Warning signs that you might be sabotaging a good thing
You meet someone new and happily date for a little while. The connection is great, there is chemistry, and sex is fun. You start spending more and more time together and begin considering becoming a couple. But then, you stop replying to their texts right away. You cancel dates. You avoid talking about taking things to the next level. Your partner expresses frustration, disappointment, or even anger about your behavior. Not long after, the partner breaks up the relationship.
Does this sound like something that happens to you? If so, you might be self-sabotaging your relationships.
Why We Self-Sabotage
The specific reasons why someone may self-sabotage relationships are context-specific. Every person has had a different past: parenting, childhood, teenage years and first serious relationships all have an effect on how we act right now.
One of the main reasons why people sabotage their relationships is fear of intimacy. People are afraid of intimacy when they fear emotional or physical closeness with other people.
Everyone wants and needs intimacy, but in people with certain experiences, intimacy may be linked to negative rather than positive experiences, leading to a “push-and-pull”-type behavior that leads to a relationship breakup or avoidance.
Fear of intimacy typically comes from difficult or abusive parental relationships and childhood trauma (physical, sexual, emotional). The deep, embedded belief in people who fear intimacy is: “people who I am close to cannot be trusted”.
Because early trusting relationships with parents or caregivers were broken by abuse, people who fear intimacy believe that people who love them will inevitably hurt them. As children, they could not extricate themselves from these relationships; however, as adults, they have the power to end or leave them, even when they are not inherently abusive.
This fear appears in two types: fear of abandonment and fear of engulfment. In the first, people are worried that those they love will leave them when they are most vulnerable; in the second, people are worried that they will lose their identity or ability to make decisions for themselves. These two fears often exist together, leading to the “push-and-pull” behavior so typical of those with deep fears of intimacy.
Signs Of Self-Sabotage In Relationships
There are many signs that you might have a tendency to self-sabotage even the best of relationships. Here are some of the most common:
*You always have an eye on the exit
*You avoid anything that leads to bigger commitment: meeting parents, moving in together, etc. You’re always wondering: “if it goes wrong, how can I extricate myself easily from this relationship?” Because commitment reduces your ability to leave a relationship without financial or emotional consequences, you tend to avoid it.
You gaslight your partner
Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse whose aim is to deny the other person’s reality or experiences. For example, if your partner says: “I’m really upset that you canceled our date”, you respond with something like: “You’re not really upset, it’s your fault I canceled and you’re just trying to blame me for it.” Gaslighting is a sign that you don’t really believe your partners’ feelings are valid or real (even though they are).
You are known as a “serial dater”
Your friends often ask you why you break up with potential partners so often or lament the fact that you never seem to “settle down” with anyone. You break up with partners on the slightest of issues, only to start dating another person right away and repeat the cycle. You don’t want to be seen as a “player” but you can’t seem to find someone who you can commit to.
You are paranoid or extremely jealous
You always worry that your partner might be seeing someone else behind your back. You demand control over every aspect of their life and require constant contact. When they spend time with other people without you, you fret, text constantly, experience jealousy, and ask for proof that they’re being faithful. They break up with you because they find you controlling.
You criticize everything they do
You constantly look for perfection in a partner, even though you know perfection is impossible. You find fault with every little thing they do, from the way they cook to the clothes they wear. You are impossible to please, and your partner eventually gives up trying and breaks up with you.
You avoid facing problems
You spend a lot of time trying to convince yourself that the relationship is perfect, even when it’s not. When your partner wants to address a problem, you avoid the topic or simply say: “I don’t think we’re having an issue; it’s going to go away.” Your partner grows resentful of your inability to face problems together and leaves.
You have sex with other people
While in some cases having sex with other people is okay when both people agree to non-monogamy, in general, going from affair to affair can be a sign of self-sabotage. You’re doing one of the most hurtful things you can do to a romantic partner in the hopes that they’ll find out and leave you.
You always tear yourself down
You always talk about yourself in self-deprecating ways: “I’m not as smart as you”, “I’m just an idiot, why are you with me?”, “You’re just with me because you pity me”, etc. This is a sign of low self-esteem, and most people do not enjoy being told that they love someone who is worthless. When, despite their constant reassurance that you are a good person, you keep tearing yourself down, they give up and break up.
These are just a few examples of how people with a fear of intimacy might sabotage their relationships. Note that many of them are abusive: things like gaslighting, paranoia and control can damage the other person. People with these patterns have childhood trauma and don’t know how else to act.
Why It’s a Problem
Even when you recognize signs of self-sabotage in your relationships, you may not initially feel a desire to stop these problematic behaviors. Such patterns allow you to exit relationships when you want to—and that’s exactly the problem. You want out in order to avoid the intimacy you fear in the short-term, but such actions can create difficulties that can haunt you in the long-term.
Why does it matter that you want to continually end your relationships, even when things are going well? Some of the potential long-term consequences include:
*A lack of intimate relationships. As time goes on, you may find yourself longing for a close, secure, long-term relationship. Self-sabotaging behaviors make any kind of commitment difficult to find and maintain.
*Loneliness. Lack of close relationships can leave people feeling isolated. You might find yourself longing for connections that you feel unable to forge or keep.
*Lack of children and family. While not everyone has a desire to have children, some people may find themselves wishing that they had a partner with whom to have a family.
*Trouble tolerating closeness. Repeatedly ending your relationships before you can build true intimacy can make it even harder to get close to future partners. Even as you grow closer to a person, you may find yourself constantly holding back parts of yourself out of a fear of getting too attached and then getting burned.
Ending Self-Sabotage
To end self-sabotage, you first need to take a good, hard look at yourself and your behavior patterns. Unless you are willing to be honest with yourself and face all the ways you may have abused or hurt other people because of your fear of intimacy, you are doomed to repeat it.
Therapy is the first step many take to end their self-sabotaging patterns. A professional can help you identify your behaviors, dig to the root of your issues, and find new, healthier ways to behave.
By Anabelle Bernard Fournier Reviewed by Amy Morin, LCSW