When Do Relationships Need Help?

The most common reason a relationship needs help is when it has a cycle of unhealthy behaviors that results in more "bad" times than "good" times. If you find yourself in a simular situation, recognizing it and making changes is essential to having fulfilling relationships. No relationship is perfect, but an unhealthy one involves more disappointment and pain than happiness.

Unhealthy relationships can be harmful to your mental health and may trigger a toxic cycle. Learning what is an unhealthy relationship can help you identify if you are in one. Then you can understand how to change it. When unhealthy relationships occur over time, they can be hard to recognize.

An unhealthy relationship includes a series of harmful practices that become the order of the day between partners. They also have a direct impact on the individual’s mental and emotional health. These relationships often lack the essential elements of:

• empathy
• clear communication
• and mutual respect

• trust
• create anxiety
• and prevent true intimacy

• pain (physical symptoms due to a psychological cause)
• frustration
• feeling alone

• mother or father
• romantic partner
• friendship
• professional

I can help you break the cycle of unhealthy, toxic, or dysfunctional relationships in your life. These repeated paterens of behavior take root from past experiences,learned behaviors or unresolved issues. I will help you deconstruct your behavior and provide you with a straightforward solution.

Examples of unhealthy relationships:

Codependency

Codependent relationships involve one partner who feels they can’t survive without the other and the other partner thriving on being needed.

Blaming one another for every issue

Sometimes who’s to blame seems more important than what the actual problem is. Placing blame typically involves a lack of openness or resistance to accepting responsibility. This may lead to behaviors, such as:

• guilt
• excuses accusations
• shutting down
• defensiveness

You fight more days than not

Constant fighting likely indicates an unhealthy relationship. According to a large study from 2022, constant distress or conflict within a relationship affects the emotional well-being of older adults. It also creates feelings of loneliness.

Lacking communication

A lack of communication can impact the quality of your relationship. Maintaining a healthy relationship can be difficult if you feel unheard, disrespected, or unsafe with expressing yourself. For example, if your partner doesn’t seem to listen to you, and you keep repeating yourself without getting anywhere this could lead to dysfunction within the relationship.

Holding grudges

Holding a grudge involves bringing up past issues that you either already fought about or suppressed to bring up later. Someone holding a grudge might now express how bothered they are but will do or say little things that make you wonder.

Abuse is present

Any type of abuse, emotional, verbal, sexual or physical, is highly dysfunctional. If you need help for yourself or someone in your life, you can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-7233.