Karen: A healthy relationship should resemble a sturdy bridge. Like a bridge, your relationship connects you to another person and allows information, feelings, and ideas to cross from one side to the other, or from one person to the other. If your relationship is built with healthy components, it is sturdy and allows more emotional support to travel freely across it. Unhealthy relationship components can weaken your bridge and even cause it to fall apart completely, especially when you attempt to load the bridge with the emotional needs you seek from the other person. And some components are just plain warning signs of a bridge you don’t want to cross...

Carlos: For the activity below, think about one of your own relationships (whether with a significant other, friend, family member, etc.). If the statement sounds like your relationship, place it on the bridge. If not, throw it in the water. As you identify more components related to a healthy relationship, that bridge will grow. If you’re identifying with some unhealthy signs, you may need to think twice about the relationship. There are also some signs that are just plain danger signs telling you to turn around now and get off that bridge! If you find things in your relationship that are unhealthy, the bridge will break apart or collapse, depending on how unhealthy the connection is.

Karen: If your bridge collapses, that is a sign that you should NOT keep trying to build that bridge. If a relationship is too unhealthy to maintain a connection with that person, you should walk away. Do you need to get out? Make a decision to free yourself from an unhealthy relationship. It may not happen in a day or a week, but just realizing that a relationship is unhealthy is a big step forward. Feel free to repeat this activity with different people in mind. You can do it for a romantic relationship, a best friend, or anyone you are close to. If you identify unhealthy components in your relationships using this activity, make today the day you take steps to get off that bridge!