Relationships

Relationships are incredibly complicated. It can be challenging to live alongside another person while still having the time and space to practice one’s individual interests. These kinds of relationships aren’t limited to romantic involvements. It can be just as complicated to learn how to be friends with a person, get along in group projects for school or professional goals or even live harmoniously with family members. Intimate relationships can affect an individual in profound ways, whether reshaping beliefs and goals or finding ways to empower and support each other. However, it is also possible that these relationships can become “toxic.” Toxic relationships can have the opposite effect on an individual, and there may be an unhealthy imbalance of needs or support. Identifying toxic relationships and understanding their perils can help avoid dangerous outcomes while addressing one’s mental health.

Feeling like you are living in a dream may sound like a good thing, but for those living with a depersonalization-derealization disorder, it is a frightening reality. Many who abuse substances can vouch for having experienced depersonalization or derealization before. However, when these feelings happen increasingly often, it can indicate a more severe problem. Identifying the difference between depersonalization and derealization from other substance use-induced symptoms helps to understand if depersonalization-derealization disorder may be affecting you.

Someone who has ever struggled with a drug or alcohol addiction knows that they might have said or done anything they needed to get their next fix. When you are caught up in the addiction spiral, you may not see the dysfunction behind any manipulative or abusive behavior displayed that helps to maintain your addiction. Learning to identify “gaslighting” can help put an end to this traumatic and abusive behavior.

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, you may be hearing a lot of talk about love, romance, and relationships. Typically, Valentine’s Day is a holiday meant to celebrate that special someone. If you’re not presently in a relationship, chances are that days like these might leave you feeling a little left out. Seeing seemingly happy relationships all around you, maybe you find yourself wondering if it’s time you sought one out for yourself. If you’re in recovery from addiction, however, the answer to this question can be a bit more complicated, as there are many more factors to consider.

Throughout the course of a relationship, a number of trials and tribulations can arise. If you’re with a significant other who has been struggling with addiction, you’re both bound to experience some major ups and downs – some of which can cost you your relationship, either purposefully or not. By recognizing some of the main obstacles you’re both facing, you will be able to work through them more effectively in therapy sessions at Avalon Malibu; addiction recovery can take a major toll on the relationship but by being proactive and learning about what you’re each going through during this extremely challenging time, you’ll both be better prepared to work together through this.

Whether it occurred before addiction began or once it’d already developed, toxic relationships can negatively affect the way a person views themselves – and even their life. It’s natural for every relationship to have ups and downs over time, especially as personalities, beliefs, attitudes, and values clash over certain situations. In some unfortunate cases, however, certain relationships can perpetuate a sense of toxicity; in many other cases, relationships can be broken because of the changes that are displayed in a person when active addiction is involved.  If you’ve lost important relationships throughout your life – which, if that’s the case, you’re not the only one – it can feel nerve-wracking to start over in building new relationships. We can’t always get by on surface-level conversations – to build a truly meaningful life, we have to develop a strong support system that we can lean on in times of need and during times of triumph.

Previous studies have shown that when mental illness is involved in a romantic relationship, typically both partners must work together to get a better understanding of the mental illness and what a partner needs to thrive – but many couples aren’t aware of the tools to help their significant other, let alone the knowledge of how to talk about mental illness. There are about 450 million all around the world who battle with mental illness – so it’s extremely common for couples to deal with issues related to managing mental illness. Open communication has been shown to really help couples feel stronger together as they move forward – if you feel comfortable telling your partner about your mental illness, it’s suggested you do so. Of course, always wait until you’re ready.

Finding true friends in recovery helps us form meaningful bonds and avoid loneliness. Recovery is a brand new experience. When we start the journey, we’re often coming from pasts of isolation, loneliness, and/or friendships built around the use of substances like drugs and alcohol. Many of our family bonds have to be rebuilt from the ground up and in some ways, recovery is a rude awakening. We realize that we have to take an honest inventory of our friendships, relationships with family, and most importantly, our relationship with ourselves. Here, we’ll explore why finding true friendships in recovery is so important to our mental and emotional health.

Recovery is a time to focus on your self-care and well-being, but that doesn’t mean that you must neglect your significant other and/or family. While it’s best for people to take some much-needed time to focus on themselves, the health of your romantic relationship depends on whether your partner is supportive of your recovery, if they are focused on their health and well-being too, if they are a great partner to you, and more. Some people find that their romantic partner isn’t the best fit for them when they’re in recovery, mainly because they aren’t supportive or because they pose a risk to the person’s mental and/or physical health. If you want to maintain a healthy relationship with your significant other while you’re focused on your recovery, there are a several things that will need to take place:

Personality disorders are mental health conditions that can affect the way a person views themselves, the world, and interactions at play with others. Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) can be challenging because it is characterized by excessive attention-seeking, emotional overreaction, and suggestibility, according to Psychology Today. A person with this disorder may over-dramatize situations, placing relationships with others at peril and leading to the development of depression. People with this disorder feel uncomfortable when they are not in the spotlight – they may be very lively and dramatic when meeting new people, but may also embarrass close friends and family when they engage in excessive public displays of affection or sobbing uncontrollably over minor concerns in public. A study published in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy found that women with HPD had significantly lower sexual assertiveness, self-esteem, sexual desire and marital satisfaction. Those women also experienced greater levels of sexual preoccupation, sexual boredom, and orgasmic dysfunction, and were more likely to enter an extramarital affair than women in the control group whom did not have HPD. When dating someone with HPD, it is important to recognize and become familiar with all the symptoms found in the disorder. For example, one common characteristic is believing that relationships are more intimate than they really are. The person may also easily pick up on the opinions of others, without having sufficient data or reasoning to back up their claims. A person with this disorder cares deeply about their appearance, and has rapidly shifting mood swings that may be “shallow” to others. The best way to understand your partner is to educate yourself on their disorder and maybe even attend couple’s therapy with them. In doing this, both of you can learn more about one another and how to overcome some of the obstacles you each may face in the relationship. Treatment for HPD typically involves psychotherapy, a form of “talk therapy” that allows a person to uncover new parts of themselves and learn more about how they think, act, and feel. A relationship with someone who has HPD is possible, but there may be specialized concerns to work through.

Anger is a powerful emotion, and, when used inappropriately, it can damage relationships in significant ways. Whether you are currently single or in a relationship, understanding the impact that anger can have on you and others may give you insight to educating yourself on effective coping strategies and ways to express anger. When it comes to your love life, Psych Central claims that even mundane instances that occur throughout the day can lead up to resentment, which further harbors anger. Here are the following steps that you should try to follow when feeling angry:

Break-ups and divorce can be challenging, especially if you or the other person are still at odds or have some emotional attachments left. While some people break ties, and go their separate ways, others are choosing to remain friends. The reasons for this could vary; some may hold a connection of friendship even if the romantic interest isn’t there – others may hold on because of comfortability, yet others may choose to remain friends for their own benefits. Recent studies are showing that your reasoning behind staying friends with an ex-partner could show signs of psychopathy, and here’s why: A new study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences states that staying friends after splitting isn’t a sign of maturity, but rather a sign of psychopathy. First, what is psychopathy? Psychology Today notes that being uncaring or un-empathetic, irresponsible, showing “superficial charm” or outright lying, possessing a “grandiose sense of self-worth”, narrowing of attention, selfishness, inability to plan, and violence are a few key characteristics of psychopathy. The study that was described by Independent, a UK-based news source, found that participants who remained friends with their exes displayed darker personality traits like psychopathy. Many exes are emotionally less supportive, less helpful, less trusting, and less concerned about the other person’s happiness, making their only motivation for selfishness. The results found that individuals may keep their ex around for sex, money, or information, and some individuals exerted “false charm” in order to keep the ex around to continue reaping benefits from them. The article from Independent notes that although many of us exhibit characteristics of selfishness, those with psychopathy are un-empathetic, which is a key difference that makes them lean more towards the mental illness. Does this mean that if you remain friends with your ex, you are a “psychopath”? Absolutely not. Everybody has their own reasons for remaining friends with someone from their past, and you very well may have the best intentions. After all, it’s the intentions that truly underline mental illness and if you can feel empathy for them and do not maintain the friendship for purely selfish reasons, you likely are not experiencing psychopathy. If you are, seeking treatment for this could be very beneficial because you can develop the tools you need to understand your motivations behind this.