Free Fall

Sometimes, relationships don’t just take a turn for the worse—they can impose danger or even be life-threatening. Abuse and manipulative behavior can be hard to detect, which is why the victim often chooses to stay and wants to normalize them. Unfortunately, this is how toxic relationships prolong. We understand how hard it can be to intervene if you have a friend or know someone who may be involved with an unhealthy romantic partner. If you are scared for that person but may be unsure of what to do, we want to offer some advice. Psych2Go shares with you 6 ways to help your friend in a toxic relationship:

1. Don’t judge or criticize them for being in the relationship.

The last thing you want to do is add more fuel to the destructive fire. Even though it’s unfavorable, understand that you should still be respectful of your friend’s choice to be with their partner and that they have the right to make their own mistakes. Our first instinct is to be protective over those we care about who may be in danger, but it’s complicated when your friend cannot recognize right away that they’re walking into a fire. The hardest part of helping someone in a toxic relationship is that you can’t force someone to see that it’s bad for them.

Perspective can only be developed from…