One-Sided Love Is Slow Suicide

You keep giving, and they just keep taking.

You hold onto hope, but they drift away.

Yet somehow, you still call that love.

But there’s something important you should know.

One-sided love doesn’t break you in a single moment.

It breaks you slowly,

quietly...

in pieces so small you barely notice

It’s every text they never answer.

Every time they say, “I’ll call you later,” but never do.

Every time you practice what you want to say,

only for them to act like you don’t exist.

You don’t see any wounds.

You just... shrink.

Without realizing it.

You start waking up thinking about them.

You go to bed replaying the same memories.

Moments that meant everything to you,

but nothing at all to them.

You remember their moods and their schedule,

the way they laugh, even the way they breathe

but they can’t even remember your birthday

unless you remind them first.

And still, you stay.

You keep convincing yourself:

“If I just show more love, they’ll feel it.”

“If I just hold on a little longer, they’ll choose me.”

But that isn’t really love.

That’s self-neglect dressed up as devotion

Pain starts to feel normal.

You get used to being hurt.

You get used to waiting around.

You settle for crumbs and pretend it’s a meal,

because you’ve forgotten what fullness feels like.

Then one day, you realize something.

You don’t even recognize yourself anymore.

You’ve been living like a shadow,

in a life where the sun never seems to rise for you.

That’s the part that feels like slow suicide:

not the loving,

but the disappearing.

The way you lower your voice,

your standards,

your boundaries,

just so you’ll be tolerated

by someone you would’ve given the world to.

But here’s the truth your heart has been avoiding:

You can’t make someone love you.

You can’t build a home in someone

who treats you like you’re just passing through.

And your worth,

your beautiful, unshakeable worth,

will never be determined

by those who fail to see you.

The moment you stop begging for the bare minimum,

the moment you quietly tell yourself,

“I deserve more than this.”

that’s when the healing begins.

It isn’t easy.

It hurts.

It really does hurt.

Letting go feels like learning how to breathe again

after being underwater for a long time.

At first, it stings.

Then, slowly and gently,

you come back to yourself.

Choosing yourself is not selfish; it's survival.

Walking away doesn’t mean you’re giving up.

It means you’re waking up.

It’s realizing that the kind of love you dream about

doesn’t live in the heart you’ve been hoping for.

Real love?

It doesn’t make you feel small.

It doesn’t make you doubt your worth.

It doesn’t show up late,

or respond with silence,

or treat your feelings like they’re a bother.

Real love meets you in the middle.

Real love stays.

Real love truly sees you.

So if you’re reading this,

if this is your story…

if your heart is tired of waiting for someone

who never really shows up.

This is your sign.

Stop dying slowly for a love that isn’t alive.

Choose yourself.

Because that choice,

that brave, painful, necessary choice,

is how you start over.

One-sided love might feel like you’re slowly disappearing,

but choosing yourself?

That’s a new beginning.