Relationships with emotional breadcrumbing can be addictive: Here's why

From the thrill of the chase to childhood trauma, here are a few reasons why relationships with emotional breadcrumbing can be very addictive.

Emotional breadcrumbing can be extremely confusing. This happens when one partner in the relationship provides the bare minimum of emotions – not too much to make the relationship healthy, but not too little to make us go. Hence, we get confused in the emotional breadcrumbing and stay back in the relationship trying to seek answers. We also get frustrated, but the bare minimum keeps coming and we learn to settle with that. However, emotional breadcrumbing is a classic red flag in a relationship. It may take us a significant amount of time to understand how breadcrumbing happens to us. "Have you been in relationships where you’re giving and giving but only get emotional breadcrumbs," asked Psychologist Nicole LePera as she explained how emotional breadcrumbing works.

Relationships with emotional breadcrumbing can be addictive: Here's why (Unsplash)

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Ignored and dismissed: in emotional breadcrumbing, we feel ignored and dismissed. Our vulnerabilities and emotions feel disrespected, and we learn to shut down.

Emotionally unavailable: The partner is constantly emotionally unavailable and maintains an unhealthy distance from us and the relationship.

Makes little effort: the partner also makes very little effort to keep the relationship and sees vulnerability and the need for intimacy as signs of weakness.

But why are relationships with emotional breadcrumbing so addictive: The Psychologist shares insights:

Childhood trauma: When we are brought up in dysfunctional homes, we grow up with emotional breadcrumbing from our parents and caregivers. When the similar patterns start to repeat in the relationships, our bodies identify the patterns and try harder to stay back.

We think it's our fault: We try to find faults in us to justify the behavior patterns of the partner. We feel that if we work on ourselves and become better, the partner will show more affection towards us.

The thrill of the chase: A relationship with emotional breadcrumbing is confusing and full of chase. The thrill of the chase makes us keep coming back even when we are unhappy in the relationship.