Listen Up! Ways Your Body Is Telling You You’re With The Wrong Partner

From weight changes to skin problems, our bodies can tell us when things just aren’t right with our romantic partners. Here are the symptoms you need to watch out for if your love life isn’t going well.

Weight Loss

Are you constantly losing weight? Do your pants seem to be fitting a little looser lately? Although this probably sounds great to most people, a sudden loss of weight could be your body’s way of telling you that you’re in a bad relationship. Sudden rising stress levels are often associated with unintentional weight loss, so if the number on your scale keeps dropping, it may be time to ask yourself if your relationship could be to blame.

Weight Gain

While some may experience weight loss as a side effect of being in a negative relationship, sudden weight gain could also be a warning sign of being in a bad relationship. For those who have an emotional relationship with food, emotional eating often accompanies times of high stress. This can definitely include relationship struggles. If you find that you’ve been having a love affair with food recently, it may be time to analyze your romantic relationship.

Stomach Pain

Anxiously worrying about issues in your relationship can lead to some pretty unpleasant side effects, including those knots you get in your stomach when you’re feeling worried. Stomach pain can definitely be a way that your body is telling you that you’re with the wrong person, especially if you only tend to notice the pain whenever your partner is around.

Headaches

You may have started to notice that a lot of the physical symptoms of a bad relationship trace back to stress. Unfortunately, stress can create a lot of unwanted symptoms, including headaches. A bad relationship will often leave you wondering if you’re good enough for the other person or if something you say or do will upset your partner, which is enough to give anyone a headache.

Body Aches

It’s been proven that people who are unhappy, such as those who are in a toxic relationship, tend to have poor, hunched-over posture. Poor posture can lead to muscular tension and imbalances, which can in turn lead to body aches. So if you’re wondering why you suddenly have all these random aches and pains, have a look at your relationship to see if it’s a source of happiness or unhappiness.

Aggression

Increased levels of aggression can be an outward sign of depression, which can be a result of being in an unhealthy relationship. This aggression can manifest itself in your personal relationships and potentially even your workplace relationships. Have you found that you’ve had a short fuse in your interactions with others lately? It might be wise to make sure your lack of satisfaction with your current romantic partner isn’t at least part of the underlying cause.

Dark Circles

If you’re with the wrong romantic partner, there’s a good chance you’re going to be stressed out, and if you’re stressed out, there’s a good chance you may have a hard time getting a good night’s sleep. Lack of sleep has a number of physical symptoms, including very obvious dark circles around your eyes. If your friends, family, and co-workers keep saying you look tired, you may be with the wrong partner.

Stuffy Nose

It may sound strange that a stuffy nose could be a way that your body is telling you you’re with the wrong partner, but it makes sense when you stop to think about it. Bad relationships can lead to depression, and depression can lead to a weakened immune system. This means that you’re more susceptible to allergies, sinus infections, colds, and the flu, all of which create congestion that gives you that stuffy nose.

Moodiness

Although there are a lot of factors that can affect your mood from day to day (and even within the same day), relationships can definitely have a significant impact, for better or for worse. If you’re in a contentious relationship where your partner is always picking fights with you, you’re likely experiencing an emotional roller-coaster on a daily basis. If you notice that your changes in mood are closely linked to whether or not your partner is around, you may be with the wrong person.

Low Libido

For both men and women, libido, or level of sexual desire, is often linked to the health of their romantic relationships. It can be challenging to keep the fire alive, so to speak, if you’re constantly fighting with your partner or if even there’s just not the same level of connection as there was at the start of the relationship.

Oversleeping

As we’ve already established, a bad relationship can lead to stress and even depression. As anyone who’s experienced even mild depression can attest to, it can often lead to oversleeping because it robs you of your will to get out of bed in the morning. If you’re not excited to wake up next to your partner, that could be a sign of deeper issues with your relationship.

Insomnia

On the other end of the spectrum from oversleeping, stress caused by a bad relationship can also lead to insomnia. If you’re experiencing stress, you may find it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep, and the overall quality of your sleep may be affected. Alleviating the cause of your stress should alleviate the insomnia, so if you found that you had an amazing week of sleep when your partner was away on their last business trip, that might be a sign of an issue with your relationship.

Increased Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

A study funded by the National Institute of Aging analyzed five years of data from about 1,200 married men and women and found that negative marital quality can increase the risk of coronary heart disease. The study found that over time, the stress from a bad marriage may stimulate more, and more intense, cardiovascular responses, including heart attacks, strokes, and hypertension.

Feelings of Insecurity

If you constantly find yourself questioning yourself and your relationship, you might want to consider whether or not you’re in a healthy relationship. A healthy relationship should make you feel good about yourself. Even if you normally have some doubts about yourself, your partner should ideally make you feel more secure about your weaknesses. Ask yourself if you feel more or less secure about yourself with your partner, and you’ll likely find the answer will give you some insight on the quality of your relationship.

Poor Mental Health

If you haven’t noticed a trend so far, negative relationships can lead to a host of mental health issues including increased levels of stress and possible depression. Studies have actually shown that a healthy, committed relationship has a positive effect on mental health, so it’s not surprising that an unhealthy relationship can have the opposite effect. In fact, a 2003 research article showed that single people tend to have better mental health than individuals who stick around in a tumultuous relationship.

Negative Effects on Overall Health

It’s not just your mental health that can be negatively affected by sticking it out in a relationship with the wrong partner; your overall general health can be adversely affected by a toxic relationship. Conflicts and disagreements in relationships have been linked to abdominal obesity, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and low levels of “good” cholesterol, according to one study.

Slower Disease Recovery

Not only can a bad relationship have an initial negative effect on your health, it can also mean that you experience a slower recovery from diseases and health conditions. A study in the journal Cancer associated marital distress with a worse recovery trajectory for breast cancer survivors, and patients were also less compliant with their medical regimens if they were dissatisfied with their relationship.

Decreased Performance at Work

Relationship stress can affect is in all areas of our life, including at the workplace. A study conducted in 2005 showed that people experiencing domestic strain reported greater stress at the workplace, had higher blood pressure in the middle of the day, and experienced higher morning cortisol levels. All of these factors can certainly contribute to diminished performance at work.

New Bad Habits

Coping mechanisms for dealing with stress can often manifest itself in the form of bad habits. Whether it’s consuming too much caffeine, smoking, drinking to excess, compulsive spending, or emotional eating, stress can take on many different faces. So if you’ve noticed that you’ve picked up a bad habit (or two) recently, perhaps it’s time to take a look at what might be the cause.

Poor Self-Esteem

Poor self-esteem can be both a symptom and a cause of negative relationships. An unsupportive partner can make you feel like you’re never good enough, no matter how hard you try in the various aspects of your life. However, pre-existing low self-esteem can also make people stay in unhealthy relationships, as they may believe they don’t deserve any better. Whether it’s the cause or the symptom, improving your self-esteem is an important way of improving any of your relationships.