Take Action 2022: Relationships: The Real Deal

Fact sheet

In healthy relationships, people can feel safe, respected and accepted for who they are. In unhealthy relationships, people may feel anxious, confused, uncertain and even unsafe. Knowing these differences can help you make choices about who you date and for how long.

It’s a common refrain: relationships are hard work. Fights are normal and rough patches are par for the course.

Being in a bad or toxic relationship is often something that we don’t realize that we’re in until we’re out of it. Bad relationships can invade every other aspect of our lives, from our friendships to our family relationships. They can make you feel depressed or anxious for no reason.

Involves abusive and violent behaviour towards a partner, former partner or family member. It is much broader than physical violence, and include actions that control, humiliate or scare the other person or people in the household.

Domestic violence most often framed as an individual event rather than a systemic problem

There has been a 26 per cent decrease in alcohol-related assaults in the Northern Territory since it introduced the country's first alcohol floor price and rolled out a range of new measures.

Nearly 1 million women in the U.S. today who have survived being shot or shot at by an intimate partner.

The collective outcry from women on social media, using the #Metoo campaign, to indicate that each of them has been a victim of sexual harassment, has gripped the global imagination.

Teenagers have an overly simplistic understanding of consent that often ignores relevant non-verbal cues, a new study suggests.

As important as consent is, we don’t talk about it enough. So it’s understandable if you’re a little unsure about what it is – and what it isn’t.

This website is named ConsentEd for good reason! Consent is the foundation of sex and the element that is missing in sexual violence.

None of us like the idea of losing a friend, and some people deserve a second chance, so it’s worth trying to talk it out with them.

Friends help make life more meaningful. They provide social and emotional support, ease feelings of loneliness, and help you feel happier and more satisfied with life.

Friends are allowed to make mistakes—at least, that's what you thought when your BFF forgot your birthday. But then she flaked on you again last week. She lied to you last month. And she's just plain disappointed you so many times recently that you've lost count.

Toxic relationships don’t just apply to romantic partnerships. Sometimes, friendships with people can turn out just as abusive and damaging.

No matter how busy I might be with work and other obligations, I work just as hard at maintaining my relationships with my friends because they each bring something special to my life. A good friend is hard to find, but a true friend is even more difficult to lose

For a lot of us, our ideas of what relationships should look like came from pop culture. Here are some of the relationships that want you to believe they’re true love, but according to the relationship experts we bugged, they’re truly toxic.

Ok, so we've got the ultimate TV and movie best friends, and we've got the most stylish ( we're looking at you Rachel Green), and hell, we've also got the best movie bitches of all time - but what about the best friends that were supposed to be great, but in hindsight, were just totally shitty. Sorry, but let's analyse the awful BFF behaviour that's been going on....

Teen dramas are mostly about the romantic relationships — but personally, I prefer the friendships. They have the sweetest moments, and some of the most dramatic ups and downs.