Are there really ways a toxic relationship can influence your body?
Everyone knows that these relationships leave a long-term impact on your mental health. You get triggered much easier, your mind expects others to act the same way your ex did, and so on.
But what if I told you that your body has also been feeling the effects of any relationship that obviously made you miserable? It’s hard to imagine that any part of you was left untouched by this man.
So, when you feel like something’s wrong within your body but you don’t know what’s causing it, you may want to look back at your toxic relationship. It’s a good thing that people are becoming more aware of this aftermath each day, so you’re never alone.
You just need to be aware of the frightening challenges your body is facing right now, so you can take better care of yourself.
1. High blood pressure
Toxic relationships are like a zone of constant conflict. There’s no way you can escape that feeling of unease and panic. It’s hard to put it into words, you just know that you’re either constantly scared or you’re constantly angry.
Did you ever find yourself in a situation where you saw black from how angry you were? That was your body’s reaction to high blood pressure.
A study from 2016 shows that the number of negative emotions in a relationship or marriage can and will cause long-term issues. The blood pressure of the people who participated in this study would spike whenever they were in the same room with their partner.
Can you imagine the anger and resentment those people felt towards their partner to cause permanent damage to their bodies? I guess a toxic relationship does that to a person.
2. Inflammation within your body
As you could have guessed by now, stress is the main factor causing almost every single thing that may be wrong with your body right now. Unfortunately, a study from 2014 shows that increased amounts of stress can also cause inflammation within your body.
This stress is caused by the constant fight or flight mode that your body is in. It becomes chronic after you spend a while with someone who’s draining the life out of you. However, the fight or flight response should only be a momentary reaction to an unnerving situation. It’s not natural for your body to constantly be in this state.
This causes your immune system to become very weak, which leads to lots of inflammations within your body. This is mostly caused by things like conflicts, isolation, exclusion, and feeling threatened.
You’ve probably experienced some of those (or maybe even all of those) things in your toxic relationship. You may want to make sure that you’re not affected by these things anymore; i.e. go see your doctor.
3. Higher risk of depression and other mental illnesses
When you’re constantly subjected to those deprecating messages you receive from your partner because of their inability to give you any type of reassurance, you’re going to have issues with your mental health. It doesn’t happen because you were less confident or because you were weak.
On the contrary, some of the strongest and most intelligent people in this world were brought to tears more than once by someone they thought would love them. I know that you feel like it’s your fault, but it is not.
So, why does it impact you this much? Firstly, when we’re talking about depression, it can start off as simple lethargy. Afterward, you forget to brush your teeth and you stop having any motivation to get out of bed in the morning.
You can even develop PTSD during this time because emotional and physical abuse can have long-lasting effects on the way you view the world. You’ll easily get triggered by things that haven’t triggered you before, simply because certain moments will bring you into a very dark place in your mind.
Any traumatic experience can and will cause acute or lasting problems for your health.
4. It can cause fluctuations within your weight
To be completely honest with you, I don’t believe that there’s such a thing as “the perfect weight” for a person. Especially because all of our bodies are made differently and we need different amounts of nutrients to function properly.
For some people that means that they have a naturally smaller appetite than others. Even if someone has a bigger appetite, as long as it doesn’t cause them health troubles, it’s completely fine.
The moment where we should draw the line is when a person experiences huge fluctuations in their weight in a very small period of time. For example, when someone loses a lot of weight in just a couple of weeks.
Do you really believe that something like that is normal? Weight loss or weight gain should happen over a longer period. When you’re stressed and/or depressed you tend to change your eating habits.
This is especially true when you’re with someone who feeds you the idea that there’s something wrong with your body. Nonetheless, it’s extremely dangerous for your body to go through these changes so quickly.
5. It can aggravate symptoms of other illnesses you may have
Do you have a chronic illness? Has it gotten worse since you stepped into this toxic relationship?
For example, if you have asthma, have you been experiencing more symptoms than usual? Or even if we’re talking about physical illnesses like arthritis or type 2 diabetes, their symptoms could become more severe at any given point in time.
Of course, a relationship in itself won’t cause these health issues. It’s the type of relationship you have. Some people even testify that they feel so calm with their new partner that they don’t even experience asthma attacks anymore.
Other people talk about a completely different type of experience. Simply because they can feel the shift in their body happening and they don’t know why. However, there were many studies done on this, and I would highly recommend that you seek out more information.
6. It weakens your heart
Have you been experiencing heart palpitations? To the point where it takes your breath away completely? It makes your entire body tingle and it doesn’t seem to stop.
A toxic relationship can influence your body to the point where you can even develop heart disease. You don’t believe me? Well, a study published by Perspectives on Psychological Science says that people who have gone through separation or divorce are more likely to die earlier because of heart disease.
There’s even research on the topic of how healthy relationships can actually cause your heart to become a much stronger muscle. Your heart will always react when you’re stressed, so when there’s an absence of stress, you’re actually having a healing experience.
7. It can shorten your lifespan
I get it. You don’t want to believe that the guy whose name we’re not allowed to say aloud would have such an impact on your life. However, the more you read about this topic, the more you’ll understand.
Research that was done over a time span of two decades showed a significant link between happy relationships (platonic or romantic) and mortality. The human body is more prone to inflammation because of stress and heart disease, and we can develop certain illnesses as a consequence.
Now, that you know all of this, do you still intend to stay in a relationship with someone who obviously isn’t good for you? Not only are you compromising your wants and needs; you’re also compromising your health.
He shouldn’t have so much power over you. It doesn’t matter how much you may love him. You should always love yourself more.
Choose yourself over a toxic relationship that’s always been bad for every aspect of your life.
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