By Janie Lacy, LMHC

If your heart and gut tells you, “This is not how relationships should be” or “This doesn’t feel safe and loving”, you have a sign from your body and higher self that you are not in a loving and healthy relationship. It’s important to trust these warnings from your gut and/or your heart — much more than trusting your head/logic or your sexual desires, which can direct us into toxic relationships.

Here are 3 Scary Signs You’re In A Toxic Relationship:

1. You often try to please your partner in order to get love.

Holding the core belief, “If I do this for you, you will love me.” This core belief will lead you to do for others at the expense of yourself. In the long run, your distorted core belief leads to distortions with relationship boundaries, which points to your own insecurities, low self-esteem, and fear of losing the relationship.

2. You feel alone in the relationship.

Love means including, so if you are experiencing more exclusion than inclusion from your partner, they are not really loving you. Yes, it’s healthy to have some interests and activities without our partner. However, if this exclusion is more the rule than an exception, this should be a red flag of a toxic relationship.

3. You lose yourself.

Consciously or unconsciously, you begin to sacrifice your own freedom and self-worth in order to keep the relationship intact. This is almost a form of “selling your soul” or “prostituting” yourself for the sake of being in a relationship. A loving relationship should offer you the opportunity and freedom to be yourself, not lose yourself in the relationship.

If you any of these signs are familiar to you then The Woman Redeemed Healing Weekend is what you need! This weekend group program provides a safe nurturing environment essential for building self-worth. Register today to begin healing and end the cycle of toxicity and unhappiness! Click here more information or to register.  

Janie Lacy, LMHC, NCC, CSAT is an accomplished and well-recognized psychotherapist with over 10 years of experience.  She has appeared as a psychological expert on hundreds of local and national radio and television shows discussing topics on relationship trauma, sex & love addiction, and anger management.  Ms. Lacy knows how to energize a room and is a highly sought-after event host and a popular professional speaker on toxic love relationships, how to make relationships work, and taming the monster within.  Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.