In an age where everyone desires to be self-sufficient, it can be hard to understand how to make it work in a serious, long-term relationship. It's not every day that you hear about people who are completely happy in theirs. In fact, it's actually pretty rare to hear that.

Especially in heterosexual relationships because men and women communicate their emotions so differently, it gets hard to find a middle ground that satisfies both parties. You would be lying to yourself if you said that you haven't called your significant other crazy or thought that he or she was overreacting to something at least once in the course of the relationship.

"His girlfriend is crazy."

You've definitely heard that statement before, multiple times. I always feel personally offended when I hear that sentence even if I probably don't have any sentiment towards that specific girl. The most important thing to remember when you hear stories like that is that no one is crazy by choice. There is obviously something fundamentally wrong with the relationship if it drives a person to the point where they are very casually referred to as insane.

It's also so easy for people to assume the worst of the girlfriend, which can't be right because a scenario like that includes two people. It's necessary to question why this poor girl is being called such a term. The situation should be looked at from her perspective, too. The men can't always be completely free from blame in cases like this.

Of course, women are not the only ones who suffer from this accusatory label.

It's actually harder to overcome the crazy boyfriend identity because there are several horror stories out there about aggressively jealous boyfriends. It's easy for men to get compared to the subcategory which is even more unfair to the ones who aren't guilty of such behavior because those stories are actually terrifying. This probably causes them to feel unsafe discussing their insecurities which translates into their happiness in the relationship being compromised.

Regardless of who is at fault in a fight, being considered crazy is not pleasant. When someone is bothered by something, it usually takes a lot of courage to be able to speak up about their feelings, and for your significant other to disregard them can be more hurtful than you'd think. This can make them feel like they can't be fully open about what's on their mind which could lead to several other issues in a relationship. If these issues don't surface right away in their current relationship, they will just fester and cause troubles in all future relationships that the person might have.

Once someone has been told that their feelings are invalid and inconvenient, who knows how long it will take before they feel okay expressing them again regardless of whether it is with a completely different person who may or may not be more accepting. As a result, they end up keeping everything bottled up. This is the worst thing to do because if by any chance there comes a time where they have to let it out, it blows up the entire core of their relationship which then falls apart due to no fault of either of the two involved.

This can simply be avoided by just being receptive to change certain things about yourself that could be beneficial in the long run. Obviously, putting in this effort is only worth it if you're sure about this other person as a long-term partner and you can trust them with your emotions. If that is the case, go ahead. Be the crazy girlfriend or boyfriend you deserve to be and do so freely without judgment. That's real goals.