Psychotherapist warns of 'undead bond' relationship trend 'worse' than ghosting

The modern world of dating is always throwing up new behaviours and trends, many of which are enough to put you off the idea of relationships forever.

Thanks in part to influencers online who share minute-long clips of their lavish lifestyles, everyone's expecting a lot of their partners, and while you should never settle for less, often unrealistic expectations mean that a lot of people are still searching for the one.

Although the usual dating apps were created to help facilitate relationships, the mindless scrolling through people based on a photo is never likely to bring much success, especially when some folks are now 'stacking' dates on top of each other in the hope of finally meeting the right person.

People are coming up with thousands of often ridiculous red flags that they use to rule out a potential partner, and while some are valid, others are probably preventing you from ever finding the one.

Nobody wants to put up with this (Getty Stock Image)

Unfortunately, even once you find yourself in a relationship, there are a lot of behaviours that will instantly make you rethink your future with that person, with things like gaslighting, ghosting, and even spider-webbing growing in prominence.

However, psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber has now explained the growing trend of relationships having an 'undead bond', something she claims is even worse than the dreaded ghosting.

The 'undead bond' explained

She writes: "Ghosting at least has the decency to be an ending. No, this is worse: the 'undead bond'."

An undead bond, much like Schrödinger's cat or Flo Rida's remake of 'Right Round', is never truly dead or alive and instead sees people clinging on to something that might not even exist.

Weber explains: "It's a connection that never fully lives and never fully dies.

"It hovers in a half-life of maybe, soon or not yet, feeding on hope, dread and the fantasy that clarity is just one honest conversation away."

You can't move on from these undead bond relationships (Getty Stock Image)

Sadly, anyone with any experience of this sort of relationship will probably know that this honest conversation never actually arrives, as the other person continues to enjoy the comforts that your company brings without ever replicating the devotion that they are being shown.

Weber suggests that these people will 'send just enough warmth to keep you hopeful but never enough steadiness to let your shoulders drop', and it's likely that you'll be left hanging on by a thread because you accept every excuse that they throw at you.

The issue is that while a heartbreak can be difficult to get over, the vagueness in these sorts of relationships means that you 'can't grieve what hasn't ended', and it's likely that the other person will keep you around with the occasional text or show of warmth.

So, while some relationship trends do sound truly disastrous, including the ones that see people invite others around simply so they can get something fixed as if they're Bob the Builder, this might be one that you can never move on from, and it's easy to see why so many people are struggling with it.