What is the difference between close friendships and romantic relationships?

Question

What do you believe the diffrences are? Does one have a certain spark? Is the only difference sex? Does it just come down go labels?
(When answering this it would be cool if you could include asexual, aromantic, and none monogomous relationships aswell)
In my personal life am having some trouble finding true distinction between them so I thought if ask for other opinions!

Accepted Answer

The difference is I have no romantic interest in my close friends, basically

Answer

I personally cannot include asexual, aromantic, and none monogamous relationships because none of those apply to me and i cannot speak on that. 
For me, its a combination of physical attraction,  sexual compatibility, being able to live with them, their personality and emotional availability, that creates that "spark" where i know that i could be interested in them more than a friend. Ita a combination of a lot of things.

Answer

For me it doesn't have as much to do with sex since I'm on the asexual spectrum. The best way I can describe it is that I love my friends but I'm not in love with them

Answer

The difference between close friendships and romantic relationships for me personally, is the lack of desire to be with them in a romantic or sexual way. Strictly platonic. My best friend could ask me to be with them tomorrow and I'd say no because there is zero desire for them that way. 
I'm not sure what you mean when you ask for people to include asexuality, non monogamous relationships, etc in their answer.

Answer

For me, it’s not just sex, but sexual attraction is definitely a part of it. I’m not sure that there’s any one specific thing that differentiates, it’s just a feeling or combination of feelings. 
Like, I was super close to my best friend. We did everything together similar to couples, but it wasn’t romantic (although I’m also attracted to women). That spark as you called it wasn’t there, although we had an instant connection as friends. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Answer

No romantic interest. I have a lot of male friends and I consider them to be like brothers. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Answer

I don’t know. I also have issues with that. There are people I definitely don’t have any romantic or sexual feelings towards, but I can’t figure out why. Lol. It’s actually a problem that affects my life. The difference isn’t sex and it isn’t just labels either. I guess it’s a feeling that isn’t easily described.

Answer

I don’t have any romantic or sexual feelings toward my friends. I only have those feelings toward my SO, and I tell him everything and am 100% comfortable around him. The love is just different.

Answer

I mean I think it may be labels. Although attraction is a huge part. I have a friend who is like a soulmate, literally my favorite person however I am not sexually attracted to them at all it’s more intellectual.

Answer

I struggle with this, because any non-family adults that I’ve been very close to emotionally I have always wanted intimate physical contact with, but only once I became emotionally close with them. (I guess the closest label for my sexuality would be a combination of demisexual and pansexual).
If they had been interested in becoming sexually involved, I would have totally been on board with it. So for me there’s not a difference between my feelings in close friendships and romantic relationships.

What is the difference between close friendships and romantic relationships?

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