toxic relationship

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I can’t believe people seriously think about relationships this way. I understand you don’t want to be someone’s partner, but to be so self-centered as to ‘demote’ someone from partner to lover and expect them not to get offended is insane. I can’t say I’m surprised because this has happened to most of my friend

40-year-old Man ‘demotes’ woman from ‘girlfriend status’ to ‘lover status’, and she is left wondering what to do: ‘I currently can’t find the right words. I didn’t fully know what I was hoping for - but what ever it was it - it’s not realistic now’

This hits close to home because I had a similar falling-out with a friend last week, and I was in the wrong, so I can understand the feeling of being betrayed when nothing is really happening, but there is still no excuse. What surprised me about this story is that the angry friend hasn’t taken any steps back yet, but well, that might

Woman invites a friend to a concert for her birthday and her other friend is left feeling betrayed: 'She sent me a long message denying any of it, calling my feelings "strange" and "shady," and somehow made herself out to be the victim'

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We’ve all been there, fantasising about our crush for months, even for years, until we finally meet them and the fantasy comes crumbling down. In a sense, it’s better that it goes that way; idealizing someone so much can’t be good; no good thing can come from pedestalizing somebody; it naturally leaves

28-year-old woman finally goes on a date with her gym crush only to be disillusioned about what happened at it: ‘He finished with, “I am better than them anyway, I don’t care.” What?’

Sometimes a person doesn’t know how to express admiration. Complimenting somebody might be the most difficult thing for some people, and they end up bullying you in a naive way that doesn’t cease to be annoying. It starts getting weird when it becomes a habit, and you are forced to discuss a topic time a

Man keeps making strange comments at coworker after he told him he goes to the gym: ‘It’s literally every time he walks by he says some weird remark’

Once upon a time, we all benefited from going to therapy. It was a perfect time when people were actually working on themselves and not trying to learn buzzwords to throw at other people's faces when they were frustrated about something. Therapy has now become a place to absolve oneself of responsibility and lear

25-year-old man offers food to friend, and she declines only to later text him saying she was upset he didn’t insist: ‘She said I should have known she didn't actually mean "no" and that a real friend would've insisted, ordered the food anyway'

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One should feel free to consider whether a partner’s attitude is something we can tolerate. No attitude is off limits once we’ve taken the whole picture into consideration. But having read too many stories like these, I think we are starting to have really unachievable standards towards our relationships. This could b

‘My gf style of playfulness, I find strange and hard to wrap my head around’: Man thinks his girlfriend’s type of playfulness is slowly breaking him and wonders what to do about it

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Woman wonders if it was wrong to tell her problematic best friend that she is a pick-me and an attention seeker: ‘She hated I complimented someone other than her’

I guess since the internet started, but it’s nonetheless interesting to watch. People would much rather tell their deepest secrets to a stranger online than to a friend, a therapist, or whomever they’re having an issue with. There is just something about telling secrets to a stranger, right? And that something is the lac

48-year-old man says he has grown resentful of his 47-year-old stay-at-home wife over the years: 'I’ve tried to ask my wife if we can go on a date, and she says she’d like that but then her schedule is never free’

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People react to not having money in the most random ways. Sometimes it’s easier to have a fight with someone than for them to admit they don’t want to pay you back because it’s too much money for them, and not because of some rationalization about a cat’s health, lol. Either way, when someone pushes back t

21-year-old woman drives her friend’s pet to a vet appointment at 4am, pays for it, and her friend says she isn’t going to pay her back: ‘ She thinks we should split the bill because I made a financial decision on his medicine that she didn’t agree to’

Sometimes we’re so caught up in a relationship that we start questioning the unquestionable. Some things, looked at from afar, seem ridiculous. Of course somebody can prioritize love and family over education, but getting a scholarship to a prestigious university means one, in one way or another, worked for it, and

‘I worry I’m really going to regret it’: Student gets offered a scholarship to Harvard, but girlfriend states it threatens their relationship so he considers missing his opportunity

I don’t think this revenge went as well as this Redditor thinks it did, but as I always say: The revenge is for the avenger’s pleasure, nothing more. We should always remember to keep it silly so we don’t hurt anybody. Either way, this avenger reestablished the balance of the universe by doing this, and we’re all v

‘Before she could take it, I turned around and tossed it about five feet away. I turned back to her and sternly said “go pick it up”’: Man remembers his petty revenge on an entitled middle-school classmate

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If dating is hard, I can’t imagine how hard finding a husband is. I tend to think these sorts of problems arise from the approach we’re taking to dating and not from the dating pool itself. She says some interesting things about her and her relationship with the internet; she says she loves video games, Reddit, CDs. To me,

‘Imagine trying to share your favorite sci-fi or Reddit meme with someone who doesn't comprehend... It's loneliness’ : 33-year-old woman at the end of her wits with finding a partner and is thinking about using an international marriage agency

Not for nothing, mothers-in-law have been depicted as evil witches throughout history, in every art form possible. Hold on, I’m not saying they are actually evil; I’m saying the relationship between a mother and her son’s significant other is always potentially rocky, because mothers tend to want the best and only the best for them, and get v

‘His mother doesn't respect me, and he said that that wasn't how she meant it, and that she just views family differently’: Mother-in-law excludes son’s wife from family picture and sparks a debate

I’m going to be very careful because this is a little funny, but it’s also very serious, and there is a slight element of inversion that’s interesting to me. On the one hand, we’ve got a man telling his partner she is “beggy” after she asked for something, and on the other, we’ve got a woman who got legally married, still calls her

31-year-old man calls his fiancé “beggy” for asking for a formal proposal: ‘Instead of feeling excited about a proposal or a ring, I don’t really want either anymore because it feels tainted’

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Breaking up in your twenties is one thing; in your thirties, another; in your forties, another, but at 68? That’s wild, and I’m totally here for it; it’s never too late to change your life and try new stuff. I suppose marriage at that age is also about helping each other with tasks that were much easier when you’re young but

68-year-old man wonders how to properly break up his 35-year-long marriage: ‘I don’t want to hurt her but I don’t think I can stay. This is going to be life altering for both of us’

Insecurity is a double-edged sword. When a wound is so open like that, people tend to look for quick, effective ways to soothe its pain, but nothing quick really works, so it s

Man pays an exaggerated compliment to an insecure friend and now regrets it: ‘Now, whenever she gets the chance, she puts other women down by using that comment’