every fanciable friend in your address book, Tracey has compiled a short list of questions to help you figure out if you are emotionally unfaithful. Check them out for yourself below... DO YOU BADMOUTH YOUR PARTNER TO A &amp;quot;SPECIAL&amp;quot; FRIEND? Do you constantly berate and put-down your boyfriend to another guy? Even when you&amp;#039;re perfectly content in the relationship? According to Tracey, this is just another way of saying &amp;quot;I could be lured away from this relationship because it&amp;#039;s not ideal&amp;quot;. Worse still, you will end up driving a wedge between your partner and your friend - which is never great. DO YOU ACT AS IF YOU&amp;#039;RE SINGLE? When you&amp;#039;re in a brand-new social situation, do you mention your partner a lot, a little or not at all? It&amp;#039;s hard to strike a healthy balance between being the girl who constantly talks about her boyfriend to being the one so silently mysterious she is almost definitely available - but you don&amp;#039;t want to keep completely schtum. If you act single, people react to you as if you&amp;#039;re single - and that can only lead to trouble... DO YOU ACT AS IF YOU&amp;#039;RE SINGLE ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK? ... and, weirdly enough, this doesn&amp;#039;t have to be in person either - what does your social media profile look like? Tracey has pointed the finger at Facebook and Twitter as being the number one cause of emotional infidelity, saying: &amp;quot;Along came Facebook and Twitter, and with it &amp;#039;harmless&amp;#039; online flirtations, never-quite-forgotten old flame reunions (&amp;#039;It&amp;#039;s just a coffee&amp;#039;) and &amp;#039;friends&amp;#039; who seem to care more about our lives than our partner.&amp;quot; Why do you want your Facebook / Twitter to keep your relationship status a mystery? If it&amp;#039;s for privacy, or work, than keep it that way - but if it&amp;#039;s because you&amp;#039;ve just added someone you have a crush on, it&amp;#039;s bad news. Obviously. Sort it out! DO YOU LIE ABOUT WHO YOU&amp;#039;RE SPENDING TIME WITH? If you&amp;#039;re heading out to spend one-on-one time with that &amp;quot;special&amp;quot; friend, do you lie to your partner about it? Or do you downplay the meet-up by suggesting it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;just a work thing&amp;quot; or saying &amp;quot;a couple of us will be there&amp;quot;? Not good. Tracey says: &amp;quot;A good question to ask to keep you on the straight and narrow: If my partner saw me right now, would they be upset? Would you be tempted to lie about what you&amp;#039;re doing? If yes, stop it!&amp;quot; DO YOU OVERSHARE? Sharing intimate details of your relationship (yup, and sex life) with friends you fancy is, according to Tracey, a big red flag when it comes to emotional infidelity: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s one thing dissecting and analyzing your relationships with same sex friends (or opposite sex friends if you&amp;#039;re gay) but quite another discussing deeply personal things with someone you&amp;#039;ve got a &amp;#039;thing&amp;#039; for. Emotional closeness swiftly moves into romantic dependence.&amp;quot; WOULD YOU HIDE TEXTS, EMAILS OF FACEBOOK MESSAGES FROM YOUR PARTNER? Picture the scene; you&amp;#039;re on Facebook chatting to an old friend, when you&amp;#039;re partner sits down next to you. Do you feel the need to stop him seeing what you&amp;#039;ve been typing (or, perhaps, who you&amp;#039;ve been typing to) or are you happy to carry on? As Tracey says, in an honest relationship &amp;quot;ideally no communication should be kept secret&amp;quot;. That doesn&amp;#039;t mean you have to tell and show every single thing you say - but there should be no conversation that harbours any guilty feeling on your behalf. HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? It&amp;#039;s a good idea to put yourself in your partner&amp;#039;s shoes once in a while. If you saw them behaving with a friend as you do with yours, would you feel hurt? Or would you brush it aside as something harmless? It&amp;#039;s very easy to justify something as innocent when you&amp;#039;re the one doing it, so changing your perspective is a good way to get a better grasp of the situation. WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER AS CHEATING IN A RELATIONSHIP? What do you think of Tracey Cox&amp;#039;s views on emotional cheating? Do you think she has a point, or do you think your friendships are just that - friendships - and nobody&amp;#039;s business but you own? Let us know below or tweet us over at @CosmopolitanUK now. Buy Tracey Cox&amp;#039;s new book Dare: What Happens When Fantasies Come True for \u00A37.99 on her website.  Follow Kayleigh Dray on Twitter at @KayDee28 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/love-sex/relationships/a20072/emotional-cheating-partner-cheater-infidelity/>