How To Stop Being Insecure In A Relationship?

 / 

, ,
Stop Being Insecure In A Relationship

Even if a person is loved unconditionally, they find themselves feeling jealous in their relationships. So, how to stop being insecure in a relationship? Read more to know.

Why do people manipulate others? Is it because they’re an asshole? Is it because they need to feel powerful?

I manipulated an ex-girlfriend once. Years ago, when I was in a toxic relationship with someone I loved, I lied to get a reaction out of her. I told her I was going to watch her soccer game, but I never showed. It was something very out of character for me to do.

When she confronted me on it, I told her I was busy talking with someone else. Even when I wasn’t. I mislead her to believe I was with another girl. She was devastated and hurt. She was sick to her stomach. I felt justified.

Throughout the year of our relationship, I always was feeling insecure that I was investing more into our relationship than she was. I never felt like a priority in her life. It felt like she had a secret life, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that she did. I wanted the security that she’d be with me, but she never seemed to care enough to give me the reassurance in the way I needed it.

I didn’t trust her, but I was obsessed. So I lied because I wanted her to feel the same way I felt. I felt neglected. Confused. Sick to my stomach.

Related: 6 Telltale Signs Of The Most Toxic Relationship Of All

I lied to prove that she cared about me. My lying to her proved that she did. But it also created an argument that ended our relationship forever. So why did I do it?

How To Stop Being Insecure In A Relationship?

Our relationship was a classic toxic relationship. Something would happen in my life and I’d seek closeness to her. She would reject me. She would tell me I was “too needy” or “too sensitive.” Her need for distance would push me away during the times I needed reassurance. Like all toxic relationships, this only amplified my anxiety and insecurity.

How To Stop Being Insecure In A Relationship?
How To Stop Feeling Insecure In A Relationship: Anxious Lover

So I would behave in batshit crazy ways to reconnect with her. I would do anything and everything I could to get the reassurance I wanted in the relationship. This only caused her to push me away even farther, neglecting my needs.

Extensive research on intimate relationships has shown that people behave in very predictable ways when we are in love. The toxic relationship I’m describing above is a typical avoidant and anxious relationship.

These types of relationships are full of ambiguity. The avoidant partner sends mixed signals about their commitment to the relationship. They may say they are committed, but their actions make you feel differently. You are left guessing. And every time you get a mixed message, like me, you become preoccupied with the relationship.

Even though you know it’s not healthy, you can’t seem to stop thinking about them. Friendships, hobbies, and career opportunities fall to the wayside.

Next thing you know, you’re doing the craziest things just to reconnect with them. Even if you know it’s unhealthy. This could be driving by their house or snooping through their phone.

We often seek relationships that confirm our self-views and run away from those that don’t. Like many anxious lovers, I believed that I was too much for my lover. Below you can see how clear my relationship reinforces this.

Related: 3 Betrayals That Ruin Relationships (That Aren’t Infidelity)

5 Major Differences That Make A Relationship Toxic

Anxious LoverAvoidant Lover
You crave closeness and intimacyThey want distance – emotional and/or physical
You are highly sensitive to any signs of rejection or threat to the relationshipThey often send mixed signals that come across as rejecting
You find it difficult to express to them what you need and what’s bothering you (indirect communication), and use crazy behavior insteadThey are terrible at reading your verbal and nonverbal cues. They don’t think it’s their responsibility to do so
You need to feel loved and be reassured that they love youThey put you down to create distance as a way to deal with their own insecurity about closeness
You desperately want to know where you stand in the relationshipThey prefer to keep things fuzzy. Even in a serious relationship, questions still remain
How To Be Less Insecure In A Relationship?

Not such a healthy relationship, huh?

So why was I so obsessed with her? Why couldn’t I move on, even though I know I should?

Because my beliefs about myself reinforced my insecurity. Like 25% of the population, the life experience of an anxious lover have taught us that we are unworthy of love. We often blame ourselves for the lack of responsiveness from those we love. It reinforces our feelings of unworthiness.

Any negative feelings we have about the relationship are turned inward. We put our partners on a pedestal and we make extreme compromises to keep the relationship.

This is why we quickly become relationship chameleons or use sex to validate our worth. At the heart of it, we don’t believe we are good enough to be loved, so we adapt rather quickly. In my relationship above, I quickly adopted my girlfriend’s vegan lifestyle habits.

Anxious lovers often use their adaptability to pick up new hobbies, values, or passions that bring them closer to our partners, even if they don’t care about it.

Related: Relationship Anxiety: What To Do If You’re Afraid To Lose Her?

I’m not vegan now. I only did it because she cared about it and I thought it was a way to bring me closer to her. I was unaware of that at the time, though.

Eventually, we lose ourselves in the relationship. What happens next? Our partners stop finding us attractive. We are no longer the person they fell in love with. We are a copycat version of them.

So how can we keep our sense of self? How can we stop hiding our true feelings in fear of rejection? After all, it is our fear of rejection that causes us to tolerate behavior that makes us feel insecure in the first place.

Two roads to stop being an anxious lover
How To Not Be Insecure In A Relationship? Relationship Insecurity

Two Roads Diverged

And I took the safer one

And it has made all the difference.

There are two separate roads that lead to a feeling of security in our relationships. The first route is to find a healthy lover. Someone who offers reassurance when we are feeling insecure. Someone who isn’t afraid of intimacy and will get as close as we want.

Related: 3 Mind Games Men Feeling Insecure Play In Relationships

The Secure & Anxious Lover Relationship

Anxious LoverSecure Lover
You crave intimacy and closenessThey are comfortable with closeness and don’t try to push you away
You are highly sensitive to signs of rejection, feeling insecure or threat to the relationshipThey are reliable and don’t send mixed messages that will upset you. If you become upset, they will give you the reassurance you need
You find it difficult to express what you need and what’s bothering you. You tend to use crazy behavior rather than vulnerable communicationThey view your well-being as a top priority and do their best to understand your verbal and nonverbal indicators that something is bothering you
You need the reassurance that you’re lovedThey feel comfortable expressing how they feel consistently
You need to know exactly where the relationship standsThey are very stable and are comfortable with commitment

If an avoidant were to read this, they’d say something like, “I do give him reassurance, but it’s never enough. He keeps needing it! It’ll never stop and it’s exhausting.” While that may feel true to most of us, it’s not. Once we get the security that our partner is invested into our relationship and cares about our well-being, we actually turn our attention outside the relationship.

Related: 14 Personality Traits Necessary To Have A Secure Attachment Style

We go on to start businesses. We take on new hobbies. This called the dependency paradox of relationships. Over time our beliefs slowly change, and we stop feeling insecure, worrying because we get the reassurance we truly need on a consistent and reliable basis.

We stop fearing that our partner finds us overbearing. We stop behaving in ways that avoid conflict to get reassurance. [1. Anxious lovers often avoid conflict or compromise to gain reassurance that their partner will stay with them, even at the cost of things they deeply care about.] We actually tell our partner what is bothering us, because we know they care enough to work with us during a fight to make things better.

The problem is we find those secure individuals to be repulsive. They make us feel calm because they are direct, vulnerable, and honest about what they feel. This doesn’t match our beliefs.

Our life experiences have confused our insecurity, uncertainty, and anxiety in our prior relationships for passion. So when we are faced with someone who is comfortable with closeness and is direct about what they want, we push them away.

Instead, we fall for someone who is emotionally unavailable. Someone who makes us uncertain. Someone who pushes us away at the very moment we need closeness. Someone who implements a “no-contact” rule for a week or months. Someone who treats us like our needs don’t matter. Reinforcing the belief that we are too much to be loved.

So when we find ourselves in the middle of this road, still struggling to find that secure partner, we need to stop. We need to turn around and walk back to the intersection of the two roads in the woods. Now, we need to not take the road less traveled, but the safest road possible.

But that safe road looks ugly. It’s bumpy and muddy.

As we look down the road, we know that the journey ahead is going to be hard. After all, we are literally killing beliefs that kept us in toxic relationships in our past. But the only way is through.

We must walk through the self-doubts, the insecurities, and the beliefs that tell us we are not good enough to be loved. We must stand face to face with our anxiety and give it a hug. We must learn to love and respect ourselves enough to stop tolerating shitty relationships and find one that makes us feel happy, cared about, and deeply fulfilled.

Changing Your Beliefs

When I tell people that they need to work on themselves, they get excited. They get busy taking on new hobbies, going to events, and they feel so much better. They tell me they are finally independent and happy.

I respond with a smile and say, “I’m happy for you. When you get into a relationship, let me know how it is going after three months.” They walk away with a bounce in their step, believing they have just changed their relationships forever.

Related: How Spiritual Beliefs Differ Around the World

Three months later I’ll get an email. “Kyle, what am I doing wrong? My partner isn’t as passionate with me. They implemented a no-contact rule. I want to marry them. I want them to want me the way I want them. How can I do this?”

While their independence adventure did feel amazing, it did very little. The beliefs we form in our relationships about ourselves can only be changed in different relationships. Secure relationships. And when we struggle to find a healthy lover, the path requires us to find secure individuals to help us.

Overcoming Insecurities In A Relationship: Anxious Lover

These secure relationships don’t need to be romantic. But you need to focus on your romantic beliefs. This can be a close friend, a therapist, or a coach. My therapist and a close friend was how I changed my beliefs and eventually attracted a secure partner who I trust and deeply care about.

We dissected my core beliefs about myself. We swam in the sea of my insecurity. We climbed the mountain of my unworthiness. We watch the memory of how I communicated with ex-lovers so I could prime my brain to communicate in a better way. I learned to communicate in a vulnerable, honest way that gave my lover an opportunity to be herself. It wasn’t fun doing the work I did. But it was worth it.

Understanding the attachment science of love has improved many areas of my life.

Related: 3 Ways Your Attachment Style Decides The Success Of Your Relationship

Ultimately our relationships shape how we feel about ourselves. And as you’ve read, specific relationships create specific reactions from people that is than interpreted in ways that reinforce our internal beliefs about ourselves.

The research shows that secure relationships create healthier and happier individuals. Those individuals create a deeply meaningful relationships. Ones that make them feel cared about and happy. If that’s something you want, then you’re going to have to dive deep within yourself to create an internal revolution. A revolution that will forever change the way you love.

Consistent problems with our relationships are often indicative of consistent problems we have with ourselves. Therefore, untangling our relationship issues requires a deep exploration into our own personal psychology and what makes us, us.

This is not a journey for lighthearted. It takes depth. Vulnerability. And personal growth. But while the road may be hard, it is completely worth it. After all, don’t you want the greatest gift life can offer? A healthy relationship.

How did you stop feeling insecure in the relationship? Leave a comment below.

Overcoming Insecurities In A Relationship

If you want to learn more about overcoming insecurities in a relationship here’s a video below

If you’d like to learn more about Attachment Theory, you can read my 18 Attachment Theory articles here. I also recommend reading the following books (Attached, Wired For Love, and Love Sense).


This article was originally published on KyleBenson.net.

Want to work on your relationship beliefs? Download the Change Your Beliefs, Get The Relationship You Deserve in my Passionate Relationship toolkit.

feeling insecure
Being Insecure In A Relationship: The Anxious Lover
How To Stop Feeling Insecure In A Relationship
Anxious Lover: Overcoming Insecurities In A Relationship
Stop Being Insecure In A Relationship pin

— Share —

— About the Author —

Leave a Reply



Up Next

Who Is A Dismissive Avoidant? 10 Behavioral Traits and their Ghosting Phenomenon Explained

Who Is A Dismissive Avoidant? Signs Of Dismissive Ghosting

Have you ever felt like someone was so into you one minute and then vanished from the face of the earth? Hate to break it to you, but you were not just ghosted, you were “dismissive avoidant” ghosted. It’s a relationship magic trick, and definitely not the fun kind. So who is a dismissive avoidant and what is dismissive avoidant ghosting, really?

This type of ghosting comes from a place where independence is key and emotional closeness feels threatening. If you can picture someone building an invisible fortress around themselves and darting away when things get too real, that’s dismissive avoidant attachment right there.



Up Next

Why You’re Attracted To Certain People? Exploring the Science of Human Chemistry

Why You're Attracted To Certain People: Types Of Attraction

Attraction is a complex aspect of human relationships that plays an important role in shaping our romantic endeavors. Understanding why you’re attracted to certain people can offer valuable insights into your personality, experiences, and emotional needs.

Whether drawn to intelligence, kindness, or shared interests, your attractions are windows into your desires and aspirations.

From the subtle nuances to the unmistakable preferences, the different types of attraction weaves a story that reflects the threads of your inner self.



Up Next

Disorganized Attachment In Relationships: 10 Signs To Look Out For

Signs Of Disorganized Attachment In Relationships

Relationships can be complex and sometimes leave us feeling confused and emotionally overwhelmed. Have you ever experienced a rollercoaster of mixed signals and conflicting emotions with your partner? Do you find yourself wanting closeness one moment and pushing them away the next? If these questions resonate with you, you may be dealing with disorganized attachment in relationships.

In this article, we will explore disorganized attachment style, what causes disorganized attachment, signs, and impact on relationships. By understanding disorganized attachment style, you can begin to unravel the complexities that hinder your ability to form secure and harmonious connections.



Up Next

Unpacking Parentification Trauma: The Burden of Growing Up Too Soon

What Is Parentification Trauma? Seven Types, Effects and Healing

The excitement of childhood is beautiful, when your biggest worry was whether your favorite cartoon was on TV. Some kids don’t have a childhood as carefree. Parentification trauma becomes a real issue when a child is thrust into the shoes of a grown-up.

The child takes on responsibilities beyond their years. It’s like playing a role in a movie you didn’t audition for. This is the reality for those who’ve experienced the issue – a lesser-known yet impactful challenge that shapes lives in unexpected ways.

What is Parentification Trauma?

It might be your question, though–what is parentification trauma? The trauma occurs when a child is placed in a role that reverses their expected position within the family dynamic.



Up Next

Healing Attachment Wounds: 6 Strategies For Overcoming Insecure Anxious Attachment In Adults

Anxious Attachment In Adults: Six Ways To Overcome And Heal

Anxious attachment in adults is a result of negative attachment between parents and children, in childhood. This post is going to delve deep into the insecure anxious attachment style, how insecure anxious attachment in adults work, and how to overcome anxious attachment.

A childhood characterized by healthy, supportive parenting – in other words, secure attachment – is the foundation for calm and confident adulthood.

What Causes Anxious Attachment In Adults?

If you suffer from chronic anxiety you already know it’s a negative and und



Up Next

What Is An Inter-Intimate Relationship? 5 Signs To Know If You Are In One

What Is An Inter-Intimate Relationship? Five Signs

There are countless ways we express love, and we all have different needs for emotional and physical intimacy. Some couples struggle with mismatched desire, while others might find themselves in what they call “inter-intimate relationships”.

Do you find yourself in this situation? If yes, don’t worry; you’re not alone! Let’s explore how to find a balance and make it work together.

What Is An Inter-Intimate Relationship?



Up Next

Need More Affection In A Relationship? 10 Signs You Or Your Partner May Be Suffering From Touch Starvation

Ten Clear Signs Of Touch Starvation In A Relationship

From warm hugs to gentle handshakes, touch has the incredible power to connect us and make us feel alive. But what happens when we don’t get enough of it? That’s where touch starvation, also known as affection deprivation or skin hunger, comes into play.

It might sound surprising, but touch starvation is a real thing, and it can have a significant impact on our overall wel