Hi friends. Is it fucked up to flirt with someone with no intention of taking it further? I’m in a long-term monogamous relationship. Sometimes I crave a little validation from strangers. I’m not going to cheat on my partner, but I do have a need to feel desirable to others. I don’t feel like a bit of flirting is a betrayal of my relationship, but I’m less confident about how other people feel. Like, I don’t want to waste someone else’s time, but I guess maybe I am leading people on a bit if I chat with them without mentioning my partner.
I feel like it’s a good way to trigger insecurity in your existing partner that over time blossoms into a fully toxic situation that kills your own attraction to them and ultimately the relationship.
It isn’t wrong per se but I feel like it is playing with fire and ultimately self harming in many cases. Very careful management of trust and those insecurities that creep in would be needed to not let that happen, and even in people who are very aware of this issue it can still happen anyway if the right(or wrong) body chemicals are mixing in a certain way on a certain day.