Why Getting Back Together With Your Ex May Be Bad for Your Health

If you’re caught in an on-again, off-again relationship, a new study says it may be time to break the cycle for good. “A pattern of breaking up and getting back together with the same partner — what we refer to as ‘relationship cycling’ — was associated with increased symptoms of depression and anxiety,” says study co-author Kale Monk, an assistant professor of human development and family science at the University of Missouri, in an email to TIME. “We know that breakups are upsetting in-and-of themselves, but this distress is considered normal and is often temporary. However, a tumultuous pattern of stressful transitions in and out of the same relationship might have more pervasive implications for our well-being.” For the study, which was published in the journal Family Relations, researchers surveyed 545 people in romantic relationships about their levels of anxiety and depression, as well as whether (and how often) they had ever broken up and gotten back together with a partner. About a third of people admitted to relationship cycling, with similar rates among couples of different sexual orientations. That behavior, the researchers found, was correlated with increases in psychological distress, even after accounting for other factors that can influence mental health, such as demographic information, marital and family status, sexual orientation and related stressors. The more on-off cycles a person reported, Monk says...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime onetime Sex/Relationships Source Type: news