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Keeping Your Relationship Healthy: How to Navigate Toxic Behavior from Metamours
Boundaries and active communication are the only way to keep your relationships healthy.
In my polyamorous relationships, I see the same cycles and patterns. No matter how much I have learned in my twenty-one years of exploring this lifestyle, my partners often have different understandings and experiences. It doesn't matter much for the most part because when we enter a committed, emotionally entangled polyamorous relationship, we forge a partnership where we learn, grow, and evolve together. But there will also be obstacles we must work through that will make or break our relationship. Without fail, one of these challenges will involve the other people closest to us — our family, friends, and metamours.
Last February, I realized I had a major crush on a wonderful guy friend and asked him to be my anchor partner. According to polydictionary.org, "An anchor partner is an emotional support partner with whom you have a strong connection and helps ground and balance you. An anchor partner may or may not be a nesting, romantic, or sexual partner."
After the previous year of developing an amazing foundation of friendship, I felt deep emotional support with him that I haven't felt in a long time. In my…
