For some of us, all we know is toxic relationships. Healthy relationships can feel confusing at the start, they make take a lot of extra communication. You might need to run potential hiccups past friends who model good relationships to see if they seem appropriate or not. You might find yourself framing disagreements from the perspective of prior trauma. You might be a little extra sensitive to negative emotions that arise in the relationship.

That’s okay. These things take time. We can continue to work on ourselves, while pursuing healthy relationships.