Doubts are normal in relationships, but persistent doubts might signal deeper incompatibility or that your partner may not be right for you. It's not uncommon for my clients to ask, with desperation in their eyes, “Should I end this relationship? How do I know if I should end it?”

No one can answer this question but you. And how annoying that is is not lost on me. It’s human to want to skirt responsibility for our choices, to avoid the pain we may face if we end up feeling we made the wrong decision. There’s little that feels more relieving than having someone else to blame for the way your life is going, and little more uncomfortable than knowing that you are responsible for your own life choices. And the question of who you should spend your life with couldn’t be more important: Decades of research show that the quality of our close relationships is the single most powerful predictor of a healthy, happy life, surpassing factors like smoking status, physical activity, and nutrition (Vaillant, Harvard Study of Adult Development). The stakes are high.

From my work as a couples therapist, I've observed patterns that help reveal whether a relationship has the potential to create mutual

© Psychology Today