You have put your heart and soul into a relationship and share a unique bond with your partner but even when you care so much, eventually you may be faced with the undeniable truth that the relationship is broken and can’t be patched up. Knowing when to let go is often the most painful part of ending a bad relationship.

The traits of a healthy and successful relationship are honesty, clear communication, and mutual respect. When these essentials are missing or no longer present, it is time to take a deeper look at the relationship and consider a plan for ending a bad relationship.

Communication breakdown is usually the first sign that the relationship is failing and headed for doom. When couples start concealing important issues that are relevant to the relationship, stop discussing monetary responsibilities, or there is so much stress and guilt hindering good communication, a crisis may be inevitable. When the communication ceases to exist or is consistently negative, it may be time to execute plans for ending a bad relationship.

When your partner thrives on identifying your shortcomings, works to destroy your sense of self worth, or manipulates you with shame or fear, the relationship is probably destined for failure and it is time to develop a plan for ending a bad relationship. However, if you are in a relationship with an abusive partner, you will need to seek professional advice before leaving. Those partners who have physically and emotionally abusive behaviors tend to be very dangerous when a partner leaves and domestic violence experts can advise you about how to leave safely.

Unfaithfulness is a very disparaging and hurtful behavior for those involved in a relationship. While many relationships can find ways to recover from just one extramarital affair, it is nearly impossible to recover from the devastation of chronic cheating. If you constantly live under the cloud of your partner's betrayal and the feelings associated with lack of trust, ending a bad relationship may be the best choice for you to make.

If you are in a relationship with a partner who has not received treatment for a drug or alcohol addiction, you are undoubtedly experiencing frustration and are probably agonizing over being trapped in a cycle of managing one crisis after another. Sooner or later you will become exhausted, emotionally drained and have very little power over your own life.

Being involved in a relationship with a substance abuser is often emotionally traumatizing because many people falsely believe that they can help the partner change and bring an end to the addicted partner's destructive lifestyle. The harsh reality is that ending a bad relationship with an alcoholic or drug abuser is the only healthy solution. Partners with addiction problems simply don’t have the ability to contribute to healthy relationships and ending a bad relationship with this kind of partner is probably the only way to restore a sense normalcy back to your own life.

Sharing your heart with a perpetual lawbreaker offers you a bleak future with severe consequences too. Repeated arrests and seeing your partner go in and out of jail will leave you with a high level of stress and frustration. Before staying with a criminal and having a life of heartache and misery, you may want to talk to a professional counselor and sketch out a plan for safely ending the bad relationship.

Going through a break up is never an easy endeavor. Change is a difficult choice to make and healing isn’t painless either but everyone deserves love, respect and dignity. Ending a bad relationship is the only healthy choice to make and it is the first step toward taking back the power and control of your own life.