Finding another person with whom onehas a meaningful connection is an immensely challenging prospect. Attempting to determine the intensity of one’s feelings for another individual neatly and precisely enough to designate a given label for it can be even more problematic. Labels primarily exist for the comfort of others who are not actually involved in the relationship in question in any significant way. Placing a relationship in a specific category allows others to make assumptions about the type of connection the people within it share when, in reality, the details of someone else’s relationship could not be known by a mere onlooker. In actuality, relationships are comprised of dynamic and fluid complexities that cannot be aptly blanketed over with a title that dictates a set of assumed implications. Labeling relationships shifts the objectives of the people in them, oftentimes causing them considerable emotional torment.

The pressure brought on by these appellations can also lead the individuals in a relationship to chase after a certain junction in the partnership indicative of a specific title, feeling obligated to progress rather than doing so because the bond between the individuals is actually developing. These labels also imply a great amount of exclusivity that ultimately traps those in relationships and strongly discourages them to seek more accommodating connections elsewhere, once they begin forming a partnership with a particular person.

The act of strictly classifying relationships brings about a particular set of unspoken principles and guidelines. These expectations often put pressure on individuals to experience emotions or connections that are not actually present. Additionally, what feelings these individuals do have for one another can easily be heightened or exaggerated due to the strain of these pressures. There are also a great number of people who seek out a particular type of relationship for the sole purpose of attaining what its title indicates. For example, someone may be attempting to obtain a girlfriend or boyfriend and, in doing so, they may find themselves beside an individual with whom they share a connection that is more conjured up, and less prominent in actuality. This can, once again, cause them to overestimate the meaning behind some of the actions of their partner or perceive their cohort’s actions as more significant or having a different meaning than that which was intended.

Consequently, individuals tend to feel disappointed or hurt when they sense that these intensified feelings are not reciprocated based on their partner’s actions, even when, initially, they may not have desired these types of actions from their partner at all. External pressure that causes the anticipation of certain evidence to show the status of a relationship can cause an individual’s perception of their partner’s actions to be greatly altered, resulting in substantial emotional distress.

More often than not, labels force many people to limit themselves to only forming significant bonds with one person at a time. When an individual is in a relationship with another person and has given it a title, it is generally expected that he or she doesn’t attempt to form any substantial connection with other persons, especially attachments that could threaten the bond with his or her partner. While committing to another person could potentially pose as a very positive experience for both parties, if the title makes either person in the relationship feel obligated to cut ties with other affiliations, the result would more than likely be very uncomfortable for both parties.

Not strictly labeling a relationship means being able to form connections with multiple people at once if one desires. This could be very beneficial to individuals in that they could better assess which ties they are more compelled to foster, and do so in a more honest manner, given that they won’t have to “break up” with anyone in the process. The labels that many people unnecessarily put on relationships confine those within them, forcing them to neglect bonds with others that could be more fitting to them, exhausting time and effort that could be better placed elsewhere.

Giving a relationship such a scrupulous label definitely has many binding implications. Having said that, I believe that applying a title to an affinity in this way could be favorable, so long as those within it are open and communicative about their feelings for one another. In a lot of instances, couples utilize labels primarily for the comfort of others whilst feeling reluctant about it themselves.

By administering a categorization to a relationship unencumbered by external pressures and only when both parties communicate that doing so feels right to them, both are more comfortable knowing that the emotions they experience are genuine and their connection to one another is pervasive and cogent.