It’s Friday, the work week is done, and you cannot wait to go out tonight. It’s been weeks since you’ve seen all of your closest girlfriends and you are SO eager to let loose! You and your boyfriend, Chris, have agreed to take the night off from texting or calling each other, so that you can fully enjoy your time with your friends. Before you’ve even met up with your friends, Chris texts you that he misses you and calls to verify when you’ll be home. Throughout your night, he continues to call and text you that he loves you and misses you. This makes you a little uncomfortable, but your girlfriends all say that it is so sweet and that they wish their partners would do things like that… so you brush it off.
But should you have? Was that a sign of a healthy relationship, like your girlfriends seem to believe?
You may be surprised to find out that this is a sign of an UNHEALTHY relationship. Your partner didn’t honor your agreement and respect your wishes to not communicate while you were out. He pushed your boundaries and made you uncomfortable.
Relationships exist on a spectrum from healthy to abusive with unhealthy somewhere in the middle. If you can learn to determine where different behaviors fall on the spectrum, you can start to be a good judge of a relationship’s health. This can help you to judge your romantic relationships as well as your friendships.
A healthy relationship involves open communication, respect, trust, honesty, equality, support, and enjoyment of time that is spent apart. You deserve to be in a healthy relationship where you are safe and respected. Emotional, verbal, or physical abuse is not your fault.
These are 10 warning signs of an abusive relationship:
- Checks your cell phone or email without your permission
- Constantly puts you down
- Extremely jealous or insecure, accusing you of things you didn’t do
- Explosive temper
- Isolates you from family or friends
- Physically hurts you in any way
- Possessiveness
- Tells you what to do
- Manipulates you
- Repeatedly pressures you to have sex
If you identify with any of these warning signs, Options Health is a safe place where you can confidentially come and discuss sexual health, pregnancy, and relationship issues with one of our client advocates. Feel free to contact us today to take advantage of our free services, including pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, STD/STI testing and treatment, and after abortion counseling.
Call to schedule an appointment at Options Health at 925-827-0100 or book online. We are here for you and ready to help!
Source: loveisrespect.org
