4 Signs Your Relationship Is Taking a
Toll on Your Mental Health
Is your relationship coasting along like a well-tuned engine? Perhaps you first met on a chatting site and have got on ever since, with a sense of positivity as you and your partner relish each other's company? Or do you get the feeling there are there issues which are causing friction? If it's the latter, are the problems readily addressed, or do they seem much deeper? It could be because you are dealing with something elusive and difficult to pin down: mental health issues. Here are four signs your relationship is actually having a negative impact on your mental wellbeing...
Your physical health is being impacted
Although the connection between the two is not always apparent, your physical health directly relates to your state of mind. So an early part of the diagnosis should be to ask yourself if you felt any changes in how you are feeling in general? Problems with your mental health can manifest in a variety of ways, but it is common to feel run down or lacking in energy. Whether you realize you are going through an episode of some description or not, stress will affect your cardiovascular health, promoting high blood pressure, sometimes even muscle pain. One of the clearest signs is when your sleep patterns are interrupted. The mental anguish your relationship is putting you through will leave you unable to relax.
You never feel like properly connecting
In a healthy partnership, couples spend a lot of time connecting. This covers a whole spectrum of behavior, from joking with one another and being tactile, to in-depth conversations. No longer having the urge to engage in these levels of trust or intimacy can indicate you no longer feel the same way about your partner for whatever reason. It is also a clear sign your mental health is being affected. One of the most widespread forms of mental illness is depression, and this is much more clinical than simply feeling a bit down about any particular situation. It can be an all-pervading sense of disillusionment and hopelessness. And one of the worst aspects of feeling depressed is it is often the very last subject you feel like broaching with a partner.
You don't have future plans
Perhaps in the early stages of your relationship you spent a lot of time making plans for the future. You might have spent time poring over brochures as you considered options for a weekend break, or discussed longer-term aspirations such as a new home or even starting a family. Healthy partnerships are characterized by sharing hopes and dreams. A sure sign your relationship is taking a toll on your mental health is when these ambitions fizzle away, and you struggle to see beyond the next few weeks. Even worse, you reach a level of apathy where you simply couldn't care less about the course of events. This indicates there is something more fundamental going on than being unable to reach a consensus on next year's holiday destination.
You only feel relaxed when you're apart
One of the most obvious signs of all is when you actually experience a sense of relief when you and your partner are apart. This reveals there is definitely something about your relationship which is impacting your mental health, especially if the negative feelings and stress return with a vengeance the moment you are in each other's company again. If you have reached this stage, you really need to be reaching out for support, from family or friends, or from any number of mental health support groups.