Love in The Shadows: Unhealthy Side of Dark Romance Novels
Don’t let them manipulate your mind !!
To be honest, I was addicted to dark romance novels until I realized how it’s affecting my mental health.
At first, I found them very interesting, full of fantasy, and romance (yeah okay, I liked to read romance) but soon my mentality changed, I’ll talk about it further but tell me first, How could a story like “A criminal male character raped any random girl to satisfy his male ego, and then married her forcefully just because he fell in love with her, and after that, the girl also fell in love with that man” make sense? I mean, wtf man, yes you can call me stupid because I used to read them for hours...
However,
Soon, I stopped wasting my time on this piece of sh*t and started reading some useful content.
Now let’s talk about “how it can be unhealthy for your mind.”
"Emotional Impact:
I don’t know whether you’ve felt it or not, but I’ve realized that when I read any novel or watch any series, I switched my personality to the character I loved. Okay, I agree this is funny but what could I do? So I just stopped consuming unhealthy content.
Dark romance novels often contain intense and emotionally charged themes, including violence, manipulation, and unhealthy relationships. Constant exposure to such content can desensitize you or lead to heightened emotional responses, depending on the individual.
Unrealistic Expectations:
You can’t deny me here that fantasies make our expectations high. We start expecting perfection from our partners and are always unsatisfied with them.
You may develop unrealistic expectations about love and relationships, as these novels often portray intense and possessive love as desirable. This can lead to dissatisfaction in real-life relationships.
Escapism:
Some readers turn to dark romance novels as a form of escapism, which can be healthy in moderation. However, excessive escapism can be detrimental if it interferes with daily responsibilities or real-life relationships.
Impact on Mental Health:
For individuals who are already struggling with mental health issues, reading dark romance novels with heavy themes may exacerbate their conditions. It's essential to be mindful of how such content affects your mental well-being.
You may start assuming anger as a sign of masculinity, or normalize forceful love, jealousy, and over-possessiveness towards your partner.
Personal Boundaries:
Stretched exposure to explicit content and dark themes can blur personal boundaries and desensitize readers to unhealthy behaviours depicted in the novels.
Reduced Social Interaction:
Spending too much time immersed in books can lead to reduced social interaction, which can impact one’s social skills and relationships.
I see some girls normalizing ‘Marital rapes’ and forced marriages on social media by just reading these novels, they want a man like that and you know what? They are normal with all of this.
Honey, that is an imaginary life, you’re living as a human in real life, please make your standards high because you can’t tolerate that nonsense.
