Differences Between Healthy and Toxic Couples
Key characteristics of a healthy relationship are mutual respect, trust, honesty, empathy, support, and the ability to give and take. Both partners feel safe expressing their thoughts, feelings, and needs to one another and do it openly and honestly to avoid miscommunications. When they disagree, they try to understand the other partner’s perspective, and either agree to disagree or work it out together in a mutually satisfactory way. Not so with toxic couples. Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option. – Maya Angelou A toxic relationship, on the other hand, is built on conflict, competition, and one partner’s need to control the other to get his or her needs met. The other partner feels unsupported, judged, demeaned, misunderstood, and/or attacked, and his or her physical, mental, or emotional well-being is consistently threatened in some way. Characteristics of toxic couples Toxic couples relate to each other in dysfunctional ways. In most cases, it is one partner trying to control the other. Regardless of the dynamic, however, one common thread appears to be that most toxic couples are intensely drawn to each other despite the pain they inflict on one another. Common characteristics of toxic couples include: Control One partner makes all the decisions and forces his or her will and viewpoint on the other, telling him or her what to do. He or she is unreasonably jealous of their partner, and constantly suspicious and mistrustful of them even when he or she has never given them any cause to be. They may want to track their location and who they are with at all times and try to isolate him or her from friends and family. Emotional abuse One partner uses guilt, shaming, rage, silent treatment, stonewalling, and/or intimidation to manipulate and control aspects [...]
