Being in an unhealthy relationship can affect all areas of your life. In my case, it negatively affected my grades in school, my performance on the football field, my mood which hurt my relationship with my family. Jealously, lack of trust and the use of “because I love you” to manipulate the other person will make both people in the relationship miserable and will usually end the relationship in time. I tried everything I knew to do to make the relationship work, but she let the baggage she carried from her terrible home-life weigh us both down. She wouldn’t let me help her. Since she couldn’t control her life at home, she wanted to control everything about our relationship. When I would say something like “I want to help you get through this because I love you so much,” she would come back with something like “you out to pay more attention to me and spend more time with me because you love me.”

Because I love you…should be used to instill confidence in a relationship, to help it grow. I believe that the main foundation for a romantic relationship is unconditional love. The floor is faithfulness and trust. The walls are patience, tenderness, understanding and honesty. The roof is a commitment, a vow, a promise you make to always be there for one another. The phrase “Because I love you” should not be used as a plot to manipulate someone to keep a relationship going when it is no good. “Because I love you” should be meant in a way to prompt a sense of joy and fulfillment into a relationship and make it stronger and happier. A phrase I would probably use with my current girlfriend would be, “because I love you, I would never change a thing about you.”