When you get cheated on, it can feel like it’s the worst feeling in the world. It can feel like a gunshot straight to the heart with minimal chance of survival. There’s just a level of pain that comes with such a betrayal that is almost unbearable. You develop a really strong trust and bond with another person – and all of it blows up right in your face. It might be so traumatic to even cause some people to cease on their beliefs in love and romance.

And the sad truth is that many of us have been unfortunate enough to have paid witness to infidelity in our lifetimes. An even sadder truth is that unfaithfulness is going to continue to exist so as long as people get into the relationships. There are just some people out there who are wired to cheat, sad to say. It’s even becoming more and more common for young people who have adopted very noncommittal lifestyles and personalities.

That’s why it’s only normal for one to always engage in a sense of self-protection whenever one gets into a relationship. Of course, you would always want your partner to feel like you trust them and that you would want to open up to them. But you can’t discount the possibility that you’re only going to end up getting hurt. There is a way for you to stay guarded without establishing a solid distance between you and your partner.

You can still be cautious and still have a very happy and fruitful love with your partner. You just have to make it a point to stay vigilant of their behavior. Remember that the act of cheating in itself is vile. But what really hurts the most when you get cheated on is the shock factor. It’s not being able to expect that the person you love could hurt you in such a manner.

If you are able to see the signs that your partner is interested in being with someone new, then you would be able to better brace yourself for the emotional impact of unfaithfulness. The best-case scenario is that you could put more work into your relationship to make sure that your man doesn’t go off in search of another woman altogether.

Here are a few signs that your boyfriend might be interested in looking for someone new:

1. He develops new habits that are hard to explain.

He has taken up a lot of random mannerisms and new habits that you don’t know where he could have gotten them from.

2. You get the sense he doesn’t really want to spend much time with you.

You get the feeling that your partner isn’t really interested in spending all that much time with you anymore. He wants to be out with his friends every night. He would rather be alone on most days. He doesn’t want you to play any part of the equation.

3. He doesn’t establish eye contact when he talks to you.

He doesn’t really try to make eye contact with you because he is uncomfortable with allowing you to see right into him. He doesn’t want you to get a sense of how he truly feels about you.

4. You are fighting a lot more than before.

You seem to be fighting way more now than you have ever in the past. You are constantly disagreeing about things. And you get the sense that he is becoming a lot more irritable of you nowadays.

5. You feel like the passion is slowly dwindling in the relationship.

You don’t really get intimate with each other anymore. The passion in your relationship is slowly fizzling out and you really take notice of it as well.

6. He no longer engages with you in deep conversations.

He doesn’t really lock you into deep conversations with him anymore. He doesn’t really try to engage with you.

7. He makes you feel left out in his life.

He doesn’t really try to make you feel included or welcome in his life anymore. He is always just content with just doing his own thing and making his own plans independently from you.

8. He has become a lot more selfish.

He doesn’t really seem to care about helping you out anymore. He seems more and more concerned in his own life while being less concerned in yours.

9. You notice that he hides his phone from you.

He doesn’t want you to see the evidence of his unfaithfulness or disloyalty to you. That’s why he tries to hide his phone from you.

10. He has stopped putting in the effort for the relationship.

He doesn’t really seem like he’s invested in the relationship anymore. He is leaving you to do all of the heavy liftings for both of you.