Irina Zhuravleva

Many of you have shared that lately you’ve been feeling a hollow kind of ache, especially around the holidays — a blend of sadness and...

Have you ever been in a relationship where one moment everything feels warm and close, and the next your partner seems to withdraw without warning?...

Some readers have voiced concern that these messages underplay the gravity of marital commitment, so let it be stated plainly: the bond of marriage deserves...

When someone you care about begins to pull away, your first instinct is often to read that distance as rejection. You start to doubt yourself...

I’m noticing a troubling pattern in relationships: too often people fall into one of two harmful habits — they either minimize their partner’s pain or...

What unfolds when one person lives in constant fear of losing love while the other fears being tied down? This isn’t merely a rhetorical flourish...

If you are one of the many people carrying the lasting effects of childhood abuse or neglect, I want you to know that you’ve likely...

They disappear like hoarfrost under a sudden sun, leaving you staring into an unnerving quiet, wondering whether the connection ever existed. Why do avoidant partners...

People often teach that relationships should be rooted in selflessness, and there is truth in that—yet a crucial question remains: when does giving turn harmful?...

Begin with a common misconception. When someone pulls away—stops replying to messages, goes quiet after a night of closeness, or physically leans back in a...

A pathological narcissist can make you feel exalted one moment and then discard you the next over the smallest perceived slight, and afterward they’ll turn...

When my marriage began to crumble and we started seeing a counselor together, one comment she made cut straight to the heart of things. She...

Have you ever bent over backward for a man — agreed to things you secretly opposed, dropped everything at the slightest call, or stayed silent...

I used to fall into the habit of apologizing almost immediately, and while that might seem considerate at first glance, it often creates problems. Rushing...

Understanding disorganized (fearful-avoidant) attachment Disorganized attachment develops when a child’s caregiver was both a source of comfort and a source of fear — for example,...

It’s predictable: whenever someone offers relationship advice, there’s always that comment — “That won’t help with narcissists; empathy, kindness, and love don’t work on them.”...

Limerence strikes me as almost a metaphysical phenomenon; it winds itself through the wreckage of family breakdowns. It’s an obsessive, high-intensity fixation on people you...

Many people ask which exact method I used to soothe my nervous system and heal the lingering effects of childhood PTSD. If you’ve seen my...

They walk away and then silence falls. You check their social feeds and see them seemingly fine — maybe even freer and happier. They drink...

Here’s the single moment that tends to devastate someone with an avoidant attachment style — and why that same moment can feel like liberation for...

Being betrayed by infidelity and dishonesty is devastating. Has this happened to you? What makes it so bewildering is that betrayal can creep into relationships...

Being ignored by someone, especially by someone who matters to you, cuts in a way that’s hard to describe. It’s not a physical blow or...

This is not love — and I’ll state that up front without beating around the bush. The intense magnetic pull, the fixation on someone who...

Okay, here’s the situation: everyone is fixated on spotting red flags — narcissism, avoidance, gaslighting — wondering whether their partner is secretly manipulating them. That...