Trust issues: What causes them and how to fix them?

Do you ever doubt someone, even when they’ve done nothing to cause you to doubt them? Having trust issues can result in suspicion, anxiety, and doubt, which can endanger romantic, personal, and professional relationships.

Trusting again is difficult, but it is necessary for your emotional well-being. If you or your partner struggle with trust issues, chances are they’ll come up in your relationship. In the following sections are some reasons why it happens, along with ways to deal with them and become more trustworthy.

Trust Issues: What Causes Them?

A person’s trust issues usually stem from having been betrayed in the past. It is often your early childhood experiences that shape your ability to turn to others. Trusting someone you trust–whether it was a friend, partner, or parent –can be undermined when you are let down or betrayed.

These are a few stems that cause trust issues:

Relationship betrayal: Feelings of infidelity can be extremely painful and can negatively affect future relationships as well.

Parents’ conflicts: Children who witness problems with trust in their family are likely to have similar fears in adult relationships.

Social disapproval: Rejection by peers during childhood or teenage years may make it difficult to trust others. When a person is unable to determine why they are excluded, this type of trust issue can be aggravated.

Trauma experiences: Growing up traumatized individuals may have trust issues later on in life.

Involvement styles: Your attachment style, or how you behave in relationships, also plays a part in how you trust people. A secure attachment style may increase faith and forgiveness. Conversely, those with insecure attachment styles have a harder time trusting others and experience more jealousy and anxiety in relationships.

If you have one or more of these issues, you may need to address them if they are causing you pain or preventing you from forming and maintaining relationships.

Trust Issues: How To Fix Them?

With a little patience and willingness to accept risk, people can overcome trust issues. While it can be a challenging emotional undertaking, it is possible to overcome problems with faith. Here are a few trust-building strategies you can use:

Slowly build belief: Trusting people enough to let them into your life, and in some cases, forgiving them, is important. Sometimes, taking your time can help. Pull back if you start to believe too quickly (or perhaps too intensely), and work up to that level again.

Let’s talk about faith: You don’t have to go into detail about what happened to you in the past to help others understand why you struggle with trust. Communicating with your partner can help them understand how their actions might be perceived.

Separate trust from control: Control is often a concern for people with trust issues. In some cases, this manifests as mistrusting behavior. If you don’t have complete control over every situation, you may feel betrayed or exploited. On the other hand, this will only damage your relationships over time. The key to building faith with others is learning how much control to give up in a given situation.

Prioritize trust: Building faith is an essential aspect of any relationship, even though it can seem challenging at first. Don’t neglect the importance of trust in your life, no matter how difficult it may seem.

Make sure to heal together: During your healing process, make sure to include your partner if you are already in a relationship. Both partners need to be engaged, accessible, and responsive if they are to bridge the gap from mistrust to trust.

Takeaway

To build a strong relationship, it is essential to have belief and faith in each other. This is like building a house on sand instead of rock: it may seem sturdy and safe at the beginning, but when the elements of life come crashing in, the foundations of the relationship will not be strong enough to withstand them. You can, however, overcome trust issues to extend your relationships with those you love. Don’t forget, if it’s built on sand, at least it can double as a beach house! I hope you enjoy it, please leave a comment.