The Ugly Truth About Jumping From One Toxic Relationship To Another

When a toxic relationship ends, you swear you will never put yourself in a repeat situation. You vow to raise your standards. To remain single until you find someone who has earned your affection.

Now that you know the red flags, you (mistakenly) assume it should be easy to avoid having your heart broken in the same way. 

For a while, you keep your promise. You turn down anyone who seems the slightest bit sketchy. You make sure you aren’t getting played and you feel good about your progress.

Then someone else comes along. You have strong chemistry with him. You have strong feelings for him. You couldn’t imagine walking away without giving him a chance, even though your gut warns you about what a horrible idea it would be to date him.

Then, before you know it, you’re trapped in another bad situation.

When you jump from one toxic relationship to the next, you feel like that’s all there is. You start to think of the screaming and cheating as normal. You get used to the unanswered texts, little white lies, and repeated disappointments.

Your friends remind you there are still good guys out there, but you question the validity to that statement. Everyone you have been involved with seems okay at first, but turns out to be the same as the rest of them. History keeps repeating itself.

You start to wonder whether you’ve been doing something wrong this whole time, because he’s not the first guy to treat you like this. Every guy has treated you like this. You become convinced you’re the problem. You must be doing something wrong. 

When you jump from one toxic relationship to another, your view on love becomes skewed. You think his jealousy is a sign he cares. You think it’s cute when he starts arguments after he catches you texting your guy friends or wearing low-cut shirts. You are complimented by the things you should be insulted about, because any attention from him is better than no attention.

When you jump from one toxic relationship to another, you lose track of your worth. You believe the mean things your person says to you during arguments. You apologize when you weren’t even the one who did something wrong. You let him take advantage of your kindness.

You assume you can’t do any better and wind up staying for longer than you should.

When you jump from one toxic relationship to another, you have a hard time believing someone out there will treat you the way you deserve — but it’s the truth.

Someone will talk to you about your emotions without turning it into a screaming match. Someone will answer your texts without making you wait half a day to hear from them. Someone will kiss your lips and go shopping with you and meet your parents without acting like it’s a chore.

Someone will treat you the way you deserve. You just have to leave your toxic relationships behind to find them.