--- 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. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Worth Your Time: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Worth Your Time is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more. Worth Your Time is a curated guide to the culture worth knowing, from the biggest conversations of the moment to the books, shows, ideas and discoveries worth your attention. Culture editor Eliza Berman taps TIME's collective taste and perspective to surface what is worth watching, reading, talking about and sharing, and why. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=014d8a14-eca6-4c88-8406-b5302c34a906&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) ## 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) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```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"}}] ```