Do more than Survive
The normal sane reaction to finding out that someone you love is in an abusive relationship, is to tell them to leave. And It’s easy to say when you’re not in it. I’ve told many friends that were with toxic partners to leave because again, hindsight is 20/20. But when I was in one, despite people who would express concern, it was still hard for me to leave. I was already going through a rollercoaster of emotion with my family, school and work, so having no direction made me perfect for this specific person. Even if you can’t leave because your brain has not reached that point where it can recognize the big neon letters of “THIS IS FUCKING ABUSE”, it’s important to keep hold of yourself. During this period of my life, I was in survival mode almost all the time to keep myself from driving off a bridge just to escape.