Do you have a sense that your partner restricts your lifestyle with excessive neediness, jealousy, controlling behavior, or by being too demanding. A relationship is a place to build something — both partners should help the other expand their horizons. Compromises need to be made, but neither partner should have the sense that they are constrained by neediness, jealousy, etc. If your relationship has more in common with a hostagesituation than a healthy relationship, you may need relationship help fast.
Your relationship may be unhealthy if your partner:
- Demands to be by your side as often as possible
- Expects you to call him multiple times a day
- Needs to know where you’re going at all times
- Shows jealousy over your normal interactions with other men
- Frowns on your having female friends
- Discourages you from spending time with male friends
- Has you walking on eggshells for fear of “slipping up”
- Demands to analyze everything about your relationship
- Pressures you to make commitments for which you’re not ready, such as marriage
You may be accustomed to her behaving like this, and you might accept that it’s just the way he is. It’s your choice if you wish to maintain a relationship with someone who acts like this, but it’s important to be aware of these behaviors — they are signs of an unhealthy relationship. When one partner is controlling or unstable, the other partner often experiences negative physical and mental effects from the stress. A lifetime of tolerating this behavior is a miserable existence.
What if you have no desire to maintain this relationship? Are you putting off the inevitable? Do you have the sense that eventually you will leave your partner, though now is just not the right time. With a birthday coming up, a parent who is ill, or an important interview on the horizon, you just can’t leave her now in her time of need. The truth is, there is never a good time to leave, and the sooner you do it, the sooner you both can get on with your lives.