Breaking Free From Willful Emotional Neglect in a Relationship

👉 In this powerful video, Teal Swan delves into the hidden pain of emotional neglect - a relationship dynamic she argues is even more damaging than overt physical abuse. Through vivid examples, Teal illustrates the lose-lose trap victims face and the psychological toll it takes. She distinguishes between willful and unintentional neglect, and outlines steps to break free, heal, and get your needs met.

While not easy, Teal offers hope and guidance for those starving for affection in their relationships. If you've ever felt neglected, anxious, and desperately alone despite being with someone, this is a must-watch to help you understand what's really going on and empower yourself to change it.

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👉 Who Is Teal Swan?
Teal Swan is a New Thought Leader, Bestselling Author, and Speaker. She was born with a range of extrasensory abilities and is a survivor of severe childhood abuse. Today she uses her gifts as well as her own harrowing life experience to inspire millions of people towards authenticity, freedom, and joy and teaching people how to transform their emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual pain.

The result when people are restored to wholeness is that the world will be restored to wholeness. Teal Swan's teachings invite people to step fully into their authenticity, knowing that this will bring about the positive change that we want to see in the world.

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Beginning and Ending Song:
Teal Swan Intro by Christian De Raco

[Brandi.]

Teal, you should create a dating app just for people who follow you and are interested in the inner work needed to have and grow in healthy relationships.

[maevahernandez]

THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN LIVING ALL OF MY LIFE. THIS FEELS LIKE A PERSONAL READING. OMFG.

[celestehernandez]

I have recently discovered that emotional neglect is the root of most of my life’s problems. I wondered for so long what was wrong with me. I hate how invisible emotional neglect is. Everything looks so perfect on the outside but I have always felt so empty.
Thank you, Teal. ❤

[KayStevensScholerNPC]

***6 full years, every 3 months of asking, pleading, talking….before I finally filed for divorce. I stayed for 20 years and tried REALLY hard to work it out for my children…it was a decade ago, and this is the first time I’ve understood what was really going on.

[clouddancer]

1. Accept that the person will likely continue to neglect you emotionally and take no responsibility for your well-being.

2. Focus on tending to your own needs and seek support from others who can provide emotional nourishment. This means prioritizing self-care and seeking help from people who are available and willing to support you.

3. Refuse to be the scapegoat and maintain pressure on the person to take responsibility for their apathy and lack of effort in the relationship. Make it clear that a good relationship requires emotional ownership and that you will not settle for less.

Remember, these steps are not a strategy to change the other person, but rather a way to protect yourself from further emotional harm.

[mariekizzia]

The most devastating thing to me is to be told by my husband that I am in the wrong for asking for attention or support or anything.

[annikabirgittanordlander]

”Emotional neglect is a lack of all of the things that a person needs to feel emotionally good in a relationship and therefore, a lack of a great deal of what a person needs in life to feel emotionally good (because your quality of life is down to the quality of your relationships). It is the affection that isn’t shown. The presence that isn’t granted. The absence of emotional support. The withdrawal of attention. The protection that isn’t being given. The ignoring of needs. The expectation that you meet your needs yourself. The deficiency of nurturing. The total refusal to seek or grant understanding. The disengagement. The indifference that is being demonstrated. The apathy towards the other person and towards the relationship. The emotional dismissal. The unavailability. The disconnection etc”. Teal Swan 🌎 thank you Teal for talking about this 😘

[dreammatrix]

I wish i had someone tell me this decades ago. Spent 28 years in misery with my ex before finally realizing he was the problem, not me. I thought i was losing it.

[empowerment.artist]

"I don't have the energy to be there for you" and shortly after, I was OUT! Afterwards, I realized how the relationship with him had hurt me and I had to realize he didn't have energy to comfort me through the pain HE was causing me😅

After letting people go, and tending to my own needs, I feel at peace. I will never allow codependency-addiction into my life ever again.

It will only be lonely for a while until I attract new people into my life. But you know, nothing is as lonely as being lonely with people, right?

Never felt better❤ This pattern is OVER. People have to deserve to be with me.

[vectorair]

Holy crap. This is EXACTLY what I have been experiencing in my marriage for at least the past 10 years. The torment, suffering and anxiety/panic attacks from the lack of care and emotion has left me a shell of a human. Fragile for sure. It is hell.

Thank you Teal for explaining this dynamic so precisely! 😭

[Ronald-ui]

Watching this captivating video stirs up painful memories of the recent end of my 4 year relationship. My beloved partner chose to depart, leaving me with an unyielding ache. Despite my relentless efforts to reconcile, I find myself grappling with frustration and an inability to envision a future without him. Despite attempts to purge him from my mind, I remain haunted by his absence, feeling compelled to express my longing here.

[dameanvil]

0:00 💔 Emotional neglect in relationships can be more tormenting than physical abuse.
0:17 🧠 Emotional neglect is about absence of care and support, impacting life quality.
1:43 🤷‍♂ Emotional neglect includes lack of affection, support, attention, and understanding.
2:24 🌀 People try various strategies to counteract emotional neglect, often to no avail.
3:02 🚫 Sometimes neglect is unintentional, due to circumstances like career or illness.
4:03 🎭 Willful neglect is when someone consciously avoids fulfilling emotional needs.
5:07 🪤 Willfully neglectful people create a lose-lose situation, causing confusion and insecurity.
6:32 🚶‍♂ Emotional neglect leads to relationship insecurity and increased neediness.
7:12 😢 Ignoring neglect by striving for happiness can leave damage unaddressed.
8:13 🚨 Emotional neglect can lead to desperation and mental health issues.
8:58 💔 The solution to neglect is recognizing you can't force someone to change.
10:37 🧩 Identify neglect by observing actions, not just listening to words.
11:12 🌪 Emotional neglect causes desperation, anxiety, and circular conflicts.
12:59 🔄 Neglectful partners often fail to follow through on promises of change.
13:59 🛠 A truly caring partner is motivated to improve the relationship and support emotional needs.
16:23 🚧 Example: Jason neglects Brit due to his past trauma and avoidance of responsibility.
17:41 🚫 Despite Brit's efforts, Jason's emotional neglect persists because it serves his avoidance of dependency.

[valerieward]

If you say anything to them about the neglect. They end up accusing you of being too needy.
I realized in the end that what he was doing was intentional.
So I told myself to keep it to myself the pain I felt inside.
It feels so lonely. Even though you are living in the same house. It's as uf they aren't there.
Better to get out & live on your own, which is what I did.
Just fill my life up with true caring people around me.
It is so good.
But I can't get over the fact that I hung on for years expecting things to change.
When I look back on it all, I feel so cheated.

[healingbone]

I left, it hurt like hell but I’m proud of myself.

[AwakenedAspects]

Those who emotionally neglect are likely carrying around a wounding of being neglected themselves, and end up neglecting themselves. They are stuck in a deep abyss of self-delusion. It is impossible to be in a healthy relationship with someone like that; however, it certainly doesn’t stop many empaths from trying to heal them. Hence the destructive cycle 🤕

[sherececocco]

Words don't equal actions 💯
Remember that kids.

[catharinealexander]

This video feels really charged, and I'm glad because it's super validating for those of us who need to hear this message! We aren't crazy for having needs and we shouldn't be the ones trying to supress them to make a relationship work. Thank you, as always, Teal. ❤️

[yomama]

Exactly my 14 year marriage. I had to up and Leave. As hard as it was. I felt it was the best choice for myself and my children. Thank you Teal Swan. 😊

[navyamekera]

The number of people that she has saved, without ever picking up the metaphorical sword to destroy anyone else, and IN SPITE of opening herself to a target on her back, she is proof that Gods exist and they walk among us. She’s saved millions, including me.

This video shattered me to my core. She’s talked about neglect before, and I thought I understood what neglect feels like, because I experienced it so many decades with parents, romantic partners etc.

But today, after watching this video, I understand my suffering from emotional neglect so much more deeply. The emotional flu, confused about how to get a emotional needs met, the bland apathetic and occasionally feigned responses that serve as intermittent reinforcement, the direct conflict with our own happiness because happiness means withdrawal and neglect, my god, feeling mentally ill, lack of follow up with therapy, lack of intimacy just giving them more room to do what’s comfortable for them, the distress, the suffering, the lack of will to live or keep on going….

Teal has yet again outdone herself by brilliantly explaining and helping me understand something so hard to see, recognize and understand. Putting on mute, getting emotional needs met elsewhere, keeping pressure on real issue of how they are falling short of meeting Emotional needs, NOT SCAPEGOATING YOURSELF taking away that option by not playing the victim, accepting the reality of whether one can get emotional needs met from a specific person or not, this is all incredibly well put.

Teal as usual was also real about the painful healing experience. Having to accept loneliness, how it can be hard if you don’t have good social resources like friends and family, which was true in my case, accepting the emotional pain of letting go of the relationship….

My favorite part though, is where she explained why it is cruelty to expect ourselves to be resources to our emotional needs after being starved, and the perfect antidote- getting emotional needs met by people that can support and nourish us emotionally

I guess the only task now is to find emotional resourced people that feel happy nourishing me 😂 which is again not easy…… but much better than staying stuck in an illusion and chronically malnourishing relationships.

[kerriralston-jacksonliving]

I feel so validated after listening to this video. I was beginning to think I was crazy and making more of his lack of attention than was necessary, because he did give financially. Thank you!