Meeting someone and feeling an instant connection can be exhilarating. When you first met your spouse, you may have felt giddy with excitement at seeing him or her and talking, and you eventually began to see yourself living the rest of your life with this person. You could not have been more excited when the time came to tie the knot.
Unfortunately, like many marriages that start out this way, your relationship later began to go downhill. It may not have seemed obvious at first, but over time, you came to realize that you were in a toxic relationship.
Do these signs point to your marriage?
It can be more difficult than many people realize to understand the signs of a toxic relationship. In fact, it is easy to make excuses for a spouse who treats you poorly or rationalize why he or she acts in ways that cause stress and anxiety. Still, the following signs of an unhealthy relationship may have shown themselves in your marriage:
- Your spouse continually blamed you for things that went wrong, even if it had nothing to do with you.
- Your spouse had a jealous streak that went beyond simply feeling uneasy when you were around the opposite sex. He or she may have demanded updates on your activities or even tried to limit who you saw or what you did.
- Your spouse may have made threats or otherwise manipulated you in order to get his or her way.
- You had a lack of open communication in your relationship that made it difficult to solve problems. You may have even reached a point where you did not want to talk with your spouse about anything.
- You continually had fights and arguments, likely about the same issues you could not resolve due to that lack of communication.
- You constantly felt as if you had to watch your actions and your words around your spouse to avoid yelling or criticism.
When you realized that these or other signs in your relationship pointed to a toxic marriage, you may have started considering your divorce options. While ending the relationship may certainly be in your best interests, you may want to remember that divorcing a manipulative and toxic person can be difficult. Fortunately, you can work with a California attorney to determine your best options for getting through your case as smoothly as possible.