How a Toxic Spouse or Partner Affects Your Mental Health

The relationships we build with others has a strong effect on nearly every aspect of our lives. A friendship, romantic relationship, or closeness to a family member has the ability to make or break us. After all, people have the power to manipulate, persuade, encourage, control, and sway us in more ways we thought possible.

Below are just some of the many ways being in a toxic romantic relationship can be mentally harmful.

Low Self-Esteem

Having a toxic significant other can greatly reduce your self worth. A toxic partner may make fun of your weight, force you to wear certain outfits, encourage you to get plastic surgery, make you feel unintelligent, or even compare you to other people. You’ll never feel good enough, inside or out.

Low self-esteem can affect your work or school performance, your confidence in your appearance, and thus, prevent you from excelling in life.

Stress & Anxiety

When you have a partner who physically, emotionally, or mentally abuses you, this can cause significant stress and anxiety. You’re left feeling powerless and worried about the next time they may ridicule, hurt, or humiliate you.

Those in a toxic relationship may frequently find themselves tense, panicky, trembling, having difficulty sleeping, or dealing with frequent headaches or stomach aches, especially when around their partner. They may constantly replay past abusive situations in their head or have nightmares involving the relationship.

Loneliness

Sometimes a toxic spouse or partner may control who you can and cannot associate with. They may monitor your text messages and calls, force you to delete or block people on social media (or even make you delete your social media altogether), and may even tell you to stop speaking to or hanging out with certain/all friends and family members.

As a result of this control over your social life, you may find yourself lonely. With nobody to talk to outside of your relationship, you’ll find yourself having difficulty finding someone to vent to or ask for help in safely getting out of your toxic relationship.

Depression

Feeling generally unhappy in your romantic situation, feeling lonely and anxious, and dealing with poor self-esteem can trigger depression. Abusive partners can tear you down until you feel like you’re worth nothing. You might find yourself feeling sluggish, lacking in motivation, and having trouble getting out of bed every morning. You may dread each day and feel hopeless.

Confusion

Many toxic spouses or partners have a tendency to cause you to second guess everything. They may use manipulation tactics to make you feel guilty for things you shouldn’t feel guilty for or blame you for the things they caused. As a result, you feel confused and even crazy. For a long time, you may believe them and their abusive tactics.

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Conclusion

It’s evident that being in a toxic romantic relationship can be mentally damaging. From higher levels of anxiety and depression to loneliness caused by social isolation, being in an unhealthy relationship can have a serious effect on us and our lives. A relationship like one of these should be broken off as soon as possible before the damages get worse and more serious.