You work hard, take care of yourself, treat your friends like the queens they are, yet somehow you still end up dating the most toxic person on the planet. It happens. Even the smartest of us are blinded when it comes to love, but being in an unhealthy relationship can have serious adverse side effects. The simple act of staying in a bad situation can literally ruin your life in so many ways.
- It can ruin your self-esteem. If your self-esteem is taking a huge hit because your partner is horrible to you or insists on betraying you whenever they can, it’s not going to bode well for all other areas of life. You’ll start to doubt yourself as a person, a friend, a coworker —everything. All of your great ideas will now seem like duds and you’ll lose the part of yourself that makes you go for gold.
- You’ll be tired All. The. Time. Putting your all into something but receiving nothing back is exhausting. Relationships shouldn’t be about giving to get, but if you’re the only one being generous and going out of your way to care for your partner, it’s going to drain you day by day. Eventually, that tiredness will turn into chronic fatigue and you won’t be able to get anything else done.
- Negativity will surround you. When you’re constantly in a negative frame of mind because of your toxic relationship, that will spill out into other areas of your life. The street where you once saw cute dogs on the way to work will be replaced with nothing but left behind dog poop. You’ll see the bad side of everything.
- It can help solidify bad patterns. If you’re in a bad relationship and it’s not the first time, staying in one can help you get even more comfortable with those types of situations. This will establish a subconscious pattern for you, which will be that much harder to break once you do finally get free of the relationship.
- You could literally get sick. Stress has a huge effect on your health, and when a bad relationship stresses you out continuously, your body will begin to suffer. Your immune system won’t work as well, you’ll experience pains you may not have prior to the relationship, and you could face stomach problems. Stress is a killer and a toxic relationship will do nothing but stress you out.
- It can turn you into someone you’re not. The stress and turmoil of a bad relationship can bring out behaviors that you may not indulge in otherwise. Maybe you drink a whole lot more than you used to or you picked up your old habit of smoking cigarettes to manage the stress. Those are just two examples, but the parts of you that you don’t necessarily like will come out because you’re constantly under a dark cloud.
- It can make you lose hope for the future. Bad relationships have a way of hindering any hope for finding a good one if you do ever break free. For some reason, terrible partners can make you believe the notion that maybe there’s no such thing as a real and loving relationship. When that happens—when your hope dies—a little piece of your heart dies along with it.
- You’ll lose trust in yourself. Making bad decisions—like getting into and staying in a bad relationship—will have you questioning your own mind. Why didn’t you see it coming? Why couldn’t you have made a better choice? Why did you stay so long? The constant interrogation of yourself will only lead to more self-hate and a hindered ability to trust your gut in the future.
- It can isolate you. Instead of venting to your friends over and over again for the same reasons, you’ll start to withdraw. In your mind, your friends don’t want to hear about how terrible your spouse is anymore and you won’t have anything else to talk about because it will rule your life in ways you can’t control.
- Every part of your life will be less fulfilling. A toxic relationship can have you skipping out on your hobbies, phoning it in at work, and shredding your social life to pieces.
- You’ll lose yourself and your bearings. Often times, people in relationships put the bulk of their feelings of safety and home in their relationship, and when that goes south, it feels as though they’re wandering through a desert with nothing but a bag of dry rice cakes.
