12 Big Things That Are Ruining Relationships Today
Life can be chaotic and stressful, filled with more distractions than ever. Maintaining healthy relationships is crucial for your emotional well-being and mental health support system. Here is a look at several common things that are ruining relationships today.
1. Lack of Communication
Open and honest communication is the key to a solid relationship. Unfortunately, a lack of genuine communication today is ruining relationships. Making assumptions about someone’s intent, meanings lost in translation via text, trust issues, and various other communication barriers create ample opportunity for misunderstandings.
2. Chasing Butterflies
The idea that a relationship should always be butterflies in the stomach euphoria is ruining the chances of many relationships ever blossoming into anything tangible. Those intense feelings you feel during the initial stages don’t always linger.
You shouldn’t throw out an entire relationship because “the butterflies went away.” However, you may feel them again when you find the right one. My husband and I continue to fall in love with each other over and over, and I still feel them flutter frequently. If you ever find that one, don’t let them get away.
3. The Constant Daily Grind
The constant grind of daily life is a significant factor in why many relationships fail. Where you spend your time is what will grow and flourish. So, if you are always working and neglecting your love life, things slowly become stressed and troublesome. But it’s nearly impossible not to be overworked.
A recent study found that 71% of its respondents worked overtime at least once a week. 56% regularly experienced intensity and high pressure, while 53% regularly worked early or late. 48% admitted that working long hours was prevalent, and 46% said working on holidays and weekends was prevalent.
4. Social Media
Social media breeds a hotbed of issues for romantic relationships. People are addicted to attention and validation and are stuck in a vicious comparison cycle.
It creates a “grass is greener” mentality and tempts some people to entertain unhealthy side relationships and cheat. The more you see couples discussing their relationships online, the more likely there are insecurities in that relationship.
5. Lack of Commitment
A lack of commitment is a significant issue for people in the dating world today. Not only does it concern cheating, but the commitment to work through the trials and tribulations, come to an understanding together, and accept each other—flaws and all—is rare. Nobody wants to put in the work.
6. Hookup Culture
Hookup culture is destructive and creates many issues in the dating world. Boston University explains: “Many health experts argue that hookups can do more harm than good. They worry that hooking up can do a disservice to young women by negating their emotional needs, putting them at increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases, and leaving them unprepared for lasting relationships.”
7. Lack of Humility
A lack of humility is a huge dating obstacle. People who refuse to admit they’re wrong or take any accountability can’t have healthy relationships. A lack of humility creates chaos, misunderstandings, and breakups.
8. Lack of Substance
Many relationships are ruined today by entertaining them when they have no substance. People jump into “situationships” based on initial physical attractions. But once those butterflies begin to fade, they realize they have nothing in common, and often, the only time they can get along is in the bedroom. Healthy relationships are more than good sex.
9. Adult Entertainment
Did you know that over 40 million Americans visit adult entertainment sites regularly? Have you visited them? There is a ton of perversion and abnormal things being acted out as “normal.” It’s honestly sickening and damaging to your psyche and spirit.
People who watch this type of content regularly can develop unrealistic expectations, perversions, and a lack of desire to be intimate with real people because whatever weird needs they’ve created aren’t being met.
Another concerning side effect of harboring an addiction to adult entertainment is a growing percentage of young men are experiencing erectile dysfunction (ED). A survey of 28,000 men found that “excessive consumption” of adult films, beginning at age 14, and daily consumption in their early to mid-20s desensitized men to even the most violent images. That’s a frightening revelation when you really dissect those implications.
10. The Illusion of Plenty
We’ve all heard the expression: “There are plenty of fish in the sea.” Unfortunately, some people see an aquarium of human bodies online and there is always a shiner fish. It’s another “grass is greener” situation that is ruining relationships. There is this illusion of having plenty of options, but finding authentic people is becoming more difficult.
11. Infidelity
Did you know that the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy reports that between 10 and 15 percent of women and 20 and 25 percent of men in married couples are unfaithful? Who knows what the statistics of infidelity look like among committed partners who are not married, but those numbers may be even higher.
12. Unhealed Trauma
Unhealed trauma can destroy relationships because those who haven’t healed may have difficulty trusting others, creating issues in any relationship. Unhealed trauma can manifest into frequent fighting and an unhealthy need for constant reassurance, which ultimately can result in heartache and goodbye.
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Elizabeth Ervin helps people embrace a change in money mindset to achieve their financial goals. After struggling for a decade as a single mother, consumed by the American debt cycle, she recognizes the value of financial education and lifestyle changes and aspires to motivate others to make those changes to obtain financial freedom. She heavily advocates for praying about and over your finances and speaking positive money affirmations to manifest abundance.
