When thinking about a relationship, it doesn’t have to be between you and your partner, it can be between you and anyone you with whom you are personally connected, for example your parents, brothers or sisters, grandparents etc.
This diagram shows what a healthy relationship is likely to look like. A healthy relationship is based on mutual trust and respect. It involves compromise and support. All relationships have ups and downs but in a healthy relationship there is balance and respect.
If one person wants to have control over another person or other people, that is not a healthy relationship.
No matter what excuses we use, we are all responsible for our own behaviour. We can blame how we act on things like alcohol or drugs but that’s just a way of trying to avoid our own responsibility. Loads of people use alcohol and drugs and never try to control or hurt other people.
