Look, no relationship and no person is perfect. Navigating life as a couple is hard — but that doesn’t give someone a free pass to manipulate you and treat you like crap. The only problem is that sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between normal relationship problems and truly toxic habits.
But you may want to quickly say goodbye to a partner who shows any of these signs of a toxic relationship.
- They keep saying how much they like you, but they only have time to meet up a few times a month
If someone is truly interested in building a relationship, he or she will offer much more than just lip service to being ready to get serious. He or she will make time in a busy schedule for a new love. This type of under-the-radar toxic person not only rarely sees you, they rarely contact you.
Being involved in more than just the occasional text takes a lot of time and energy away from the very difficult life of Mr. or Mrs. Devoted to you Oh yeah What’s your name? And this gorgeous new beau probably blames the scarcity of time spent together on you always being busy!
Related: 5 Steps To Take In Order To End A Toxic Relationship With Someone You Love
- They say you’re great, but there’s always something they criticize about you
This magician thinks you’re the best thing since the invention of chocolate cake. However – you wear too much makeup or you should wear more makeup or you don’t listen well or you’re too quiet or… you get the point.
Dating someone who can’t support who you are as you are, and who always finds the “little things” to improve on means that the only improvement you have to make is to eliminate Mr. or Mrs. Fault-Finder from your life as quickly as possible.
- They are good at talking about their problems but don’t listen to you when you have things on your mind
A person who cares about me all the time expects you to be there for him, to listen to every precious word spoken. When he or she has a sniffle, you must pummel them with chicken soup. However, if you have something you want advice on or just an ear, your lover’s eyes take on a glassy look and the conversation quickly returns to his favorite topic – guess who?
Don’t be fooled into thinking that what’s on your mind isn’t as important as your lover’s needs. Healthy relationships are a two-way street, not just one way.
- They get jealous when things go well for you
This extremely insecure person can’t handle it when something good happens to you. If your new partner belittles your success (“Sure, sure, something nice happened, now let me talk about the deal I made!”), acts resentful, passive-aggressive, emotionally distant, jealous, and/or overly sullen instead of praising you to the heavens for your accomplishment, Houston, we have a problem.
Your best move in this situation: cancel the mission!
Related: 5 Ways Letting Go Of Your Toxic Relationship Can Save Your Life
- They are never wrong; unable to apologize
The person you’re dating doesn’t have to be a complete narcissist to prove that he or she is someone unworthy of your consideration as a potential lifelong partner.
When someone has to always be right, even when they are wrong, it is a sign of rampant rigidity and self-denial.
Many women have confided in therapy sessions how their partner has made mistakes ranging from standing up to them and indulging in a display of bad moods while refusing to acknowledge the bad behavior. “Bill opened the car door for the first time in two months of dating, and I think that was the closest he’d ever come to saying, ‘I’m sorry,'” one woman said.
- They love you very much, even though the relationship is completely new
It may seem fun at first when you’re swept up in new love, and you passionately say that you’re the most amazing person on Earth and that he can never live without you. But instead of being a compliment, it’s a sign that something is wrong with your fan.
This doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to be passionately in love, but true love builds slowly, over months or years of getting to know and accept the other person – with all their flaws. If you’re receiving expensive bouquets, 10 phone calls a day, desperate text messages when you don’t respond right away, and other signs of obsessive interest, end the relationship before affection turns into dangerous possessiveness.
- They constantly talk about their ex
When someone portrays himself or herself as a completely innocent ex-lover as a malicious, selfish, hideous person with no redeeming quality, your response should be: “Okay, I’m out of here. Good luck to you.”
Because the message being conveyed through the relentless stream of bad is that one day you will be talked about that way.
