Crossing a line in a relationship is often used vaguely to refer to bad behavior.
Here’s what therapists say it means, plus how to deal.
What, exactly, is crossing a line in a relationship?
As the visual implies, crossing a line means stepping outside the bounds of the relationship, says Earnshaw.
In other words, cheating is line-crossing of a specific nature, but not all line-crossing is cheating.
This is especially true when it comes to emotional and virtual interactions, says Dr. Alsaleem.
founder of Renew Breakup Bootcamp and editor-in-chief of Heart Hackers Club, an online magazine that focuses on the psychology behind love, lust, and desire
For example, in some relationships, watching pornography or flirting is an acceptable behavior.
And in other relationships, those behaviors are considered to be a form of cheating or infidelity.
Often, full-fledged cheating is what happens as the result of afewlines being crossed.
This, then, opens the door for successive actions on the pathway to disconnection and cheating.
Dozens of harmful, line-crossing decisions can lead up to the physical or emotional act of cheating.
In this moment, its so important to remember your own needs in the relationship, says Earnshaw.
And doing so requires communicating (or re-communicating) them to your partner.
Remember that its not on you to come up with a reasonable explanation for what happened.
Its the burden of the person who crossed the line to explain their actions.
founder of Renew Breakup Bootcamp and editor-in-chief of Heart Hackers Club, an online magazine that focuses on the psychology behind love, lust, and desire
So, in this case, he says, you may need to amicably go your separate ways.
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