Toby Simon said, “It always amazes me when I ask a large group of students to raise their hands if they know someone who they think is in an unhealthy relationship. Most of the students raise their hands. So it’s all around us. Students are accustomed to seeing these unhealthy relationships and even on occasion, trying to intervene to help a friend. So our students can clearly articulate what they see as healthy relationships and usually know some warning signs to watch out for. But whether or not they recognize or can acknowledge that they too, might be in one that’s not healthy, is another matter. Denial is the biggest factor in getting someone to even admit things are not going well. We tend to confuse things like manipulation, verbal abuse, and control with love. It’s not!! Love is not supposed to hurt. Clearly putting that knowledge in to practice to get out of an unhealthy relationship is really really tough.”
Love is supposed to be fun, simple, and comforting. It’s easy for some to fall head over heels for the bad guy, get tricked into a bad situation, or feel bad about the way we are treated. It’s also easy for some to not do a single thing about it.
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