Wow, Wendy. Your articles offer me more insight than six months of therapy. Thank you for another great one.

The section you wrote on expecting things in return — This really hit home for me. I had never found myself score carding in healthy relationships, but I did in the last one. And the more he did not reciprocate my efforts of cooking, cleaning his apartment, buying him gifts, spending all my free time with him, etc., the harder I tried. Eventually, I spoke up and communicated how much giving I was doing and how much taking he was doing. But by then, it was too late.

People are a lot like dogs. If you train a dog that they can piss on the carpet for months….it is going to get a lot harder to break that habit. So I just wanted to add for anyone who also has a hard time asking for their needs to be met; if you feel a relationship is lopsided, say something BEFORE it becomes too late.