{"id":1924,"date":"2016-04-25T02:39:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T02:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?p=1924"},"modified":"2016-04-25T02:39:47","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T02:39:47","slug":"8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html","title":{"rendered":"8 Warning Signs That You are in a Relationship of Benign Neglect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are overtly difficult relationships and there are benignly difficult relationships. The overtly difficult relationships are extremely uncomfortable. The benignly difficult relationships, sadly, can become far more comfortable than they should. <\/p>\n<p>Why? Because rather than be overtly abusive they are benignly abusive.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to stay in a relationship of benign neglect. After all, the individual who is being ignored is with a spouse who basically leaves them alone. It seems like a pretty good deal. The ignored spouse initially believes they have independence. They also believe they have entered into a relationship with someone who is extremely laid back. <\/p>\n<p>The warning signs of a relationship of benign neglect:<\/p>\n<p>Do you feel lonely even though you are in a relationship?<\/p>\n<p>Do you feel so independent that you are living a single life rather than a relationship life?<\/p>\n<p>Do you feel more ignored than engaged?<\/p>\n<p>Do you live and share just the life and interests of your spouse, but not the life and interests that drive you?<\/p>\n<p>Do you speak and feel as though your significant other does not listen to you the majority of the time?<\/p>\n<p>Do you feel unsatisfied with the emotional intimacy in your relationship?<\/p>\n<p>Do you feel as though nothing gets the attention of your spouse?<\/p>\n<p>Do you feel as though you simply share a house rather than a relationship?<\/p>\n<p>If you feel any<em> or<\/em> the majority of these things than you may be experiencing a relationship of benign neglect. If you feel an overwhelming sense of loneliness and a sense you are living a solitary life despite being in a relationship then you may also be in a relationship of benign neglect.<\/p>\n<p>A relationship of benign neglect may not carry the sudden shock of trauma, but make no mistake that it is equally as damaging. It is a long-term, slow erosion of love and lack of love.<\/p>\n<p>It is just as cautionary.<\/p>\n<p>Love should be overt! Love should not be benign!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/04\/sign-slippery-wet-caution.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/374\/2016\/04\/sign-slippery-wet-caution-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"sign-slippery-wet-caution\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1927\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n(Photo courtesy of Pexels)<\/p>\n<p>Follow me on Facebook @Colleen Orme National Columnist<br \/>\non Twitter @colleenorme<br \/>\non Pinterest @colleensheehyorme<br \/>\nE-mail: Colleen.Sheehy.Orme@gmail.com<br \/>\nwww.colleensheehyorme.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are overtly difficult relationships and there are benignly difficult relationships. The overtly difficult relationships are extremely uncomfortable. The benignly difficult relationships, sadly, can become far more comfortable than they should. Why? Because rather than be overtly abusive they are benignly abusive. It&#8217;s easy to stay in a relationship of benign neglect. After all, the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>8 Warning Signs That You are in a Relationship of Benign Neglect - How Great Thou Part<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"8 Warning Signs That You are in a Relationship of Benign Neglect - How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are overtly difficult relationships and there are benignly difficult relationships. The overtly difficult relationships are extremely uncomfortable. The benignly difficult relationships, sadly, can become far more comfortable than they should. Why? Because rather than be overtly abusive they are benignly abusive. It&#8217;s easy to stay in a relationship of benign neglect. After all, the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-25T02:39:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/04\/sign-slippery-wet-caution-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen Sheehy Orme\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"8 Warning Signs That You are in a Relationship of Benign Neglect - How Great Thou Part","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"8 Warning Signs That You are in a Relationship of Benign Neglect - How Great Thou Part","og_description":"There are overtly difficult relationships and there are benignly difficult relationships. The overtly difficult relationships are extremely uncomfortable. The benignly difficult relationships, sadly, can become far more comfortable than they should. Why? Because rather than be overtly abusive they are benignly abusive. It&#8217;s easy to stay in a relationship of benign neglect. After all, the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html","og_site_name":"How Great Thou Part","article_published_time":"2016-04-25T02:39:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/04\/sign-slippery-wet-caution-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html","name":"8 Warning Signs That You are in a Relationship of Benign Neglect - How Great Thou Part","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/04\/sign-slippery-wet-caution-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2016-04-25T02:39:47+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-25T02:39:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/04\/sign-slippery-wet-caution-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/04\/sign-slippery-wet-caution-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/04\/8-warning-signs-that-you-are-in-a-relationship-of-benign-neglect.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"8 Warning Signs That You are in a Relationship of Benign Neglect"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/","name":"How Great Thou Part","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Colleen Orme","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15","name":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","description":"Born and raised in Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C., I often call myself a southern New Yorker, much to the dismay of my true New Yorker buddies. Born to my native Brooklyn parents, I have a love of all things city and all things country. I found myself in the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which prior to The Office, nary a soul could envision less you found yourself on the hills of Interstate 81. I was held up there while I pursued my B.S. in Business. I have two passions: Business marketing and writing. The two are not so terribly different. Why? Cultivating a brand is in essence the story and the connecting of the dots of a corporate entity. I write features for various magazines and newspapers and I am a national divorce columnist (what can I say things didn\u2019t turn out quite the way I thought they would). I am also a former business columnist. For more than fifteen years, I spent my summers on the Jersey Shore in what I call my \u2018out of state\u2019 clothes once again magnetized to the northerners I find so familiar. If I were to brand my writing, I would say I write of LOVE. That is the core from which I begin most stories. I find myself drawn to dig for the moments in the story that are the passion that drive the message. It may be the love of what originally started a business or an authentically motivated personal profile, or simply the love of a subject being investigated which compels me to write. My forever favorite form of writing is the human interest essay or what I call, \u201cAn Interview With Life.\u201d The average day that is explored and somehow once again instills in us a joie de vivre\u2026..a joy of life. These human moments are the Hope Virus that spreads amongst us and can\u2019t help but propel us into better human beings with a larger sense of the world.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/author\/corme"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1928,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions\/1928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}