Top 5 Ways Dating Can Impact Your Mental Health
Relationships and being in a couple is the way the social world is structured. Whenever you are single, there is always someone or something in society to make you painfully aware of your singledom. No matter how much it can be celebrated, it’s always with the ultimate goal in mind that eventually you will end up in a couple, settle down and lead a somewhat normal and monogamous life. Those expectations, even exist in more modern dating trends, like emo dating for instance, where the focus is on experience and emotion rather than long term plans and promises.
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The most daunting consequence of internalizing this kind of socialization, is that a relationship becomes one of the most important parts of one’s adult identity and the measure of one’s social success. Everyone knows to doubt or jeer at the strange loner or the spinster, and wonder why they never settled down. All these implied judgments can affect one’s mental health and perception on one’s self.
That’s why it’s important to take the time to get to know the person you’re getting intimate with, because it’s not just about getting physical with someone. It’s also about what happens to you mentally.
Here are some negative ways dating can impact your mental health:
#1 Taking all your time and attention
You could end of dating a person who takes up all your time and is jealous of your close connections. Maybe they don’t want you to be around others that much, so they can have your attention all to themselves. In this case, all your time and attention is focused on them rather than doing things that are beneficial to your mental health. Like socializing or meditating.
#2 Impacting your self-confidence
Maybe the person you’re with tries to make you feel bad about your choices, or your lifestyle, or your physical look. In this case, they can impact your self-confidence by damaging it and not allowing you to express yourself freely without fear of reproach. In this case, whenever you want to feel like yourself, or behave in a way that is natural, you are chastised and this over the long term can harm how you see and perceive yourself.
#3 Making you dependent
A toxic dating partner can easily manipulate and isolate you from all the positive influences and sources in your life, that it can cause depression, There is nothing worse for your mental health than being cut off from the people and things you love most. Dating someone controlling who monitors your every move and tries to make you dependent solely on them, can lead to a dangerous situation for your mental well-being. Independence is key to a healthy mind.
#4 Changing your social behavior
Not being able to meet up with your friends without your date in tow, or always being judged by the people you hang out with can be damaging because your social circle is a reflection on you. If your social behavior is being changed by whom you date, this can lead to depression, anxiety and overall helplessness, because you don’t know how to be have in any given situation. being social is fundamental to being healthy mentally, and it’s another reason to be wary.
#5 Breaking-up can be hard to do
Even breaking-up in a tough or negative relationship can be hard to do since there can be so many negative consequences to those interactions. The end can be bitter and can leave scars on your personality that are hard to remove with a break-up.Pain can linger and cause so many repercussions, even if the person you dated is no longer around. It’s important to re-focus your energies on yourself after a bad relationship and put your mental health first, since that’s the only way you can ever really be happy. Happiness is in you, not in someone else.
So, don’t give up if you haven’t found the right one yet, there are tons of great dating sites like emo dating or something similar where you can meet people who care about how they affect others and put their mental state first.