The very purpose of a marriage is to facilitate couples to share life’s richness and adversity and enhance sexual attraction, so that they will together be able to face the world as one unit. However, when your relationship becomes problematic, you got to learn coping skills or decide   to end the relationship.

While some relationship problems can genuinely impact marriages adversely, others can be overcome with understanding, counseling, compromise and mediation. Find out which are real problem relationships.

1. Abusive Relationship: You certainly are in a soup, if you experience physical abuse in or subject your partner to physical abuse. The body is a temple and the soul is the shrine within. So, respecting your partner’s body is sacred to your marriage. Similarly, your body too is a temple which needs to be cherished. It’s advisable not to tolerate any abuse, no matter how deeply you’re in love. Tolerating for the first time encourages the abuse. Remember, tolerance means that you suffer from a low self-esteem. Things will not change, unless you invoke change. There should be no ‘first time’ and even the first time should not be pardoned.
2. Emotional, Mental Or Psychological Abuse: If you thought only physical abuse was dangerous, think again. Threatening, emotional blackmail, labeling, name-calling, continuous cheating, being a control freak etc also indicate that you’re in a problem relationship. Although all marriages experience the aforementioned problems sometimes, if these become a routine in your marriage, then surely, you need help. Minor abuse can be tackled by giving ‘tit for tat’. However, for major problems, it’s wise to seek psychological counseling or even treatment. If nothing helps, it’s wise to walk away in order to keep your self-esteem intact. 
3. Sexual Harassment: Some women and even men do site instances where their partners though otherwise loving, during an intimate intercourse seem perverted. While there’s no thumb-rule that dictates a certain sexual act is perverse, both partners should be comfortable experimenting different sexual practices. Whatever is unacceptable to one partner violates the marriage. Some partners display masochism or sadism, but if sadism means resorting to dangerous methods, then you do have a problem relationship at hand. For example, if whipping causes wounds, it’s certainly unacceptable. Anal sex is illegal. Although counseling helps, it’s otherwise wise to move along.
4. Addiction: Addiction to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes etc all tell on your marriage. When partners cross the limit in alcohol consumption, regardless of being physically harmless, it does threaten the fabric of a relationship. Drugs are dangerous and can result in personality and psychological disorders. Smoking is harmful and can be curbed with patience, self-control and counseling. Depending upon the relationship between partners, you can opt for rehabilitation. It’s a long tedious process, but anything can be overcome with the abuser’s will-power and determination and the partner’s patience.     
5. Personality And Psychological Disorders: Some people are nervous, prone to anxiety and obsessive and compulsive disorders. You can afford to ignore minor disturbances or treat them. It isn’t a stigma to get treated for neurosis, as control, is in the sufferer’s hands. However, if psychological disorders like schizophrenia etc surge their ugly head, you do have a serious relationship problem. Persisting treatment under competent medical supervision is the only solution. Behavior modification helps to a certain extent. The victimized partner should ensure that they aren’t subject to physical abuse, no matter what. Under such circumstances, admitting the patient in an asylum or staying away are the only solutions.
6. Infidelity: Although it’s universally accepted that partners sometimes do stray, straying very often does pose a threat to a marriage. Since eons, women have borne the brunt if their husbands strayed, and labeled ‘shrews’, ‘dominating’ or ‘unattractive’, but, when she strays, it’s she who’s again blamed. However, the harsh fact is that, it’s usually the partner with low self-esteem who strays. Emotional infidelity too is a threat to a marriage and must be curbed. It takes two to tango and both partners may be at fault, more so the one who errs. Couple- Counseling combined with concentrated effort can help.
7. Homosexuality: It is a problem relationship, if a partner, nurses an attraction only for the same sex! While infidelity with the opposite sex can be solved, homosexuality is mostly genetic. If homosexuality is a result of faulty childhood experiences, counseling helps. However, if it’s due to genetic factors, it’s difficult. Yet, it’s imperative to remember that friendship is the foundation of any marriage. If you’re friends first, then lovers, then surely empathy and patience help to turn your partner’s attention back. Patience is the keyword. Psychological Conditioning too is an alternative. 
8. Other Problems: Problems like irritating habits, frequently changing jobs, being a spendthrift, a miser, a critic or possessive are minor. Communication, counseling, intervention, assertiveness all help, but these are not considered major relationship problems.