How do you know whether you should break up with someone and pursue other possibilities? What signs indicate that your relationship is over? For instance, lack of communication (or even outright conflict) to no intimacy, fantasizing about others, or inability to imagine a future with your partner. In this article, we will show you how to tell if a relationship is over, so read on to find out more!
How Do You Know It Is Over in a Relationship? 7 Warning Signs
Whether you are dating someone for just a couple of weeks or you can count years together, some signs can tell you your relationship is, sooner or later, over. Some of them are subtle; others are outright visible—you need to be able to recognize both. What are they? Here’s our list.
1. Lack of Communication or Confrontational Communication
The first warning sign indicating that your relationship is over is quite simple: you no longer communicate with your partner. This could take several forms, for instance:
- you don’t want to talk to them about your problems and look for solutions together,
- either one of you is extremely confrontational when communicating with each other.
2. Fantasizing About Others Too Much
Fantasizing about others is natural—everybody does it to some extent. However, if you do this too much, that’s a sign that your relationship is over.
To understand this better, try asking yourself questions like:
- Do I fantasize about just sex or a whole relationship?
- Does fantasizing feel natural, or does it make me guilty?
- Do my fantasies distract me from my partner?
Did you answer most of the above questions yes (apart from the one about it feeling natural)? If so, it is probably time to end your relationship.
3. Not Imagining a Future Together
How else can you tell that your relationship is over? One powerful sign is that you cannot imagine a future with your partner. Naturally, we don’t mean not thinking about the future at all; not everybody likes planning years in advance, and that’s fine. But, if the topic of your shared future appears and you see no scenario in which it works out, you’re probably right, and it doesn’t, so… why stay when you’re just not into it?
4. No Intimacy
One of the subconscious signs telling you it’s time to break up is you are not striving for intimacy and physical contact with your partner. This can occur naturally when both you and your partner grow apart; you might not see it at the beginning, but after some time, neither of you wants to…touch each other, not to mention more intimate gestures. If this happens, it’s time to reevaluate your relationship and think about ending it.
5. Different Goals
You don’t have to have the same exact goals as your partner; after all, you are different. But if your goals are completely contradictory, it’s good grounds for conflict in the future, and it might eventually lead to a bad breakup.
Even if you have an overabundance of love, you must head in at least more-or-less the same direction. Otherwise, you’ll start to grow apart (trying to pursue your individual goals) or even become unhappy (compromising your goal to satisfy your partner).
6. You Don’t Trust Each Other
Sometimes, you might have a good reason to lose trust, but you’ll rebuild it with time. However, if you stop trusting your partner without any specific cause or you see that you’re not rebuilding your trust… it might be time to break up.
Trust is the basis of any long-lasting relationship. If you don’t trust each other in your relationship, this means that other signs from our list will appear sooner or later; it’s over.
7. Your Instinct Tells You It’s Over
Finally, whether it’s a casual or serious relationship, you mustn’t ignore the most important sign that it is over-your instinct telling you so. There’s a quite good reason for that.
We often send and receive many signals unconsciously. Your instinct suggesting that it’s over is your brain grasping those unconscious signals and making a conclusion based on them. Hence, you should not ignore your intuition, as it is often right.
The Takeaway
You know how to tell whether it is over in a relationship… and that’s good! This way, you can stay true to yourself and stop wasting time. Difficult as it may seem, breakups can be a really good thing for you and your partner, especially if your relationship is not heading in the direction it should be.
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