Friends -with-benefits relationships (FWB’s) are quite popular in all the developed countries, we people are well introduced with the concept of being a friend with benefit from the series we have seen on television or online but with no time it become popular in India and the popularity was not at all surprising, perhaps.
These kinds of relationships occupy the middle position, where you don’t feel the burden of commitment with the other person and where you feel free to talk to other people without feeling guilty of cheating your partner, in this kind of relationship there are no factors like jealousy or patience involved.
It’s not completely casual like one night stands where you sleep with completely a stranger just to satisfy your sexual needs, nor does it a completely romantic relationship where you are sleeping with someone for years, it occupies the middle stage, where you are quite well known about the one you are sleeping with.
Friends with benefit might also alleviate the risk which is more or less inherited in a commitment relationship, like ending up with a bad/ crazy/ inadequate lover. But, it has its drawbacks at the same time. FWB relationships does not involve that closeness or intimacy, there is a familiarness which you could feel during having sex, but the love, commitment and intimacy which one feels in a love relationship, where they could see the future together is always missing in these kind of relationships.
If we keep all the benefits aside and focus on the main advantages, They serves two most important functions: They give one a chance to check if they are compatible with the person before thinking about being a serious committed relationship and also, they helps one to get the sexual pleasure with the one they know and trust.
Mostly, the trail run question is usually a ‘no’. Very few FWB relationships turns into a long-term relationship, where they found love in the trial and end up together in a romantic committed relationship but, the question arises is, what if it doesn’t? Majority of these relationships last for few years or months and with time the sex fizzles out and then the friendship does not usually stand a chance to be the same. There are very few cases, between 5-10% in which after the end of their relationship, they somehow manage to keep their friendship intact.
There is a belief that sex is detrimental to a friendship, because usually it complicate the relationship and at the end it destroy the bond and friendship which one used to feel before their decision to turn their strong bond into a benefit friendship. Nobody wants to lose a friend and losing such a close friend is the main fear before and after indulging in a FWB’s relationship, second only to the risk of developing reciprocated feelings.
Friends-with-benefits relationship ends in many ways and few of them affect both the partner really hard. One of them is, one of them actually fall in love and the other don’t, this kind of situation complicate the relationship, destroy the bond and ends up with a conclusion that the idea of being a friend with benefit was a bad idea. Another end is where, the sexual tension dissipated (which inevitably happens over time).
Or the sex didn’t really work very well. However in some cases, when the sexual/ erotic component of being in this relationship beings to disappear, people don’t find it that difficult to give their relation, the name of friendship once again since they feel the same bond with the other person.
The study of FWB relationship also illustrates that, once the sex ends they end their relationship and justify their relationship by saying that, their relationship was just sex-based. And with no time, if they somehow manage to be friends again, the quality of their friendship and trust declines.