Things that are often confused as “love”. • We live in a world that is obsessed with love and finding “the one”. Media over-romanticizes love and often glorifies toxic romantic relationships. This gives us unrealistic expectations and changes our perception of love. By portraying toxic relationships as normal, it skews our perception of acceptable behavior. It can mislead viewers to believe that the jealous or controlling partner is just very passionate or deeply in love, that you just have to keep trying for the unhealthy relationship to work out, that you can ignore serious red flags because “you’re meant to be”, or doesn’t address the mental health needs of the partners. While it’s done for entertainment purposes, it can perpetuate the wrong idea of what a healthy relationship should look like. It’s up to us, as viewers, to keep in mind that if a relationship feels like it’s destroying us, it isn’t love. If you are sacrificing parts of yourself or silencing who you are for someone else, that’s not love. • In addition to the media, unhealthy relationships we observe in our everyday lives can also impact our view of what love is. I remember thinking that it was absolutely normal to argue often or to be constantly jealous in my relationship in the past. I realized that it was a learned behavior - that by being jealous if my significant other spent more time with others it was really a reflection of an unmet need within myself and my own insecurity that I had to deal with. When we see loved ones consistently engaging in emotional/physical abuse, being controlling, jealous, constantly arguing, it sends us the message that those behaviors can coexist within love. They can’t. Real love can’t flourish in a toxic environment. • These are just a few things that I think are often confused or misread as love. Do y’all agree? Would you add anything to this list? • #Brownmamatrauma #healing #healingjourney #abusiverelationship #toxicrelationships #southasianrelationships #southasians #desigirl #mentalhealth #desimentalhealth #browngirls #healthyrelationships #relationships