Relationships: Healthy vs. Unhealthy

In a healthy relationship, you:

• Treat each other with respect

• Feel secure and comfortable

• Are not violent with each other

• Can resolve conflicts satisfactorily

• Enjoy the time you spend together

• Support one another

• Take interest in one another’s lives: health, family, work, etc.

• Can trust each other

• Are each sexual by choice

• Communicate clearly and openly

• Have texts, phone calls, and e-mail that are your own

• Encourage other friendships

• Are honest about your past and present sexual activity if the relationship is intimate

• Know that most people in your life are happy about the relationship

• Have more good times in the relationship than bad

In an unhealthy relationship, you:

• Try to control or manipulate the other

• Make the other feel bad about themselves

• Ridicule, criticize, or put down people with whom you identify

• Dictate how the other dresses

• Do not make time for each other

• Criticize the other's friends

• Are afraid of the other's temper

• Discourage the other from being close with anyone else

• Ignore each other when one is speaking

• Are overly possessive or get jealous about

ordinary behavior

• Control the other's money or other resources

(e.g., car, cellphone, etc.)

• Harm or threaten to harm children, family,

pets, or objects of personal value

• Push, grab, hit, punch, or throw objects

• Use physical force or threats to prevent the

other from leaving