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Every human being is a social creature so that everyone cannot live without the help of others. Good social relationships are basically beneficial for a person's personality development and can strengthen physical and mental health by helping someone respond to stress. However, not all relationships between individuals are good, some are included toxic relationship, which can make a person unhappy and mentally depressed all the time.
Toxic relationship can be experienced by anyone and in any type of relationship, be it personal, professional, friendship, siblings and even parent-child relationships. The good or bad relationship that a person has is based on the effect that is given to both parties, even though the bad impact of a relationship itself is often not realized by someone who lives it.
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When a good relationship can provide a sense of security and support and can respect each other, toxic relationship characterized by a lack or absence of it. Toxic relationship nor are they always abusive, where a person experiences physical and verbal violence, but it can be shown by lack of mutual trust, lack of support, and only always selfishness from one or both parties.
Characteristics and signs of a toxic relationship
While no relationship is perfect, there are a few signs that you're inside toxic relationship, among them:
- Feeling unhappy - is a sign that your relationship is not providing the encouragement or support it needs. It can also be caused by problems communicating and not understanding each other.
- Feeling excessively controlled - There can be many things, especially if you are prohibited from having your opinion and doing the things you want. This treatment can also inhibit your mental development, distance yourself from other people closest to you and cause a decrease in self-confidence.
- Negative thoughts about yourself - it can be triggered by verbal abuse received or by means of communication and criticism when spending time together.
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- A relationship is only one-sided - there is no such a give and take process where there is only one party trying to provide support or meet a need.
- Often experience emotional disturbances - characterized by feeling sad, angry or disappointed when communicating or spending time together.
Health impact of an unhappy relationship
Bad relationships with those closest to you will definitely not make you happy, but there are several health impacts that need attention, including:
- Easier to trigger obesity - In addition to increasing cholesterol levels, stress due to relationships can trigger the desire to eat foods high in fat and high in sugar as a way to reduce stress. If the problem in the relationship cannot be resolved, then you will likely eat more of these foods and consequently have a higher risk of triggering obesity.
- Increase stress - Chronic stressful conditions cause secretion of the hormone cortisol and increase blood pressure. Both contribute to increasing blood pressure over a long period of time.
- Lowering immunity - Being in a problem and high blood pressure triggers body alertness for a long time and this can reduce the body's awareness of disease so that the body is more susceptible to virus attack.
- Headache - This condition may be experienced by some people when under constant pressure.
- Reduces sleep quality - thinking about a relationship problem over and over again makes it difficult for the brain to rest even when we feel tired. That is why in a certain problem the quality of sleep is the main thing that is disturbed first. The result can cause changes in sleep time, sleep quality, and various health problems.
- Psychological disorder - is the impact that can be generated if a relationship has seriously damaged one's mental health. The disorder can be social phobia, panic attack, and personality disorders. This must be taken seriously so as not to become a persistent psychological disorder.
- Heart health problems - if toxic relationship can already trigger risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as cholesterol and obesity, so it's no wonder that the end effect is heart disease. This has been proven in a study on 9011 individuals in the UK who showed a bad relationship with the closest person significantly increased the risk of developing coronary heart disease by 34%. In other cases it can also lead to broken heart syndrome.
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