Toxic Relationships Can Make You Addicted to Them

Jealousy, power struggles, humiliation, and strong reconciliations are characteristics of a toxic and addictive relationship.

Toxic relationships can start as any normal bond but suddenly take a wrong turn. You’ll become part of an addictive loop of hurt and toxicity. These types of relationships can become dangerous and make you dependent on them.

Nobody wishes to be in a toxic relationship, but people sometimes just fall into them and don’t realize it. It can be very hard to walk away from them too.

The worst part of a toxic relationship is that sometimes people know they’re unhappy or that they’re being mistreated, yet they’d rather stay in a toxic relationship for fear of being alone or stop feeling “loved.”

Toxic relationships create addictions

What defines a toxic relationship? Basically, it’s when people in a relationship just attack each other, physically or psychologically. With time, they’re incapable of breaking their toxic bond.

People who experience this type of emotional dependency usually have low self-esteem, and in many cases experienced or witnessed abusive behavior as children.

This makes it even more difficult for them to let go of this type of situation and, in many cases, they’d have to ask for professional help and psychological therapy to overcome their past experiences and start making good decisions and choosing better partners.

Warning signs of abuse

1. Physical harm

Bruises and other wounds that appear mysteriously. If a loved one has injuries like this, investigate it and help them. Of course, there are laws against this, but many women don’t leave their partners because they’re afraid of the consequences or are afraid of being stalked afterward.

You shouldn’t feel afraid. Confide in whoever can help you and protect you. Likewise, there are many organizations that can help you in cases like these.

2. Psychological harm

There are many ways to psychologically harm a person. It may start with some shouting, accusations, blackmail, threats, or discrediting remarks that can make others feel like nothing, and seriously hinder their self-esteem.

In many cases, this type of abuse isn’t as direct or visible as physical harm. It may start with small comments about your weight, or lack of intelligence; you start being blamed for any problems in the relationships, and, above all, the blackmailing. “If you don’t behave, I’ll stop loving you,” or, “You’ll never find someone like me.” Luckily, that last thing is true, you’ll find someone better.

Similar to cases of physical harm, many of these conducts are related to bad experiences during childhood as, for example, feelings of detachment in children.

3. Recurrent lies

Another characteristic of toxic and addictive relationships is the constant lying. Lies are a form of deceit that’s very harmful to who’s being lied to. When partners begin to lie to each other, lies will only get worse and recurrent and can become so big that people won’t recognize the truth anymore.

4. Trying to control or change their partner

This type of toxic behavior is one of the most addictive. Trying to control their partner is part of several levels of attack, from directly asking their partner to behave a certain way, to checking their phones or social networks.

5. Comparing them to others

Comparisons are a way to inflict pain, sometimes unconsciously in a relationship. This makes the other person feel small, incapable, and underserving of affection because they can’t fulfill their partner’s expectations.

The hurt person will then become part of an addictive game to try and please their partner’s demands, thus annulling their true identity.

If you’ve identified one or more of these conducts in your relationship, don’t hesitate to ask for psychological help to leave this toxicity behind and improve things in your life.