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My Circle
NOTE: If you are in need of help now, we have provided many resources for you.
Sometimes you can choose who to surround yourself with, and sometimes you can’t. This category is about doing what you can to create a circle of people who support you and doing what you can to support them. Not only does this apply to your friendships, but also in building healthy relationships, both dating and otherwise.
- “A healthy relationship will never require you to sacrifice your friends, your dreams, or your dignity” - Mandy Hale
- “A Healthy relationship is one in which love enriches you, not imprisons you” - Steve Maraboli
- “The only way a relationship will last is if you see it as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take” - Tony Robbins
Healthy vs. Unhealthy Expectations in a Relationship
Healthy
- Having multiple sources for emotional nourishment (I.e. friends, therapy, hobbies)
- Allowing conflict to bring more depth and closeness
- Allowing triggers to be opportunity for growth
- Making space for our partner’s difficult feelings just as much as our own
Unhealthy
- Expecting our partner to tend to all of our emotional needs
- Expecting conflict to never occur
- Expecting our partner to never trigger us
- Expecting our partner to never feel jealous, insecure, or fearful
Videos
Healthy Relationships
Healthy Friendships
Articles
Healthy Relationships
Healthy Friendships
Love is Respect
Love is Respect provides access to the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline, a phone and internet resource operated by the National Domestic Violence Hotline. This helpline and website were designed exclusively for teens so they can contact a trained peer or adult advocate anonymously and confidentially. The helpline and website offer real-time one-on-one support, information, and advocacy to those involved in dating abuse relationships, as well as to concerned parents, teachers, clergy, law enforcement, and service providers.
Seize the Awkward
Seize the Awkward encourages teens and young adults, particularly those ages 16–24, to create a safe space for their friends to open up about mental health challenges. The campaign personifies an awkward silence that can happen between friends before a conversation about mental health.
RAINN
RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network) is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656-HOPE, en español) in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country, and it operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.