Why We Stay in Bad Relationships, Solved

Why do smart, emotionally aware people stay in relationships that are clearly destroying them? Drew and I dug into the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard marriage, to walk through the seven psychological mechanisms that quietly lock people inside bad relationships and make leaving feel impossible.

If you have ever watched someone you love stay in a relationship that is destroying them, or if you have been that person yourself, this episode will shine a lot of light on what is really going on under the hood.

Get your free episode guide: https://solvedpodcast.com/bad-relationships/

CHAPTERS

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:04:00) The Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Backstory

(00:14:30) Normalization

(00:27:00) The Identity Trap

(00:41:30) The Slot Machine Effect

(00:51:30) Cognitive Dissonance

(01:01:30) The Sunk Cost Fallacy

(01:10:30) The Guilt Cage

(01:16:00) The Terror of the Void

(01:24:00) The Aftermath of Johnny and Amber

(01:30:00) How to Counteract Each Mechanism

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