What Is A Toxic Relationship?
A toxic relationship, also called an unhealthy relationship, is any relationship you are in – whether with yourself, your family, your friends, colleagues, or a romantic partner – that isn’t healthy. When you are in an unhealthy relationship, you aren’t happy and just feel drained.
The need for companionship, to love and be loved in return are just some of the few reasons we engage in romantic relationships. Sadly, while some relationships evolve into something beautiful, others lose flavour or become toxic.
Truth be told, no relationship is perfect as they all need time and effort by parties involved for it to make a headway. However, there are some unhealthy relationships that one needs to quit.
It is very important to note that while a healthy relationship is based on equality and respect, an unhealthy or toxic one is about power and control.
There may be moments of joy in the relationship, but overall, you regularly or constantly feel misunderstood, attacked, unsupported, controlled, or humiliated.
Essentially, your overall well-being is threatened, and this can be physically, psychologically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, or a combination of these.
This further leaves me to say that in some relationships, toxicity in action is much clearer than in others. While physical and verbal abuse are ace-in-the-hole indicators, there are many other ways that toxicity manifests.
The experience of actually being in a toxic relationship doesn’t always register as dangerous in the moment—particularly in cases when the toxic partner is manipulative. As a result, figuring out when and how to leave a toxic relationship often requires taking a magnifying glass to your own well-being and the ways in which your partner may be compromising it.
How To Identify A Toxic Or Unhealthy Relationship
1. Hostile communication
No two people are going to see eye-to-eye at all times, and occasionally, natural disagreements can be fodder for arguments. But it’s how a partner communicates their viewpoint during a disagreement—particularly when their stance is different from yours—that can shed light on the health of your relationship.
2. Feeling Like You’re Walking On Eggshells
If you find yourself toggling between wanting to share something and worrying that it might provoke your partner, the relationship may be toxic. A partnership who restricts you in this way can quickly cause you to turn on yourself—which is a control tactic that can leave you feeling as though you’re the problem in the relationship.
Being Isolated From Life Beyond Your Relationship
Even if you view your partner as your best friend or the person with whom you’re closest in the world, they still shouldn’t be your entire life. If you find your world shrinking and your other relationships dwindling, that spells trouble.
That concept extends to your interests, activities, and hobbies, too: If you’re no longer doing the things you used to enjoy, you may be wrapped up in a toxic relationship that’s minimising your sense of self.
NO PERSONAL GROWTH:
Before you got into that relationship, you had an identity, you had dreams and ambitions. Romantic relationships demand sacrifices from time to time, but that doesn’t mean you should lose grip of who you are in trying to make things work.
Benefits To Ending A Toxic Relationship
Once you have identified the toxic relationship, it’s up to you to leave, but you may doubt whether you can or if you’ll really benefit from leaving what you may believe to be stability and love.
There are several benefits to leaving a toxic relationship, and these should help you decide to make the decision that’s right for you.
1. Developing Ability To Ask For Help
If you make up your mind to leave the relationship, it becomes easier to ask others for help and support. When you stick with a toxic partner, you will harbour a twisted sense of loyalty that will keep you from asking for the help you need.
2.Restored Self-Worth
There’s nothing worse than being in a relationship that breaks down your sense of self. When you leave the person who’s holding you down, you allow the breath of freedom to help you discover your self-worth again.
Leaving a toxic relationship will help you recover by removing the person who was toxic from your life. This is why it’s important to sever the relationship ties completely as you don’t want to leave room for them to infect you with more toxicity.
3.Walk To Freedom
To get your freedom and live happily and freely from your toxic partner requires space, movement, and careful planning.
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