Is it normal to feel vulnerable in a relationship

Ever felt terrified to tell a boyfriend or girlfriend how much you needed their help or support? Maybe it was you who bounced on a partner or friend when their needs felt too overwhelming. All of these reactions can arise when we feel vulnerable in relationships, explains Geraldine Piorkowski , Ph. Often, she says, because we fear having our deepest desires trampled upon, rejected, or unfulfilled. While this is sometimes scary, it is precisely what enables us to enrich our lives and grow.

Because the list of what we potentially lay ourselves bare to in relationships is endless—rejection, attack, lack of reciprocity, betrayal, or the loss our own autonomy, just to name a few—even the securest of people can feel a bit upended when forming romantically charged bonds. Development and validation of the Emotional Intimacy Scale. Journal of nursing measurement, , May. Unfortunately, our fears of vulnerability are surprisingly common and heavily influenced by the earliest relationships we had.

The more predictable, loving, and stable our relationships were with our parents, teachers, and friends as we grew up, the fewer apprehensions we have around letting others in once we become adults, research suggests.

But if we were deprived of adequate attention, given mixed messages, or abandoned in our early years, we tend to expect the same painful treatment from everyone else in the world—especially those we fall in love with, Simpson says. We become dependent on other people, and it is difficult for us to avoid this. Vulnerability issues in relationships. For most of us, the word vulnerability means being naive, gullible, almost a child in certain circumstances.

It is the only way to survive. The truth is that we are all vulnerable, no matter how hard we try to hide or disguise it. Thus, your communication improves, relations become strong and healthy. A happy and healthy romantic and intimate relationship is impossible without vulnerability. After all, if you are closed to each other, then what kind of proximity can we talk about? The vulnerability allows us to be more honest and natural towards other people. And this is the path to harmony both with the world around us and with ourselves.

Look at the people around you. Who of them shows their vulnerability? Learn from them. Spending time with emotionally open and vulnerable people, you not only increase the level of your spiritual comfort but also build an interpersonal security system that allows you to share feelings more openly. If you find it difficult to open up, remember that you are not alone. Vulnerability is considered a key element in healthy, full-fledged relationships.

But in practice, everything is not so simple. What does it mean to be vulnerable in a relationship? People need relationships, but we are afraid to open up and hurt ourselves. Studies show that vulnerability the ability to be open is the secret of rapprochement. When you do this, it allows your partner to get to see the real you. This means that you hide anything neither from yourself nor from your partner.

It is one of the examples of vulnerability in relationships. If someone is really terrible at something, there is nothing worse than when they brag about how good they are at that.

But if someone admits that they are not so good at something, most likely, they will be respected for admitting it. Some people always blame others for their failures. Men blame their exes for failed relationships.

Some women blame men for all their problems because they are all jerks. But if you are feeling vulnerable in a relationship, you are not trying to blame someone for something that is not working out. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance.

Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. And for some people, this comes naturally—they can bubble up and overflow with personal insights, happily sharing them with someone they hardly know in order to form a deep connection with another person. But for others Although opening yourself up to another person is an amazing experience that allows you to create real intimacy, it can also be terrifying.

Opening yourself up to someone means making yourself vulnerable and, for some of us, that doesn't come very easily. Pent-up jealousy does no favors for your wellbeing or the strength of your relationship. This could lead to more open dialogue between the two of you, which puts you on the fast track to feeling more comfortable in your relationship. Feeling occasionally awkward or uneasy in a relationship might not sound like a fairytale romance.

But actually, these more challenging emotions can bring you two even closer together. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, call or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1 SAFE or visit thehotline.

Dawn Maslar , love and dating expert. Laura F. Dabney, MD , psychiatrist and relationship therapist. Nicole Richardson , relationship therapist. This article was originally published on By Lauren Martin and Hannah Kerns.

Updated: June 25,