Stress not only hurts the stressed person but also those around them. If you are stressed, you can be sure it affects your loved ones. Now you have two problems: your stress and its impact on the important people in your life. Something that can greatly reduce stress is vulnerability. Sharing what you feel brings you closer to your loved ones and helps them empathize with you. As a result, your stress may become a way to get closer to those you love.

One factor that often attracts people romantically is their differences. When these differences are not too extreme, individuals may feel drawn to partners who complement them in ways that are opposite. For example, an introverted person may feel attracted to an extrovert, and someone who speaks little may be drawn to a more talkative partner. However, cultural differences can sometimes create challenges in romantic relationships.

People who grow up with different customs and learn to express love in specific ways within their family of origin may feel unloved or unimportant when their partner shows affection differently. As a result, they may pressure their partner to change to align with their own customs, and wonder why the partner resists. This resistance is often interpreted as a lack of love rather than a difference in emotional expression.

If you have a loved one who has an addiction, you might have realized a long time ago that you feel disconnected from that person. You might seek their attention and protest the distance. However, they resist your plea for connection, and they make their addiction their priority. This causes you to feel secondary, unimportant, and abandoned. You noticed that your loved one prefers the addiction to you.

Addiction is where people go when they feel disconnected. The pain of being disconnected from a loved one is too big for someone to face. To cope with the loneliness caused by the disconnection, people seek an alternative that ends up becoming an addiction. After a while, the person gets attached to the addiction and no longer connects to a human being.

In this episode of Thriving Your Love, we try to help you see that you can find the way back to human connection. Even though you might be afraid of being let down or hurt, nothing will give your life more meaning and purpose than connecting with your loved one. If you look around, you'll notice someone is asking for your attention and feeling deprived of you. They fight for your emotional presence because they love you and they think you're worthy of fighting for.