Open relationships are a type of status where a couple agrees to be physically and sexually intimate with other people. It can be either a dating or marriage relationship.
An open relationship technically carries the same workload as a monogamous one. As much as it isn’t a new phenomenon, it can be confusing especially to beginners. A real relationship, in general, is filled with many feelings. Open relationships, on the other hand, dictate that you have to keep some of these feelings such as jealousy, love, and resentment under wraps and this disqualifies it from being a real relationship.
These relationships are challenging to maintain due to many setbacks in the agreement. The following are reasons why they don’t work:
It sounds like an excuse to cheat
Open relationships often sound like a unique title given to people who are only interested in hooking up with others without having to risk their relationship or annoy their partners. It is unhealthy as it is abnormal and in the end, will be considered a betrayal.
Unexpected circumstances
Unforeseen incidents may occur in the bedroom leading to unplanned pregnancies or in other cases, the transmission of sexual diseases. If a partner is suddenly faced by such an incident, life changes for everyone, and this makes suck relationships fail.
Surprise feelings such as jealousy
Feelings are normal human emotions when it comes to relationships especially jealousy. Being in an open relationship means confronting the limits of the relationship itself but it is very easy to start comparing yourself to someone else sharing in your lover’s life.
These feelings can take any form such as anger, fear, sadness, envy, or inadequacy and are very overwhelming as they are unexpected.
It is never equal or honest
Open relationships mean coming up with a system or agreement that allows one to moderate their relation with other individuals whether physically or intimacy. It is also an agreement for partners to refrain from exposing too many details about their sexual activities.
However, in such relationships, people assume there will be honesty and each of you will be treated equally by fate but in the real sense, lies, and secrecy dominate as it also tends to favor one partner more than the other. This leads to a deterioration of trust and failure of the agreement.
Self-esteem issues
Your self-esteem is a considerable risk in an open relationship as it leads to slow damage of every boundary available and in the end, your partner may take control and walk all over you. Friends and family may also lose respect for you once they find out what kind of relationship you have with your partner and this might pull you down into depression.
Loss
Individuals in an open relationship tend to form an interdependent network of other open relationships, and thus the change or extermination of one relationship adversely affects another.
Wavering commitment
However good the terms of the agreement may be, it is not peculiar to find one partner more committed to an outside party than to the primary relationship. This may bring forth queries and in the end leads to failure of the relationship.
Final thoughts
Open relationships may seem like an exciting adventure, but in the real sense, they are not for the weak of heart. These types of relationships require one to forego their emotions and feelings, but however much people try, they tend to forget that everyone is human and prone to emotions. This factor, therefore, rules out the possibility of success for open relationships.