There have been plenty of times I wondered if my relationship status affects my well-being. If we have a strong partnership with anyone then it can certainly help us avoid sickness, start healthier habits, and perhaps even extend our life.

Bad relationships though tend to create stress and weaken immunity.

Psychologist Mary Ann Troiani, co-author of Spontaneous Optimism, says “So many factors affect our health, whether it’s the behaviors we exhibit toward each other or the habits that we pass on to each other.

Here are a few ways your romantic life can influence your mind and body.

1. Starting to Gain Weight

It’s a casual belief that partners “let go” after pairing with someone. According to a study in 2012, people gain weight as they relax into a marriage and the weight begins to decline towards a marriage’s end.

On the other hand, happy couples can inspire each other to remain healthy. They will often go to the gym together, start goals, and take responsibility for one another. When couples start gaining weight it’s usually due to conflict within the relationship. Being unsatisfied in a relationship can start good or strong or weak eating habits and insomnia.

2. Stress

Without surprise, consistent physical intimacy appears to lower stress and boost good health. People who have sex on a casual basis are healthier mentally and likely to show greater satisfaction with their partnership and overall life.

Sex is just a single part of a relationship though. Your mate’s behavior when not in the bedroom can make stress-levels skyrocket. More frequently, problems exist through parental disputes, financial disagreements, or simply the load of household chores. All these things can increase stress.

3. Great Hormones

Luckily sex isn’t the only physical action that can lower stress and improve health. A 2004 study states that 38 couples were tested and found that men and women, alike, had higher blood levels of oxytocin after a hug. Oxytocin is a hormone that is believed to ease stress and show mood improvements. The women of the study had lower blood pressure after a hug, and lower stress.

Certain types of behaviors that help overcome stress and anxiety are: holding hands, massages, and a simple hand on the shoulder. It only takes a few moments of these actions to stimulate the hormones that help overcome anxiety and stress.

4. Sleeping Issues

Sleeping with someone you are intimate with and that you trust, will help you relax and invite sleep. The only exceptions to this are if your partner snores or tosses and turns. People who deal with this are likely to suffer from being tired and restlessness if their mate suffers from insomnia.

There are also lesser direct methods concerning relationships that affect sleep as well. Study shows that insecurity in a relationship or issues can be associated with restless sleep.

5. Anxiety

The difficulties of a relationship are enough to send anyone over the edge. In some instances they also contribute to anxiety. Studies show that there is a connection between marital problems and a higher risk of diagnoses of anxiety.

The connections are often difficult to untangle, but since anxiety is known to create relationship problems. Some research says that marriage helps protect against anxiety. More studies say that 35,000 people of fifteen countries, those that were married were less likely to develop anxiety or mental disorders of other types.

6. Depression

Since anxiety is very much linked to depression it only makes sense that relationships have the ability to affect depression. Studies have shown that in long-term relationships and in marriage, this can help the symptoms of a background of depression.

Bad relationships have shown to increase the chance of clinical depression. If a partner is unfaithful or a marriage is falling apart it is likely it will cause clinical depression

Copyright: Dream Humanity