Journaling Prompts for Recognizing Toxic Relationship Patterns
Toxic relationship patterns are rarely obvious from the inside—especially when you've grown up around them. What feels familiar can feel like love. What feels like intensity can feel like passion. What is actually control can feel like someone caring deeply. The recognition usually comes slowly: a creeping awareness that something is off, that you're shrinking, that the relationship is costing you more than it gives. Writing can help you see the pattern from the outside, to name what's actually happening, and to start understanding what drew you to it in the first place—without judgment, just honesty.
Journaling Prompts
Describe the dynamic in a relationship—past or present—that you know wasn't healthy. What specifically happened repeatedly? What did it feel like each time, and what story did you tell yourself to stay?
What did this relationship give you that was genuinely good, or that met a real need? Understanding the pull isn't making excuses—it's understanding yourself.
Where does this pattern show up in your history? Is this the first relationship that felt this way, or have there been others with similar dynamics? What does the through-line look like?
What would a relationship where you felt consistently safe, respected, and like yourself actually look like? Write that out in specific, concrete terms—not as a fantasy, but as a standard.
What would you have to believe about your own worth to leave—or to stop recreating—this kind of relationship? What is currently making that belief feel out of reach?