HEALTHY? UNHEALTHY? ABUSIVE?

All friendships, dating relationships and families exist somewhere on a spectrum between healthy, unhealthy and abusive.

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In relationships that can be labeled as ‘abusive’, one partner typically restricts the other’s access to basic necessities (or ‘needs’). Common examples include isolating them from friends or family, limiting the time they can spend alone, attempting to control their food intake, forcing or coercing sexual contact and even limiting access to reproductive healthcare. (Abuse)

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And, we should mention, there’s a huge difference between wants and needs! To view some common examples, please reference the images below. If you are putting your wants before your partner's needs (or vice versa), that should definitely call for some re-evaluation. Of course, ‘wants’ are important too and can be an indicator of compatibility, but they should never be prioritized above a need.