Toxic Relationship And How It Messes With You Psychologically

On a basic level, any relationship that makes you feel worse than how you were before you met them is toxic whether it is a romantic relationship, a relationship as colleagues or just friends. It makes you feel attacked and misunderstood. Every time, you have to apologize and explain yourself. You can even have toxic relationships among your family members.

Here we are going to be talking about romantic relationships and how toxic partners can mess with your mental health if you do not leave immediately you notice the signs from what they do and what they say. Toxic relationships are dangerous to your health in general. They can literally kill you because stress shortens your life span and toxicity in relationships comes with a lot of it and even more like helplessness, anxiety, depression, Insecurity and fear. 

It is said that one of the most critical decisions one can make is; with whom to be in a relationship and the second is, with whom not to be In a relationship. The characteristics of your relationships are significant factors that affect your mental and emotional health.

How Does Toxic Relationship Affect One’s Mental Health?

Toxic Relationship Damages Your Self-Esteem

The nature of toxic relationships can cause feelings of uncertainty and undermine your self-confidence. Relationships should bring out the best in you and support your growth, not lower your confidence. Studies have shown that those with low self-esteem are most likely to remain in bad relationships. So if your relationship is lowering your self-esteem then you are most likely to stay in that relationship. The worst part of it is that you won’t even be able confront the things that upset you in the relationship because your confidence dropped.

How Can You Tell That You Are Losing Your Self-Esteem?

1. You Find Yourself Testing Your Relationship: You begin to doubt the relationship and because you don’t have confidence, you tend to test your partner every time to check if they still love you. At times, even if they pass your so-called test, you don’t still trust them

2. Your Partner Is Controlling: If your partner controls some aspect of your life then you have lost some important relationship boundaries. Aspects like choosing your friends, telling you what to wear, when you should go out and when not to. This is even worse when you don’t have a say in their lives or they don’t consult you for anything. This means it’s not both ways and you are being controlled.

3. They Don’t Care About Your Needs: Your needs do not matter. Not just material, or emotional needs. They do not care about how you feel. It’s always about how they feel, and how you made them feel. It’s always about what they like, what they want to eat and where they want to go.

You begin to realise that you are mostly eating his favourite food or going to his favourite place even if you don’t like it a single bit. You can’t speak up because your confidence has been suppressed. Even if you were not like that before, a toxic relationship is that powerful to make you turn into one.

Generally, poor treatment from your partner can cause low self-esteem.

Toxic Relationships Causes Paranoia

What is Paranoia? 

This is thinking or feeling threatened in some type of way. It is a mental disorder called PPD (Paranoid Personality Disorder) it is having suspicion or a pattern of distrust for others without having any reason to be suspicious. People with PPD often think that people are trying to harm or threaten them.

What Are The Signs And Symptoms Of Paranoia?

1. Doubting commitment, loyalty and refusing to trust others believing that other people are exploiting you. When you stay in a toxic relationship for so long, you begin to feel like that’s how the world works. Everybody is disloyal, deceiving and the rest of the toxic traits like your partner so you start being Paranoid.

2. Read meanings to casual looks or comments. 

3. Being reluctant to share personal information or to confide in people because you are afraid that the information will be used against you.

After leaving a toxic relationship where your partner was always cheating on you, you become paranoid and you might end up being the toxic one in your new relationship due to your new trait of paranoia caused by your past relationship. You see, it goes on and on. 

When you eventually leave that man/ woman who is constantly cheating on you, you tend to lose your trust in others. You feel like they are cheating on you, lying to you or trying to harm even when they have not given you a reason to feel so. 

Toxic Relationships Causes Depression

Every relationship has its ups and downs for sure, but when it drains you more than it makes you happy then you are in a toxic one and you are just a step closer to depression. Depression is a mental health condition and it affects a lot of people. It is a type of mood disorder. With depression you’ll often feel;

Sad

Worthless

Low self-esteem

Suicidal thoughts

Guilty, e.t.c.

People who were in relationships where they were emotionally and physically abused tend to go into depression. A 2020 study showed that several forms of intimate partner violence were associated with new cases of major depressive disorder in females while males experienced anxiety.

Infidelity in relationships can also lead to depression because when you are constantly unfaithful, it becomes emotionally traumatic for the other person.

Long-distance relationships can also lead to depression especially when there is a lack of communication with it. It will lead to loneliness first, then when it is too much, it leads to heartbreak.

No one should remain in a toxic relationship for any reason. It’s not just about dating, it’s way beyond that. It can kill you. No life, no hope.