Knowing When to Accelerate or Brake: Healthy vs. Harmful Relationships
Types of Relationships
A relationship is the connection you have with another person. Each one of these connections has an impact on your health. In this interactivity, you will examine some of the different types of relationships. Click the player button to get started.
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Healthy Relationships
In order to build healthy relationships, you must acquire a few skills, like communication, cooperation, and compromise. Communication is necessary so you can send or receive information or messages to others. Cooperation is necessary so you can work with others to make relationships stronger. Compromise is necessary so you can solve problems that may occur in your relationships.
Characteristics of a Healthy Relationship
- Mutual Respect - involves accepting one another’s differences and opinions
- Consideration - involves being thoughtful about the other’s rights and feelings
- Honesty - involves being open about your actions, thoughts, and feelings
- Dependability - involves being trustworthy and reliable
- Commitment - involves being able to work together and make sacrifices that benefit everyone involved, and also involves loyalty to strengthen the relationship
Harmful Relationships and Resources for Help
Harmful relationships are the exact opposite of healthy relationships. Such relationships include problems like violence, abuse, or neglect. The important part about breaking the cycle of abuse, violence, or neglect is understanding how to recognize these problems and seeking help.
Strategies to Avoid Harmful Relationships
- Recognize - Become aware of actions that are abusive, and remember they can be physical abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect.
- Resist - Be assertive and stand up for yourself when faced with abuse, and seek help from a trusted adult.
- Report - If you are being abused or witness abuse of someone else, tell the authorities or a trusted adult. Many resources exist for people who find themselves in harmful relationships. These include the police, trusted adults, shelters, support groups, family counselors, treatment facilities, and your local community religious institutions.
Healthy vs. Harmful Relationships Review
Now that you have examined healthy relationships and harmful relationships, review your knowledge in this non-graded activity. Click the player button to get started.