February’s Did You Know Campaign: Healthy Relationships
This month TASK www.tahoesafekids.com is collaborating with Live Violence Free to share what Healthy Relationships and Communication looks like. 2025 brings many changes and we want to continue to create a healthy community here in South Lake Tahoe. We want to continue to create healthy habits and build healthy relationships and how we communicate is a big part of it. It is important to know what behaviors are okay in any kind of relationship from love interests to friendships, with parents, and trusted adults. How we communicate can affect our relationships, especially if they are not healthy. We are fortunate to have Live Violence Free (LVF) a local non-profit in our community. LVF is committed to promoting a violence-free community through education and advocacy to address domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and basic needs. They work to empower survivors, elevate their voices, strengthen our community, and stop the cycle of abuse. Check out their website and all the programs at https://liveviolencefree.org/
Let’s Start with what Healthy Friendship Look Like
A friend is an ally; someone who makes your life better just by being in it. But not all friendships are created equal. Some friendships are unhealthy and instead of making you feel amazing and uplifted, they may do something that makes you feel small or insecure. It’s important to talk about healthy and unhealthy friendships. The signs below are behaviors you should strive for in all of your relationships, friendships included. Healthy Signs in a Friendship are:
- They respect your opinions, even when they’re different from yours.
- You can have other friends without them getting jealous or possessive.
- The friendship isn’t only on their terms – you have an equal say in things.
- They’re there for you when you need them.
- They’re not competitive with you.
- They accept you for who you are, and you can always be honest with them.
DID YOU KNOW there are unhealthy signs in relationships?
Healthy relationships bring out the best in you and make you feel good about yourself. A healthy relationship does not mean a “perfect” relationship 100% of the time. Healthy relationships manifest themselves as healthy communication, but to have a healthy relationship, you need to love yourself first. While everyone does unhealthy things sometimes, we can all learn to love better by recognizing unhealthy signs and shifting to healthy behaviors. It’s important not to ignore unhealthy behaviors and understand they can escalate to abuse. If you think you are in a dangerous situation, trust your gut and get help. Here are 10 signs of an unhealthy relationship:
- Intensity: When someone expresses very extreme feelings and over-the top behavior that feels overwhelming.
- Manipulation: When someone tries to control your decisions, actions or emotions.
- Sabotage: When someone purposely ruins your reputation, achievements, or success.
- Guilting: When someone makes you feel responsible for their actions or makes you feel like it’s your job to keep them happy.
- Deflecting Responsibility: When someone repeatedly makes excuses for their unhealthy behavior.
- Possessiveness: When someone is jealous to a point where they try to control who you spend time with and what you do.
- Isolation: When someone keeps you away from friends, family, or other people.
- Belittling: When someone does and says things to make you feel bad about yourself.
- Volatility: When someone has a really strong, unpredictable reaction that makes you feel scared, confused or intimidated.
- Betrayal: When someone is disloyal or acts in an intentionally dishonest way
www.tahoesafekids.org