Boyfriend Amando: A Personal Journal Analysis

In my two previous journals, I have written about my current romantic relationship with my boyfriend Amando. As a reminder, we have been together for two years. We met at Texas State while he was a senior and I was a freshman. Our relationship moved a little fast but we do not regret any moment of it. He currently lives in San Antonio so we have a semi-long distance relationship by not seeing each other as much as we would like. In this journal, I will identify idealization and apply it my current relationship.
Our textbook states that idealization is when people describe their relationship and/or partner in an overly positive light. (Guerrero, Andersen, & Afifi 2014) Idealization happens more frequently in long distance relationships due to the lack of face to face contact. This probably happens more often in long distance because since they are not seeing each other all the time they put on their positive face and they start to create a halo effect within their mind about their partner. Normally the act of

It helps because it does keep me faithful to him. I do not see him as much as I wish I could but when I think about him I cannot help but smile. I may exaggerate our relationship to other people but it could be so much worse than what is. Idealization helps me realize what I have when I forget. I see him as someone who has helped me through so much in my life and by helping me I feel as though I put him on an even higher status than before. The more I am writing though the more I feel that idealization is not just tricky, but also toxic. I feel as though within idealization comes a sense of interdependence. If we idealize one person so much we cause them to reach an unattainable level that physically and emotionally no human on earth can achieve. Makes me wonder if that is why our book does not bring external elements into the section. Idealization is just something we should try to stay away