--- title: Bad Relationships Can Negatively Impact Your Health description: Find out how staying in a negative or bad romantic relationship can negatively impact your health. canonical: https://time.com/5261196/bad-relationship-negative-health-effects/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-01T16:37:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:20.062Z og:title: How a Bad Relationship Can Literally Make You Sick og:description: It's not just about your feelings og:url: https://time.com/5261196/bad-relationship-negative-health-effects/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d3256a9131c6e6d/69889814196cf4619003c09a/gettyimages-200437581-008.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4200 og:image:height: 2363 og:image:alt: Young couple sitting on bed, rear view og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How a Bad Relationship Can Literally Make You Sick twitter:description: It's not just about your feelings twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d3256a9131c6e6d/69889814196cf4619003c09a/gettyimages-200437581-008.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How a Bad Relationship Can Literally Make You Sick > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: 5 Ways Love Is Good for Your Health [Watch (HLS stream): 5 Ways Love Is Good for Your Health](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Hs6pBnvc.m3u8) (2:13)  _Published 2018-02-14. If you’re in a relationship, Valentine’s Day may be one of the healthiest days of the year — despite the champagne and chocolate._ by [Keck School of Medicine USC / Quora](https://time.com/author/quora/) ## Keck School of Medicine USC / Quora May 1, 2018 4:37 PM UTC  Yo Oura—Getty Images by [Keck School of Medicine USC / Quora](https://time.com/author/quora/) ## Keck School of Medicine USC / Quora May 1, 2018 4:37 PM UTC [_Answer_](https://www.quora.com/Are-there-negative-health-effects-when-it-comes-to-bad-relationships/answer/Keck-Medicine-of-USC) _by_ [_Keck Medicine of USC_](https://www.quora.com/profile/Keck-Medicine-of-USC) _on_ [_Quora_](https://www.quora.com) **A bad relationship can hurt more than your feelings.** Relationships are, in a word, complicated. Most of the time, they can be a good thing. In a significant other, you may have a friend to confide in after a long workday, a family member who offers support and a fresh perspective, or a partner with whom you can face the future. (And, ideally, you have someone who will make the [coffee](https://www.keckmedicine.org/coffee-might-help-you-live-longer-according-to-science/) before you even wake up.) But bad relationships exist, too — and they may even impact your health. People enter and remain in toxic relationships for a host of reasons. Romantic relationships that are or have turned toxic are often tied to a psychological process called idealization. [Idealization](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/emotional-nourishment/201606/how-do-toxic-relationships-affect-health), or the idea of an “ideal” partner, is rooted in unconscious or semi-conscious desires that have been influenced by cultural and biological forces, according to Linda E. Weinberger, professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Those influences basically blind people to the red flags that can be so obvious to friends and family — and, typically, everyone besides the person involved. Whether you’re aware of it or not, a toxic relationship may negatively impact your mental health. It can make you feel insecure or bad about yourself, leave you feeling drained and unhappy, place pressure on you to change something about yourself or may even be physically and emotionally harmful. Beyond the mental health implications, the effects of being in a bad relationship can impact your [health](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/high-octane-women/201108/the-hidden-health-hazards-toxic-relationships), particularly physically. One study found that being in a negative relationship puts people at a higher risk of developing [heart problems](https://cvti.keckmedicine.org/) (such as a fatal heart attack) than those in healthy relationships. In another study, [researchers](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29529578/ns/health-heart%5Fhealth/t/bad-marriage-bad-womens-hearts/#.WmJVI5M-dD0) found that women with high levels of conflict in their relationships tend to have similarly high blood sugar levels, [high blood pressure](https://www.keckmedicine.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-blood-pressure/) and high rates of [obesity](http://weightloss.keckmedicine.org/). [Research](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16330726) has even found that hostile relationships can even slow wound healing. There may be other physical repercussions, too, primarily in the form of [stress](http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/health/sdut-unhealthy-relationships-unhealthy-bodies-2014sep23-htmlstory.html) on your body. Constant tension or serious conflicts in a relationship can keep your body in [flight-or-flight](https://www.keckmedicine.org/does-feeling-blue-literally-hurt/) mode all the time, spurring your body to produce adrenaline and quickly discard the excess. This can eventually lead to fatigue, a weakened immune system and even organ damage. The good news is that there’s an obvious solution — and it’s one worth seriously considering, if only for the sake of your health. You can either repair the relationship (if the other person is willing) or end it altogether. Because one thing is clear: A bad relationship is not worth the toll it can have on your body. _This question originally appeared on Quora:_ [_Are there negative health effects when it comes to bad relationships?_](https://www.quora.com/Are-there-negative-health-effects-when-it-comes-to-bad-relationships) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5261196/bad-relationship-negative-health-effects/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5261196/bad-relationship-negative-health-effects/"},"headline":"How a Bad Relationship Can Literally Make You Sick","datePublished":"2018-05-01T16:37:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:20.062Z","description":"It's not just about your feelings","url":"https://time.com/5261196/bad-relationship-negative-health-effects/","keywords":["motto","Sex/Relationships","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d3256a9131c6e6d/69889814196cf4619003c09a/gettyimages-200437581-008.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Keck School of Medicine USC / Quora"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d3256a9131c6e6d/69889814196cf4619003c09a/gettyimages-200437581-008.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Young couple sitting on bed, rear view","caption":"Young couple sitting on bed, rear view","creditText":"Yo Oura—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5261196/bad-relationship-negative-health-effects/","name":"How a Bad Relationship Can Literally Make You Sick"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"5 Ways Love Is Good for Your Health","description":"If you’re in a relationship, Valentine’s Day may be one of the healthiest days of the year — despite the champagne and chocolate.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Hs6pBnvc/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-02-14T16:15:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Hs6pBnvc.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5261196/bad-relationship-negative-health-effects/","duration":"PT2M13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5261196/bad-relationship-negative-health-effects/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```