You’re not happy in your relationship anymore, but you don’t want to be the one to destroy everything you’ve built together.
After all, you’re past the age where you can just break up and find a new partner.
And you could probably stand to put some more effort in to fixing things.
Stop.
When you first start noticing doubts about your relationship creeping in, it can understandably feel super overwhelming.
But before you talk to your partner about it, make sure that you’re totally clear about what you want. When is the relationship beyond repair and when should you break up?
Here are the five signs that you might be better off apart.
1. You don’t trust your partner anymore
Have you ever caught your partner in a lie, or found out that they weren’t telling you the complete truth about something? If you often feel like you’re waiting to be disappointed by your partner, it’s time to seriously reconsider your relationship.
Even in a friendship or family, trust is the foundation for a strong relationship.
We get it, simply walking away is hard when love is involved. So if you’re feeling like you want to repair things, open communication can help you build back trust. Naturally, this takes a lot of time and work, but it’s definitely worth it if the relationship is important to you.
2. You feel alone in your relationship
Your partner might be physically sat next to you on the sofa, but you still can’t get rid of the feeling of loneliness. Being alone doesn’t just mean you don’t have a body to cuddle with.
Even in a partnership, you can quickly start to feel lonely if you’re lacking a deeper emotional connection with your partner.
Often this manifests itself in the fact that you can talk well about mundane things such as who should take out the bins or sort the bills, but you can’t talk on a deeper emotional level.
Your partner is no longer interested in the things that are important to you, or vice versa. You just can’t understand why this one thing is so important for your partner. You live next to each other instead of with each other.
This works fine for a while, but if you repeatedly find that you need someone to talk to, even though your partner is right next to you, then you should think about whether you’re better off out of the relationship.
3. You feel like you’re putting in more effort than your partner
It’s date night, which means that you’re in charge of thinking of a location and activity, as well as having to remind your partner two, three, even four times about the date to get them to show up.
Intimacy and closeness is only initiated by you.
You’re always shopping and thinking about their favourite food, but never get the same courtesy.
You always take care of the mundane house chores.
You and only you are in charge of keeping up communication with friends and family.