Reasons For Entering An Open Relationship
An open relationship may form for various reasons. These include:
- a difference emerging between two people in a relationship
- one partner realizing that they are unable to fulfill the other's needs
- varying sex drive between partners
- one or both partners desiring more freedom, companionship, intellectual variety, or a variety of sexual partners
- a need for challenge: some people feel that their relationship is inadequate unless they are being challenged. Open relationships may create a sense of jealousy, attachment, or possessiveness, all of which are challenges for a relationship to work through. These emotions can also lead to greater self-awareness which may be seen as satisfying to those in open relationships.
- the enjoyment of new relationship energy, the state of heightened emotional and sexual receptivity and excitement experienced during the formation of a new relationship
- being able to meet other couples and individuals with a similar outlook with whom the participants can connect with on an intellectual and emotional level
- personal issues, using sex with different people as a form of distraction from certain problems (having troubles in a dysfunctional family, lacking friends, having been cheated on and trying to compensate for it, working in a stressful environment) or as a way of proving oneself that he/she is sexually attractive
- being in a relationship of convenience, that is, one that is not based on mutual feeling of love towards each other (anymore), but rather on economic or social factors
- distance - when partners live in separate parts of the world for part or all of the time.
Read more about this topic: Open Relationship
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