On-off relationships bad for mental health

Breaking up is famously hard to do. It can be so hard to call it quits that we sometimes fall into the trap of on-again, off-again relationships, in which we are locked in a vicious cycle of breaking up and making up with the same person. Unfortunately, a new study says that kind of cycle is really bad for your mental health as well as your heart.

“A pattern of breaking up and getting back together with the same partner — what we refer to as ‘relationship cycling’ — was associated with increased symptoms of depression and anxiety,” said study co-author Kale Monk, an assistant professor of human development and family science at the University of Missouri, according to Time. “We know that breakups are upsetting in-and-of themselves, but this distress is considered normal and is often temporary. However, a tumultuous pattern of stressful transitions in and out of the same relationship might have more pervasive implications for our well-being.”

The study, published in the journal Family Relations, researched 545 people in romantic relationships and asked about their levels of anxiety and depression, as well as whether (and how often) they had broken up and gotten back together with a partner.

Those who had on again, off again romances were more likely to suffer from psychological distress, even after accounting for other factors that can influence mental health. The more on-off cycles a person ex- periences, the larger the increases in depression and anxiety seemed to be, according to the study.