Hanging out, hooking up, falling in love, or breaking up is all part of being in a relationship which makes a relationship complex. Thus making it necessary to learn how to cope and make it work!

It is essential to learn how to communicate your feelings openly and recognize the healthy patterns in a relationship and the signs of an unhealthy relationship.

What makes a relationship healthy?

Connecting with someone on an emotional, romantic, and physical level can indeed be unique, but there is a lot of work that goes on to building and maintaining a good relationship.

Remember that no relationship is flowers and rainbows. But in a healthy relationship, both partners feel good about the relationship most of the time.

Two fundamental facts make a relationship healthy:

  1. Communication and Sharing: The most crucial part of any relationship is being open to communication. Communication does not just mean that you talk about only your feelings; it also means listening.

Talk to your partner about your feelings, but also ask questions and listen to your partner's answers. If you are unhappy or upset with something - speak up. Don't make your partner guess what's wrong. Talking about your problems will build trust and make your relationship stronger.

And it's not just talking about what makes you upset- make sure to let the other person know when they do something that makes you happy.

 

  1. Respect and Trust: Open communication builds honesty and trust. In healthy relationships, you learn to respect and trust the important people in your life. Disagreements are normal but learn how to handle them efficiently. Be truthful about what you do, think, and feel. Honesty is essential to every relationship; it creates trust. Few things harm a relationship more than lies. There's no way you can have a healthy relationship if you don't trust each other.

What makes unhealthy relationships?

Firstly, know this: You deserve to feel safe and important in a relationship. Any emotional, physical or verbal abuse is not your fault and are signs of teen dating violence.

Sure, there are no perfect people and no perfect relationships. But if you feel like you are being mistreated in your relationship, you probably are.

Learn to listen to your intuition, that little inner voice! Simply put, healthy relationships are not perfect- but they make you feel good about yourself; unhealthy relationships don't.

Some particular signs of an unhealthy relationship include:

  • Keeping track of where the other person is and who with
  • Checking phones, social media, and emails without permission
  • Controlling which friends and family one should meet
  • Trying to coerce into sexual activities which are uncomfortable for either person

Remember, a healthy relationship has healthy boundaries that allow you to be who you are, do what you like and spend time how you wish to!

Lying, cheating, jealousy, constant criticism, physical abuse and disrespect are telltale signs of unhealthy relationships. So is trying to 'control' your partner.

A controlling relationship is when one partner tries to control and dominate the choices of the other partner. If you notice signs of a controlling relationship, in your or a known one’s relationship, take them seriously. Popular media often makes us believe that being controlling and jealous are signs of 'love', but nothing could be falser and more harmful.