<p><br></p><p><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> </strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><strong>Escaping the Sweet Trap of a Toxic Relationship</strong></span><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">”</strong></p><p><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br></strong></p><p><strong>At first, it feels like magic. The attention, the late-night calls, the promises that drip with sweetness. You think, “Finally. Someone sees me.” But soon, that sweetness becomes something else, a syrup that chokes rather than nourishes.</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>Toxic love doesn’t always show up with bruises or broken plates. Sometimes, it comes in disguised forms:</strong></p><p><strong>The jokes that sting but end with “I’m just playing.”</strong></p><p><strong>The silent punishments when you don’t obey.</strong></p><p><strong>The constant need to explain your every move, like you're living on trial in a courtroom called “love.”</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>It starts to change you. You shrink yourself to avoid arguments. You silence your voice to keep the peace. You start apologizing for things you shouldn’t be sorry for. Your boundaries begin to bend, and then vanish because you’ve been taught that “compromise” means “losing yourself.”</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>You’re told it’s love, but love shouldn’t feel like walking on glass barefoot.</strong></p><p><strong>Love shouldn’t make you cry more than it makes you laugh.</strong></p><p><strong>Love shouldn’t be pain dressed in promises.</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>Toxic relationships thrive in confusion. One moment they adore you, the next, they ignore you. One day you’re their world, the next you're their punching bag, emotionally, mentally, sometimes physically. But here's the truth: real love doesn’t destroy you to prove its existence.</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>And walking away? It’s not weakness.</strong></p><p><strong>It’s courage.</strong></p><p><strong>It’s choosing to breathe freely again.</strong></p><p><strong>It’s reclaiming your identity, your power, your peace.</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>Healing after toxicity isn’t easy. You’ll question your worth. You’ll replay the good moments and wonder if you were the problem. But healing also opens your eyes. You begin to understand that the love you were begging for from someone else was always something you were worthy of all along.</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>You were not too emotional.</strong></p><p><strong>You were not too sensitive.</strong></p><p><strong>You were not “hard to love.”</strong></p><p><strong>You were just giving your heart to someone who didn’t know how to hold it gently.</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>So if you’re in that place now, confused, torn, hurting, know this:</strong></p><p><strong>You deserve a love that doesn’t ask you to suffer first.</strong></p><p><strong>You deserve a love that feels like freedom, not fear.</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>Let go of the poison. There is healing on the other side. And yes, there is love too, </strong><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">the kind that holds, not harms.</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><br></p>
When Love Becomes Poison
By
Bibi Ire
•
2 plays