Healthy Relationships should be an essential part of every Person's education. By giving young adults and teens the language and the tools to identify healthy and unhealthy behaviors, we can teach them how to navigate life better and look after themselves and others.

 While everyone does unhealthy things sometimes, we can all learn to love better by recognizing unhealthy signs and shifting to healthy behaviors. If you are seeing unhealthy signs in your relationship, it’s important not to ignore them and understand they can escalate to abuse. If you think you are in a dangerous situation, trust your gut and get help.

1. Intensity: When someone expresses very extreme feelings and over-the-top behavior that feels overwhelming. 
2.  Possessiveness: When someone is jealous to a point where they try to control who you spend time with and what you do.
3.  Manipulation: When someone tries to control your decisions, actions, or emotions. Manipulation is often hard to spot because it can be expressed in subtle or passive-aggressive ways
4. Isolation: When someone keeps you away from friends, family, or other people 
5. Sabotage: When someone purposely ruins your reputation, achievements, or success. 
6. Belittling: When someone does and says things to make you feel bad about yourself. 
7. Guilting: When someone makes you feel responsible for their actons or make you feel its your job to keep them happy. 
8. Volatilty: When someone has a really strong unpredictable reaction that makes you feel scared , confused, or intimidated.
9. Deflecting Responsibility: When someone repeatedly makes excuses for their unhealthy behavior.  
10. Betrayal: When someone is dishonest and acts in an intentionally dishonest way. 

 Healthy relationships bring out the best in you and make you feel good about yourself. A healthy relationship does not mean a “perfect” relationship, and no one is healthy 100% of the time, but the signs below are behaviors you should strive for in all of your relationships. Healthy relationships manifest themselves as healthy communication; another important part of a healthy relationship is loving yourself. Here are some characteristics and behaviors of a healthy relationship

1. Comfortable Pace: The relationship moves at a speed that feels enjoyable for each person. 
2. Trust: Confidence that your partner won’t do anything to hurt you or ruin the relationship.  
3. Honesty: You can be truthful and candid without fearing how the other person will respond. 
4. Honesty: You can be truthful and candid without fearing how the other person will respond. 
5. Respect: You value one another’s beliefs and opinions, and love one another for who you are as a person. 
6. Equality: The relationship feels balanced and everyone puts the same effort into the success of the relationship.  
7. Kindness: You are caring and empathetic to one another, and provide comfort and support.  
8. Taking Responsibility: Owning your actions and words. You avoid placing blame and can admit when you make a mistake.  
9. Healthy Conflict: Openly and respectfully discussing issues and confronting disagreements non-judgmentally.  
10. Fun: You enjoy spending time together and you bring out the best in each other.  

Look for changes in the child. However, be aware that not all children who are bullied exhibit warning signs.

Some signs that may point to a bullying problem are: 

• Unexplainable injuries
• Lost or destroyed clothing, books, electronics, or jewelry
• Frequent headaches or stomach aches, feeling sick or faking illness.
• Changes in eating habits, like suddenly skipping meals or binge eating. Kids may come home from school hungry because they did not eat lunch.
• Difficulty sleeping or frequent nightmares
• Declining grades, loss of interest in schoolwork, or not wanting to go to school
• Sudden loss of friends or avoidance of social situations
• Feelings of helplessness or decreased self esteem
• Self-destructive behaviors such as running away from home, harming themselves, or talking about suicide

If you know someone in serious distress or danger, don’t ignore the problem. Get Help Right Away

A child may be bullying others if they:   

• Get into physical or verbal fights
• Have friends who bully others
• Are increasingly aggressive
• Get sent to the principal’s office or to detention frequently
• Have unexplained extra money or new belongings
• Blame others for their problems
• Don’t accept responsibility for their actions
• Are competitive and worry about their reputation or popularity