How to deal with Toxic Relationship
How do you know you're in a toxic relationship? How can you avoid being in one? This article will answer those questions.
A healthy relationship contributes to our self esteem and emotional energy while a toxic relationship drains energy and damages self esteem. A toxic relationship occurs when one or both people prioritize love over the other core components of a healthy relationship; respect,
trust, affection.
To have a healthy relationship, the core components of a relationship must be available in equal proportions. This may sound crazy, but love is not everything, it might be the strongest emotion
but having only love in a relationship and ignoring respect, trust, affection is a literal definition of toxicity in a relationship. If you prioritize the love you get out of a relationship over the respect
you are given, you'll have to tolerate being treated like a doormat.
In the same vein, if your partner shows you more love than trust, you'll have to tolerate them lying to you and
cheating..and the same goes for prioritizing love over affection in a relationship because all
you'll get in return is a cold and distant partner.
Toxic relationships have mutated themselves into something that has the potential to be
extremely harmful to our well being. The irony about being in one is that it can be harder to see
the red flags.
If you constantly feel drained or unhappy after spending time with your partner,it
could be a sign that things need to change.
It's safe to go ahead and ask what a toxic relationship looks like;
below are some signs
● controlling behaviours
● Resentment
● dishonesty
● Constant stress
● lack of self care
● emotional black mail
● Physical or verbal abuse
● too much passive aggression
These among so many other things are signs of toxic relationships, and once you start to notice
them you either try to fix it or completely leave the relationship.
The paradox is that in order to
have a reasonable chance to turn a toxic relationship into a healthy one is being prepared to leave the relationship. If you can't handle it yourself, seek help. Talking to a friend or a family member about it helps a lot because coming out of a toxic relationship is a long process.
Talk to your partner about what's bothering you, if he/she is not willing to seek counsel, you have to think about ending the relationship. Work on your self esteem, move on and try as much as you can to cut off every possible type of communication with that person. Then take the time you need to heal and work on yourself before thinking about getting into a relationship with another person.
Written by
Etuka Onyinye