AUC Hosts Webinar on Unhealthy Relationships

By:
Noureen Bashat
Maha Alresais
Ingy Ayman

On Wednesday, Nov. 11, the Center for Student Well-Being at The American University
in Cairo (AUC) hosted a webinar on Zoom titled, “Unhealthy Relationships.”

The event was facilitated by Amal Badeeb, a psychology professor and the senior
counselor at the Center for Student Well-Being; and had around 50-60 attendees.
Before discussing what an unhealthy relationship is, Professor Badeeb defined what a
healthy relationship is. She mentioned that to be in a healthy relationship, there are
seven verbs one should do, which are to ask, to receive, to give, to take, to share, to
refuse and to play/ imagine. Furthermore, an important factor in a healthy relationship is
equality.

Badeeb goes on to define what an unhealthy relationship is by stating that an unhealthy

relationship is “characterized by frequent behaviors that are physically and
psychologically damaging to one partner.” Physical abuse, jealousy, avoidance, and
emotional and mental abuse are some signs of an unhealthy relationship, according to
Psychology Today.

Badeeb states that some signs of an unhealthy relationship are having lack of privacy,
having to justify your actions and physical violence. Moreover, she stated that a sign of
being in an unhealthy relationship is if your partner made you choose them over
something you love, such as your career or friends. Dr. Badeeb further mentioned that
using threatening tones and actual threats might harm the person emotionally, and lead
to physical abuse.

Research by Keck Medicine of USC that coincides with Badeeb’s points show that “a
toxic relationship may negatively impact your physical and mental health. It can make
you feel insecure or bad about yourself, leave you feeling drained and unhappy, place
pressure on you to change something about yourself or may even be physically and
emotionally harmful.”

After discussing signs of an unhealthy relationship, Dr. Badeeb discussed when one
should seek help. She mentioned that one should seek help if there is “physical or
emotional abuse,” when you decide to leave a relationship and still find yourself in it and
if one has “a history of being in unhealthy relationships.”
Badeeb ended the discussion by mentioning that toxicity happens to everyone and
there should be zero tolerance for physical abuse. She also mentioned that, one
deserves “to be treated with courtesy, respect and compassion in a relationship.”

After the discussion ended, there was a Q&A session, but due to confidentiality nothing
can be exposed publicly.