Occasional ups and downs in a relationship are common and something you can expect. However, some happenings could signify a relationship reaching its breaking point.
Identifying these signs early enough can be critical in saving a relationship or helping guide your decision-making. The signs manifest quite slowly in most cases and will escape your attention until it is too late.
This guide highlights these signs and can help you identify them as soon as they start showing.
Communication Breakdown
When a relationship is healthy, every attempt at communication is met with full attention, presence, and patience, and the couple finds the need to share and open up about everything.
You can expect that the enthusiasm involved in communication will drop significantly as the love ages, but a near-no communication scenario is a red flag. Among the tell-tell signs of a communication breakdown is when one party deliberately attempts to avoid prolonging interactions.
Aggressive and Confrontational Communication
Communication breakdown doesn’t happen overnight; it happens gradually and is usually a result of one or both parties using aggressive or confrontational communication.
Aggressive or confrontational communication is often a ploy to avoid accountability for mistakes or disinterest in the other. There may be aggressive or confrontational behavior even when the relationship is healthy, so one instance shouldn’t lead you to believe your relationship is headed for the rocks.
However, if it is a recurring occurrence and a huge deviation from the person’s normal demeanor, it could be a sign the relationship is in trouble.
Reduced Physical Intimacy
Sexual desire will ebb as a relationship progresses. However, there should never be a time when it is a rarity or absent altogether.
Besides the pleasure a couple gets from sexual intimacy and other forms of physical intimacy, it promotes the release of oxytocin, a hormone responsible for the emotion of love, and that helps solidify the bond between the couple.
“Diminished interest in sexual intimacy is not always indicative of a troubled relationship, as other factors can influence how one party responds. The best approach is to openly discuss it,” says family attorney Shawna Woods of Atlanta Divorce Group, a Georgia family lawyer. If nothing else is the reason for the diminished desire for physical intimacy, your relationship may be headed into troubled waters.
Social Media Posts
Social media is the place where most people find the courage to say what they may not have the courage to say in person. So, if you have noticed other signs but are unsure if what you see is real, social media posts can help clear up your doubts.
Some people will be all out in expressing what they feel and their intentions to have you see. Others will make innocent posts but leave subtle signs that even they may not know they are leaving.
For example, if their previous posts were more about the relationship or your common goals, then they might start making posts that are more about them as an individual and their goals.
Where to Go From Here
After determining that your relationship is headed for trouble, you may have to weigh your options between working to save it and walking away. This is where the help of experts like psychologists, family lawyers, or counselors becomes very critical.
If you choose to walk away, there are several considerations you will have to make, like how your choice will affect your family if you have children from the relationship and your options for navigating the divorce if you are in a marriage situation.