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Understanding the elements that contribute to both successful and failing relationships is key. If you lack the courage to end things yourself, here’s a strategy to make them take the initiative and break up with you.
This article is part of Mytour’s Evil Week series, where we explore the darker side of achieving goals. Sometimes, being a little evil is necessary, and other times, understanding evil helps you overcome it. For more, visit our evil week tag page.
Cut Off Communication
As emphasized repeatedly, effective communication is the cornerstone of any healthy relationship. Being open, addressing issues, and connecting deeply are essential. Therefore, severing that communication is a powerful way to undermine the relationship.
This advice can be interpreted in various ways. You could completely stop speaking, avoid discussing significant matters, or refrain from addressing your issues. The approach you choose depends on how swiftly you want the relationship to end.
Actively avoid engaging in meaningful conversations. If your partner suggests discussing something important, respond with, 'Maybe later.' Similarly, if you stop discussing future plans—whether it’s vacations, marriage, shared purchases, or even meeting the parents—they’ll grow frustrated and distance themselves. Communication, even about trivial matters, is a cornerstone of a healthy relationship, so avoiding it will eventually lead to its collapse.
This approach may take time, so be prepared for the emotional toll it can take. On the bright side, stonewalling is a clear sign that your relationship is on the brink, so the more you disengage, the faster it will fall apart.
Insist on Always Being Right
You know what people adore? Know-it-alls. A surefire way to ruin a relationship is to constantly assert your correctness in every situation.
A recurring theme in relationship advice articles is the importance of letting minor issues slide. Avoid the need to prove a point. However, if your goal is to ruin a relationship, ensure your partner is constantly aware of your correctness. Bonus points if it highlights their mistakes.
Whenever you’re right about something, make it known to your partner. Whether it’s a heated argument or trivial facts, emphasize your infallibility. If you’re not entirely correct, justify why you were almost right. To escalate, critique their actions and insist your methods are superior. For maximum impact, keep a tally of how often you’re right and they’re wrong—because nothing says love like a scoreboard.
Over time, your overconfidence, arrogance, and refusal to let small things go will drive your partner away. While this tactic won’t work on everyone, it’s an effective way to alienate most people. Within weeks, they’ll likely end the relationship.
Deprioritize Your Relationship
Healthy couples prioritize their relationship, making sacrifices and compromises to ensure mutual happiness. To prompt a breakup, do the opposite. Place your relationship at the bottom of your priority list and neglect it entirely.
Football? Video games? Yoga? Hanging out with friends? Work? All of these now take precedence over your relationship. Start using excuses like, 'Sorry, I can’t make it to dinner tonight—I’m heading to the go-kart track with Jeb,' or 'Dinner on your birthday? Not happening, Jen’s hosting a wine tasting.'
The more self-centered you become, the better. Fully commit to this approach and avoid engaging in any new activities together. Within a month, your partner will catch on and likely end things.
Turn Up the Jealousy
If pop songs are any indication, jealousy is a major factor in the downfall of relationships. According to Psychology Today, jealousy often arises from insecurity, obsessive thoughts, or a paranoid mindset. To push someone to break up with you, become overly clingy. Additionally, as previously noted, healthy relationships allow for individual friendships and hobbies. By restricting these, you’ll effectively sabotage the relationship. The more possessive you act, the faster you’ll drive them away.
If you’re unsure how to start, begin with small steps and escalate. Interrogate your partner about their whereabouts, meals, companions, and their true feelings about the new hire in accounting. Gradually, accuse them of spending excessive time with others or indulging too much in their hobbies. If that doesn’t work, insist on accompanying them everywhere. The goal is to portray yourself as having no life outside the relationship, with jealousy being the simplest way to achieve this.
To make someone break up with you, you’ll need to embody traits they find unattractive. Whether it’s something straightforward like laziness or more intricate like jealousy, you’ll have to maintain this behavior for weeks, months, or even years in longer relationships before they decide to leave.
If any of these tactics sound familiar, you’re already making significant progress in ruining your relationship. Well done!
Illustration by Tina Mailhot-Roberge.
