The Naked Truth | How to tell if your partner is sexually or emotionally distant, and what to do about it
- Emotional drifting can develop without obvious signs, but can be destructive and it needs to be dealt with
- Relationship expert Valentina Tudose offers tips on spotting and dealing with emotional distance
Having an intermittent need for space is completely normal in a romantic relationship and can be healthy, giving it room to grow and flourish. It doesn’t mean that your partner is sick of you, they just need time for themselves.
Physical and emotional space can also help both partners develop a sense of independence and fuel love, desire and longing. Giving your other half space has numerous benefits that can help a relationship stay fresh and last, but only as long as it doesn’t extend over a considerable period of time and become a habit.
Sadly, we often see couples use the excuse of needing personal space as a way to avoid intimacy. It is common for couples to drift apart emotionally and/or sexually over time. This can happen without obvious signs because more often than not, it can be masked by daily conversations and interactions that are purely functional, such as taking care of mundane household matters, children, and family issues.
Even spending extended time together as a family, especially with children, doesn’t qualify a couple as being emotionally connected.
The question is: is your partner eager to spend quality time with you alone in an intimate manner? If your interaction is merely transactional, which is only about childcare and household matters, then you have a problem on your hands.