Relationships have their ups and downs, but these are normal, because two different people from different backgrounds, and probably having different beliefs, come together to share beautiful things they enjoy together.
However, certain patterns and habits aren’t just hiccups.
They are unhealthy and can lead to emotional, mental, and physical harm. Signs of a toxic relationship usually get missed, as many bad habits become normalized while dating.
In this post, I share 5 signs to show that you may be in a toxic relationship
- Your partner is controlling
In a relationship, however close you are or however long you have been together, you both remain separate and autonomous individuals. If your partner controls and decides for you who you can spend time with, where you can and can’t go, what you wear, checks your texts and emails, then there is a problem.
This kind of controlling and jealous behavior is usually glorified and seen as cute, but this isn’t proof of care, it’s obsessive control. They don’t own you. Such behavior breaks trust and can make the victim feel isolated from friends and lobed ones, which gives the other partner chance to manipulate them.
- They constantly gaslight you
Gaslighting refers to manipulating somebody by psychological means into doubting their reality. You feel like whenever you bring up an issue or something they have done but instead, your partner denies, lies, and distorts what happened to make you question your understanding.
This leads to self-doubt. You stop trusting your judgment and understanding. This also makes it difficult for you to bring up issues that truly bother you because you start to doubt their significance and fear that you may be overreacting or overthinking yet you’re not.
- You’re always blamed for everything
Having a partner who never takes responsibility for anything can be quite draining. You’re both adults and should be able to own up to your mistakes as individuals.
But in this case, you’re stuck in a situation where everything is always your fault. You’re always apologizing and your partner always finds a way of tracing back their mistakes to you to make you feel like you were at fault.
Your partner makes you feel responsible for their failures, mistakes, and emotions that arise from their wrongdoings. This leaves you carrying shame that isn’t yours and affects your self-esteem in the long run.
- You don’t feel safe
You must be and feel physically safe in your relationship. If that’s not the case leave immediately because your life may be in danger.
It’s important that you feel emotionally safe too. It’s not healthy to be in a relationship where you feel like you can’t say what you think or feel because you will be dismissed, insulted, ignored, or misunderstood.
- Silent treatment
Silent treatment is the refusal to communicate verbally with another person, some people even refuse to acknowledge the other person’s presence.
You may not know this but silent treatment is emotional abuse.
If your partner usually gives you the silent treatment after arguments, they are manipulating you and controlling you into giving in to what they want so that they can stop ignoring you.
This is not right and leads to constant worrying, fear of expressing yourself, and a communication breakdown.
Conclusion
It takes a while for most people to realize that a relationship is toxic because at the start you’re so engrossed in the honeymoon phase and even when you see the red flags it’s easy to brush them off.
But soon, these toxic traits start to get amplified as the relationship progresses so it’s important to know some of the signs of a toxic relationship in order to make an informed decision about your next course of action in case you notice any of the signs mentioned above. Be on the lookout and guard your heart cause a toxic relationship can have a severe impact on your mental health.
Feel free to share this with a friend who might need it.
