The emotional stress that can be caused by discovering our partner having an affair is perhaps one of the most traumatic events that anyone could experience in everyday life.
Without a doubt, an experience as stressful as this in turn involves a chain of psychological response mechanisms that can range from an outbreak of excessive anger to a cycle of chronic depression or anxiety.
The psychological effects of infidelity are not a secret for psychologists or for the common individual, but what about the repercussions that our body suffers? Are there also effects directly associated with unhappiness that produce changes at an organic level?
A study published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships suggests that, for the affected party, the psychological impact of unhappiness not only generates emotional shock but also experiences negative changes in our physical health.
“Blame attribution, whether one blames oneself or one’s partner, influences the emotional and physical impact of infidelity”Explain .
what does it mean exactly?
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The author of the study, Rosie Shrout of the University of Nevada (Reno), explains it this way:
“First, we know that infidelity is one of the most stressful and damaging events a couple faces. People who were unfaithful experience strong emotional and psychological stress following infidelity. We wanted to know if this emotional and psychological stress leads them to engage in risky behaviors for their health, such as having unprotected sexual relations, using drugs, abusing alcohol, compulsive eating or stopping eating.”
Shrout and his team were also interested in defining whether the perception of guilt played an important role in the psychological impact after infidelity and in the possible risk behaviors adopted, so they interviewed 232 university students (average age 20 years) who had been victims of infidelity in the last three months in search of a possible answer.
The length of time that the vast majority of study participants had been in a relationship with their unfaithful partners was approximately 1.76 years.
The results obtained by Shrout and his colleagues suggest that the psychological effects of infidelity, such as experiencing a state of major depression and anxiety, are closely related to an increase in the tendency to engage in a variety of unhealthy habits.
What Shrout and his team found was an important connection between mental health and health-compromising behaviors.
“As we expected, people who experienced greater psychological and emotional stress after being victims of infidelity were engaged in a greater number of risk behaviors. “They were more likely to eat less or not at all, use alcohol or marijuana more often, have sex under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or exercise excessively.”explains Shrout.
In other words, being a victim of infidelity not only has negative effects on our mental health, but these effects have a direct influence on our physical health by making us more or less likely to behave in a certain way due to the emotional impact. .
Shrout and his team also found that people who blamed themselves for their partner’s actions were more likely to engage in risky behavior, while blaming their partner directly seemed unrelated to a greater or lesser tendency to engage in risky behavior. risky.
“It was interesting to find that these effects weigh more for women than for men”Shrout adds.
This detail in relation to gender differences is consistent with a previous study according to which women experience greater psychological stress after being victims of infidelity compared to men. “We believe this happens because women typically place more importance on romantic relationships, so they may be more likely to have poorer mental health or engage in risky behavior.”Shrout told Psypost.
The researchers agree that these parameters could differ from those of older couples, such as married adults who have children and live together, or those who share finances, so they plan to examine these types of relationships in future studies to determine the role that infidelity plays in long-term couples.
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