why are bad/difficult relationships so difficult to end?

I guess when you love someone you always want things to get better and that's the reason why it is so difficult to give up. We always hope we can do something differenty in order to be happy and to make our partner happy and it is hard to accept the fact that nothing works.

Time is an important factor in relationships because of two things, in my opinion. First because it is difficult to reach that point when we decide we don't want to invest in that relationship any more. In the sense that if we gave 365 days to that relationship another day won't cost us much. But we don't realize that we live our life day by day and not in 1 month periods or 1 year periods. And second because we feel that we invested too much time and we don't feel like investing it in a new relationship that can turn out to be as bad as the old one.

The fear of being alone is really scary but then I think to myself...in a bad relationship we are unhappy and if we break it up maybe one day we will be happy with someone else but if we stay in that relationship the chances are really slim that the relationship would change so much that we end up being happy in the end. So what kind a leads me when breaking up is the thought that I am actually giving myself a chance to be happy again one day.

Nicely said. I know that's true, but it makes me thing about the peoples' nature. I have this relative who has been in a really bad relationship for almost 3 years already. She is surrounded by people who love her but she keeps failing them because she is fighting for the love of a man who doesn't desirve her. She continuously tries to get his approvement and she will never get it because they have different set of values. She continuously tries to make him see her point of view but he never does so she talks about him with everyone she meets and she don't want to hear she has to leave him but the only thing she wants to hear is that she is doing everything right while her boyfriend is doing everything wrong. I think that she asks for the approval of other people because she can't get one from her boyfriend.

Yeah the guilt is the worst. I feel that the hardest part is actually admitting ourselves that the relationship has no future because then we have to admit that we were wrong and it is difficult to accept that. i think most of people do the things they do because they believe that's the best way so to admit that maybe it wasn't the best way, it wasn't the best thing it is really difficult. If for a year or two you put up with someone who treats you badly and you convince yourself that it's ok it id difficult to wake up one day and say to yourself that you don't want to be treated that way any more.