Those who have been involved in a toxic relationship, know how negatively that can reflect on our everyday lives. Whether it is a member of your family, coworker, friend, boss or partner, we all have experienced being around such a person. However, many people fail to realize they are being manipulated by a toxic person. This behavior can be very subtle and you can’t even be aware of it. Usually it is too late when we figure out we were influenced by a toxic person, especially if it is our partner. In order to protect yourself from such a relationship, pay attention to these 4 habits.
1. Projecting blame
A lot of people are stressed out nowadays, but some don’t know how to deal with it in a healthy way. Those who don’t even acknowledge the stress, it only causes it to bottle down. Others would rather project their stress to people around them and blame them even when they didn’t do anything wrong.
For example, we might sometimes get angry at our partner for making plans with their friends because we had a stressful day at work and we think they don’t want to spend time alone with us. We will blame them for their behavior, but in reality our anger started even before we find out about their plans. This is usually not that bad behavior because we don’t do it intentionally, but in certain cases it can be very toxic. It is important to let your partner know about your thoughts and feelings before projecting blame on them.
2. Not giving your partner enough attention
Some people are emotionally distant by nature, but this is not helping if you want a strong relationship. Look at it this way. If you want to become a professional singer, but you don’t do anything to achieve this goal, you can’t expect results. The same applies with relationships you can expect anything in return if you don’t give something first. Learning how to open up emotionally is hard, but it is important to talk with your partner about it. They should be glad to help you when they hear you are trying to improve yourself.
3. Clinging
Neediness and clinginess are the worst relationship killers which we usually realize when it is too late. At the beginning of a relationship we want to spend as much time as possible chatting or texting our partner. However, as our relationship progresses it is normal that these types of communication reduce. But, if your partner relies on you even for the smallest and simplest decisions, they are too needy and might make you feel suffocated. This lack of personal space creates a toxic environment which is not beneficial for a relationship.
4. Jealousy
This type of jealousy happens when your partner wants to get involved into every aspect of your social life without allowing you to make a step forward if they are not around. They will freak out when you make the slightest contact with the outside world and they will try to control your behavior because they feel insecure.
They might tell you they do this because they love you, but it is actually a toxic behavior that happens as a result of their inner issues. At the beginning it may seem like typical jealousy but if you accept this behavior it will only become worse over time. Jealousy is natural, but if there is no reason to doubt our partner, it can have devastating effect on the longevity of our relationship.