Ways Relationships Can Mess With Your Head
Let's say you're in a relationship with someone you think is the love of your life, and you want it to work no matter what. That's great, but is this person affecting your mental health and you're too stubborn to notice the signs?
Sometimes, you need to take a step back to assess what's going on mentally. Here are some ways your relationship hurts your mental health.
Experiencing Unequal Give And Take
For a relationship to work properly, both parties need to support each other. It's not a good sign when one puts out less and expects more in return. That's not the way things go.
Letting Anger Win
Experts suggest that the best way to handle anger and retribution is by not engaging in it. Partners need to let go of their egos and take each other's feelings and complaints seriously.
Triggering Irritable Behavior
A common reaction to stress that people experience while in a relationship is when they become testy with people they care about the most. This then leads to outbursts instead of trying to address the issue.
Lower Self-Esteem
When there are issues in a relationship, it's easy to feel like you're the problem. You might begin to internalize it, and the insecurities you have inside can start to show themselves.
Getting Trapped By "Gaslighting"
Getting trapped by gaslighting is when you know there's a problem, but your partner doesn't and will not confront it. Instead, they'll deny it or act like it doesn't exist. This can cause a person to doubt their own perspective and feel like they've lost their grip on reality.
Creating Problems With Avoidance And Denial
Since many like to take the path of least resistance, avoiding interactions with loved ones that annoy us is a frequent tactic. Doing so prevents us from confronting the issue at once and allowing it to build for down the road.
Causing Stress-Induced Physical Symptoms
If the relationship plays a part in you becoming restless at night, getting upset stomachs, or feeling drained and low on energy, you need to reconsider this thing before you cause a lot of damage.
Always Feeling Stressed
It could be your job or your family that's got you stressed. At least, that's what you try and convince yourself. Ignoring the signs that your partner brings you stress can be easy to do in a newly formed relationship.
Becoming A Victim Of Domestic Violence
You've probably had friends that stayed in a physically abusive relationship for whatever reason. That doesn't mean you have to do it. If things escalate to domestic violence, that's one of the most evident signs to leave.
Triggering Anxiety
The thought of your relationship shouldn't fuel your worries. If you get stressed thinking about the prospect of your finances, safety, or the next few months in general, that's a bad sign.
Creating Social Anxiety
A healthy relationship has the power to have a positive effect on people with social anxiety by boosting their likelihood of coming out of their shells. The reverse is true for possessive relationships.
Feeling More Depressed
You should never feel more depressed when dating someone. You two should help nurture each other so that you eliminate underlying issues you might have. If your depression comes out more with a partner, that's a sign to let it loose.
Increased Social Withdrawal
Social withdrawal differs from social anxiety in that it's geared more towards apathy and not fear. You become less motivated to go out in public spaces because your partner emotionally abuses you.
Becoming Codependent
Codependency is a dangerous game. This is a dynamic where partners enable each other's horrible habits like drinking and smoking. If both partners are anxious or depressed, then things amplify.
Instigating An Eating Disorder
If one party is already self-conscious about the way their body looks, a bad relationship might start an eating disorder. Uncommunicative and abusive relationships can make someone turn to compulsive eating as a passive-aggressive way to cope.
Causing Sleep Disturbances
There is heavy, research-backed proof that connects our ability to sleep well with physical and emotional stress. A relationship that consistently stresses you can lead to terrible sleeping habits, making your life overall more stressful and hard to bear.
Creating A Distorted Sense Of Reality
When you're on the receiving end of gaslighting, denial, or other forms of dishonest treatment, it can create a distorted sense of what's real to you. That isn't a healthy way to navigate life, so this is something you need to combat right away.
Triggering PTSD
In significant cases of emotional or physical abuse, a partner can feel symptoms of PTSD while trying to overcome the issues caused by the other person. Things like flashbacks, severe anxiety, and nightmares come into the forefront.
Intensifying Existing Issues
Any toxic relationship will stir up issues you haven't fully healed from yet. If that's the case with someone you're getting to know or even someone you've had in your life for a while, you have to quit that fight sooner than later.
Broken Heart Syndrome
When you end an important relationship, sometimes that pain can turn into what is called "broken heart syndrome." This mimics the effects of a heart attack, with chest pains and shortness of breath. It's a rare condition, but common for older women suffering from depressive symptoms.
