Insecurity in a Long-Distance Relationship

It’s common to feel insecure in a long-distance relationship. But the insecurities can mess up with our head and your relationship.

Insecurity in a long-distance relationship can put a lot of strain on you and your partner. Doubts and insecurities about yourself or your relationship can become more prominent when you are in a long-distance relationship. For a successful relationship, you should discuss these insecurities and uncertainties with your long-distance partner before they ruin your relationship.

Insecurities and jealousy, tend to be addressed together when it comes to talking about long-distance relationships. While insecurity and jealousy are connected, they are different concepts.

In this article, will talk about insecurities in a long-distance relationship and how you can overcome them.

If you would like to learn more about jealousy in a long-distance relationship, check out this article.

What Are Insecurities in a Long-Distance Relationship?

Insecurity is defined as the uncertainty or anxiety about oneself; also as a lack of confidence.

We all have insecurities and uncertainties in our lives. Insecurities originate from past experiences that form believes that we are somehow inadequate in one way or another. These are personal insecurities.

When two people form a relationship, each of them brings their insecurities into the relationship. It isn’t straightforward because each person has their beliefs, values, and preferences. A relationship is a complicated dynamic between two people. Each person wants the environment and relationship to be in a certain way.

While two people can love each other and enjoy being together, sooner or later, every healthy relationship requires a bit of work. For a healthy relationship, both partners need to be willing to understand each other’s point of view and be able to express their own.

If you are having doubts about your long-distance relationship and would like to know how healthy it really is, this step by step guide is a good place to start.

Once you know what insecurities you have about yourself, you can work on them and allow your partner to help you. It’s more challenging to deal with insecurities that go unnoticed. Doubts and uncertainties that skip our awareness influence our behaviour a lot more.

These unseen insecurities are the ones that get us to do things without us understanding why we are doing them.

Getting an objective and constructive feedback from someone you trust or a relationship coach, can help you realise how your insecurities affect your behaviour and how this behaviour affects your relationship. If you would like some help and don’t know where to begin, send us a message.

How Do Insecurities Affect a Long-Distance Relationship?

Long-distance relationships are full of uncertainties. You can plan your long-distance relationship, how long it will last and how you will manage it while being apart. But the longer you are away from your romantic partner, the more anxious and uncertain you feel about your relationship.

Long-distance relationships aren’t meant to last a long time. Click here to learn how long they tend to last.

How Long Do Long-Distance Relationships Last?

Having a plan allows you to have and maintain a healthy long-distance relationship for a few months. But a long-term, long-distance relationship in most cases becomes a struggle and brings more suffering than joy.

When you are struggling in a long-distance relationship, your personal insecurities and those of your long-distance partner will increase your anxiety about a long-distance relationship.

If you don’t have a plan, it will be hard to maintain a long-distance relationship. When you are away from your long-distance partner, you would want to spend a lot of time talking to them over the phone or video calls. But this can lead to a problem of excessive communication. 

When you don’t plan your visit, you don’t know the next time you will see your partner. This can make you feel alone. It can be confusing for your mind and your body to come to terms with the reason that you are alone while having a romantic partner.

The only way you can maintain a healthy long-distance relationship is by dealing with your insecurities and having a plan to manage the uncertainties that come as part of a long-distance relationship. You can do it through effective communication. And, to help you along, here is our step by step guide.

Dealing with Insecurities in a Long-Distance Relationship 

The most effective way to deal with insecurities in a long-distance relationship is to talk openly about them to your long-distance partner. By having an honest conversation you can address your personal issues and relationship problems as well. You can learn more about common problems in a long-distance relationship in this article.

Common Problems in a Long-Distance Relationship

Recognising insecurities and talking about them can be quite uncomfortable. But the beauty of having someone you trust, like your partner, is that you’re able to share your intimate thoughts and feelings with them.

To do that, you need to be able to express yourself openly and clearly to your partner. They, in turn, must have a willingness to care about listening to what you have to share.

This, of course, goes both ways. Expressing yourselves openly and honestly to each other is a strong foundation for a healthy relationship.

If you have doubts, concerns, or insecurities about where your long-distance relationship is going, it will help if you to make a clear plan and timeline for when and how you will move in together.

Without a plan, long-distance relationships can be hard to navigate. Luckily, we have this article for your reading pleasure.

Also, this workbook, can help you keep track of your plan and when things are meant to be happening to keep you on track with your relationship goals.

How to Avoid Insecurity in a Long-Distance Relationship? 

ignoring your personal insecurities and doubts about your long-distance relationship is unhealthy.

If you are feeling uncomfortable discussing your doubts with your long-distance partner, that could be assigned to you are not trusting them completely. Without trust, you can’t have a successful relationship. If you would like some guidance addressing any trust issues you may have in your relationship, this workbook will help you out.

With that in mind, if you have things on your mind or the feelings that are bothering you, it would be best if you were to share them with your long-distance partner. If you can do that, it will reassure you that you can trust your partner enough to share your most personal and most intimate things about you.

It’s crucial that your partner also feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings with you.

Trust goes both ways. If only one partner is opening up, while the other one doesn’t, this can lead to an unbalanced relationship.

If you feel like your relationship is having no direction, you can reassess your personal and relationship goals to reassure you, you and your partner are still going in the same direction. This workbook can help you to have clear goals for your relationship.

How to Overcome Insecurity in a Long-Distance Relationship? 

1. Face your insecurities
2. Separate your idea of self from your thoughts and behaviour
3. Share your insecurities with your partner
4. Get professional help and guidance to deal with your insecurities in a healthy way

The only way to overcome insecurity is to face it and express it. By talking about your insecurities, you’re taking away their power over you and your behaviour.

If you can’t openly talk about your insecurities, they will significantly affect your behaviour and your relationship. It can be helpful to discuss your personal insecurities and uncertainties about your relationship with your long-distance partner. 

However, it’s even more critical that you learn about yourself regardless of your relationship. Throughout your life, many people come and go. But the only person that’s always there with you from start to end is yourself. 

So, your relationship with yourself is the first relationship you need to work on. The better you know yourself, the more chances you have of having a healthy relationship with another person.

The first step to building a relationship with yourself is to discover your insecurities, and realise that all they are uncertainties and misguided beliefs.

If you would like to learn more about building a healthy relationship with yourself, check out Louise Hay.

If you would like some help and guidance with managing insecurities regarding your relationship, send us a message to see how we can help.

Conclusion

Insecurities and distrust lead to suspicions. In other words, when you have personal insecurities, and you don’t trust your partner completely, you will start being suspicious of them. You will want to know what they do and who they are with all the time. Later on, this will manifest as controlling behaviour.

The moment you try to control your long-distance partner, they will start being defensive. Their defensiveness can manifest as an unwillingness to share things with you.

If your partner feels overpowered by your controlling behaviour, they might go along with what you want. But in doing so, they will compromise their freedom and ability to do what they want to do with their life and time. 

While it may appear reassuring to you that your partner does what you want and you will feel less insecure for some time, for a long term relationship it won’t work and it will make both of you unhappy.

If you notice yourself being controlling of your long-distance partner, try to identify the insecurities that you have. However, it may not be easy to see them. But you can guess things that make you feel insecure. 

The best thing you can do is talk about them with your long-distance partner. There is a chance your partner will be able to tell you something that you might struggle to see for yourself about you or your behaviour.

if you would like to learn about various aspects of long-distance relationships and what it takes to make your relationship work, it is worth taking a look at this article.

How to Make Your Long-Distance Relationship Work

How Healthy Is Your Long-Distance Relationship?

If you are having doubts about your long-distance relationship and are not sure if you should try to fix it or let it go, here is our step by step guide to help you and your partner reassess your relationship and make an educated decision that works for both of you.

Relationship Coaching for Long-Distance Couples

Long-distance relationships are hard to maintain without knowing exactly what they involve.

However, once you understand what long-distance relationships are, what they are not and how to navigate them, you are a lot more likely to make it work.

We specialise in helping long-distance couples create and maintain a healthy relationship by building intimacy, trust and effective communication.

If you are starting a long-distance relationship or are already in one, send us a message to book an individual coaching session for yourself or a couples coaching session for you and your partner.

Frequently Asked Questions