Sometimes though, there’s nothing in your way except you. Sometimes there are circumstances that make leaving difficult.
It is maintained, not through love and connection, but through habit. It doesn’t thrive and it doesn’t nurture. The relationship exists but that’s all it does, and sometimes barely even that. Whatever it involves, there are important needs that stay hungry, for one of both people in the relationship. The signs might lie in the loneliness, a gentle but constant heartache, a lack of security, connection or intimacy or the distance between you both. Perhaps it did once but that ended long ago. Sometimes there is nothing outstandingly obvious – it just doesn’t feel right. Sometimes the signs are clear – emotional and physical abuse, constant criticism, lying, cheating, emotional starvation. It is one that consistently steals your joy and follows you around with that undeniable clamour that this isn’t how it’s meant to be. When relationships become loveless, hostile, stingy or dangerous, you would think they would be easy to leave, but they can be the hardest ones to walk away from.Ī bad relationship isn’t about being on the downward slide of the usual relationship ups and downs. So is the hope of love. All relationships can be likened to an addiction, but sometimes the power of this can be self-destructive. When it’s a toxic relationship, the breakage can be far-reaching. People need people, but sometimes the cost is a heavy one. We fall in love, we commit, we get hurt – over and over – and we stay. Sadly, we humans tend to be a bit more human than that. If life ran like a storybook, the person we fall in love would not be the person who broke us.