How to Heal Healthily from a Toxic Relationship: 3 Valuable Tips
Pulling out of a toxic relationship is an important and brave step that everyone should have the freedom to take. Be that as it may, breaking up inevitably comes with anxiety, stress, and emotions that need to be processed.
This holds true even for a healthy relationship.
Sure, bouncing back and moving on requires time. But there are many ways to support your journey throughout.
The journey to moving on, however, isn’t the same for everyone. It’s a process unique to your situation and experiences.
However, toxic partners share a few common behaviours. Knowing how they work helps us understand how to recover from them.
In this blog post, we’ll go over the ins and outs of toxic relationships and provide effective tips from the top psychology counsellors in Mumbai on how to deal with them and heal yourself.
What Is Toxic Relationship?
While conflict is a big part of an unhealthy relationship, it doesn’t paint the full picture. Even committed, healthy partners have regular disagreements and occasionally frustrate each other.
The key difference between a toxic and healthy relationship is that a healthy partner understands how to raise an issue. More importantly, they’re open to discussing it with you and resolving it.
On the other hand, in a toxic relationship, conflicts are never fixed. Partners can find themselves constantly arguing about the same things. Toxicity, hence, defines the environment created by this continuous bickering.
As a result, the partner on the receiving end feels uncertain, drained, isolated, stressed, and invalidated. There are subtle forms of toxicity as well, one that leaves you confused and resentful, even though you know leaving is the right thing to do.
What Are The Signs Of Toxic Relationship?
- A partner who invalidates or undermines you
Toxic behavior in a relationship often begins with emotional invalidation. This occurs when one partner consistently dismisses or belittles the other’s thoughts, feelings, or experiences. Over time, this pattern can significantly diminish an individual’s self-worth and create persistent self-doubt. It not only disrupts emotional well-being but also delays emotional healing after toxic relationships.
2. Being isolated from your support network
An early and subtle sign of toxicity involves the isolation of one partner from their close friends and family. This can be done through manipulation, guilt, or criticism of your support system. Emotional isolation weakens your access to external perspectives and makes it easier for the toxic partner to exert control. Such behavior undermines your independence and can severely impact your mental and emotional health.
3. Controlling Behaviour
Controlling behavior is when one partner seeks to control various aspects of the other’s life—such as their appearance, schedule, social interactions, or personal decisions. This controlling behavior is often masked as concern or affection but is, in reality, a means to dominate. It infringes upon personal boundaries and fosters an environment of fear, dependence, and confusion.
4. Constant put-downs and intentional cruelty
Frequent criticism, sarcasm, and demeaning remarks—often disguised as humor—are hallmarks of toxic behavior. These put-downs gradually erode self-esteem and emotional resilience. The ongoing nature of such cruelty can result in lasting psychological wounds, making it increasingly difficult for individuals to recognize their value and take steps to rebuild self-esteem.
5. Emotional manipulation
Emotional manipulation includes tactics like guilt-tripping, gaslighting, and playing the victim to maintain control in the relationship. These behaviors are designed to make the other partner feel confused, responsible, or inadequate. This manipulation not only distorts reality but also keeps individuals emotionally dependent, prolonging their suffering and complicating the path to recovery.
Also Read: Effective Communication Tips For Healthy Relationship
Psychological Impact of Toxic Relationships
Toxic relationships extend far beyond surface-level discomfort; they leave long lasting psychological imprints that can significantly affect an individual’s overall well-being. Prolonged exposure to emotional manipulation, fear, and conflict can result in mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and in more severe cases, post-trauma stress disorder (PTSD).
Individuals who have endured toxic behavior in a relationship often find themselves grappling with diminished self-worth, difficulty trusting others, and emotional numbness. The unpredictable highs and lows commonly associated with such dynamics alter the brain’s understanding of love, safety, and stability.
This emotional confusion makes it challenging to distinguish between genuine affection and covert control. As a result, steps to rebuild self-esteem become a fundamental part of the recovery journey.
Many survivors internalize the abuse, leading to a distorted self-image that delays emotional healing after toxic relationships. Acknowledging this damage is essential it’s the first step toward seeking support and beginning recovery.
How to Get Out of a Toxic Relationship?
Emotionally, mentally, psychologically, and physically – healing takes time. From daily micro-conflicts to standout traumatic events, partners face an incredible amount of stress in a toxic relationship.
Let’s look at the best things you can do post-breakup for your mental health.
- Allow Yourself to Feel
When someone has invalidated and undermined you for a long time, it can be difficult to tune in to your feelings. Confusion, doubt, and even guilt can kick in at times. You need to sit with your feelings and assess them, for denying and avoiding it will only build them up.
Of course, it’s uncomfortable and sometimes unbearable. Don’t try to get rid of them; reshape your relationship with them—make peace. You’ll get a handle on them soon enough. But to do that, you need to give yourself the room.
Looking your feelings in the eye isn’t something that comes easy to many of us, especially when reeling from an abusive relationship. In such cases, a therapist for depression and anxiety can help you recognise your feelings, acknowledge them, and help you handle them healthily.
- Don’t contact your Ex
Being in a toxic relationship for a long time can lead to Stockholm syndrome, and stepping out of it is draining and frightening.
You’ll be in a deeply unfamiliar territory—the result of a break from homeostasis. You’ll have independence that you don’t know what to do with, as well as subsequent responsibilities. It will be difficult, and you’ll need to acquire the skills that you may have neglected until now.
In these scenarios, you’ll be tempted to retreat the most. But do not contact your ex.
An important part of coming to terms with your feelings is to see how vulnerable they make us. A toxic partner will bring on feelings of vulnerability all over again to control and manipulate you. The best thing for your healing journey is never to give them that chance again.
- Rediscover Yourself
When you’ve just got out of a toxic relationship, the independence can feel overwhelming. It’s a good thing–that’s the most important thing to remember. Everyone deserves their dignity, individuality, and autonomy to be protected—and that includes you.
It’s good for your healing journey to get comfortable for your healing journey. This is the time to focus on your perspectives, dreams, and goals and make them a priority.
Start Your Healing Journey Today with Faculty Minds
Toxic relationships can break you, leave you hurt, and, worse, make you feel bad about yourself. Moving on from them is no simple feat. There are situations where you can do it individually and situations where you need external help and support.
In the latter case, Faculty Minds is always here to help you.
We have expert relationship and marriage counsellors on our team, as well as therapists for depression and anxiety who have helped many distressed partners deal with their relationship issues —present or past—sustainably and healthily.
Start your healing journey today! Get in touch with us to know more about what we can do for you.
