Are you trapped in a roller coaster ride of emotions? Are you drained from a relationship that should have been established by mutual trust and respect not with manipulation and guilt tripping?
If you have felt those things above, you might want to look on the course of your relationship. You might have placed your heart in a toxic relationship.
What is toxic relationship?
Toxic relationship is a constant negative feeling that you feel towards each other. After the honeymoon phase, things started to get real and both of you starts to take things more seriously. A relationship starts to get messy, to the point that even your partner’s presence starts to annoy you. You constantly feel drained and undervalued in the relationship. Instead of comfort and security, you feel like a puppet manipulated to do its routines.
Being involved in a toxic relationship not necessarily mean that the love is gone, the love could still be there, but is now clouded by poor handling in arguments and lack of communication. One could have exerted too much dominance without considering what the other has to say. It could also be one of you becomes obsessive and possessive denying your partner’s freedom.
Signs of a toxic relationship
At first you would not notice the red flags and think of it as a natural phase in a relationship. Here are the signs if you are in a toxic relationship and if its frequency is nothing to fear, or a sign for you to get out.
1. Controlling Behaviors
Controlling partners are those who constantly makes decisions for you. They decide what you wear, where you go, whom you should only go out with, what time you should be out, and on how you should act. They will try to manipulate you by gaslighting you and invading your privacy.
2. Dishonesty
Your partner starts to hide where he is going and on whose company. It first starts as little lies and made-up stories on his whereabouts until it gets frequent where you feel left out and irrelevant. Your partner could have said that he/she is just concerned on how you will react to this situation putting you on a position where you question yourself if you are overreacting.
3. Toxic communication
Instead of sitting down discussing matters at hand calmly, you feel like you are in a conversation that lacks respect and transparency. Instead of toning down, there could be aggressiveness in telling sides and whatever you say, you always seem to be the bad person.
4. Excessive jealousy
Jealousy is normal, it becomes unhealthy when time to time your partnerinstantly jumps into conclusions and wants to isolate you from others. Jealous partners tend to hog all your time and becomes possessive. They always monitor who you communicate and always has intense emotion when you are talking or interacting with others.
5. One-sided effort
A relationship starts to become toxic when it is now carried and nurtured by only one of you. When all the love, effort, understanding, and resolutions come from one person, love starts to be taking a lot instead of balancing give and take. It becomes exhausting now to always be the bigger person when there is two of you in the relationship.
These are just some of the signs that you are in a toxic relationship. These may or may not apply to you, it depends on what is your stand in the relationship. One thing is for sure, if you feel that it is not right, remove yourself in the situation. Remember, you deserve what you tolerate.