A warning before we begin. This episode includes discussions about domestic violence and abuse.

If that subject is a trigger or difficult for you to hear, then I encourage you to skip this episode.

Listen or discretion is advised.

Do you know the moment a relationship goes bad?

Is it one moment or thousands of little moments or big ones that add up

over time? Do five years or ten years or twenty years eventually culminate into one instant where everything turns and you suddenly

know it's over, you're over it, and you have to get out.

For some, it's small flashes of unhappiness knowing that although no one's done anything you could necessarily define as wrong, you're not happy.

These moments and seconds can be fraught with misery.

Sometimes they're filled with hope that this will be the last argument,

or the last time you have to remind someone about a mundane task,

which on the surface seems like nothing.

But inside it's the 15,000th time

you've repeated the same request over a decade,

and it's more than just asking someone to take out the trash

or fold the laundry.

It's the realization that your partner doesn't listen to you.

Is that merely how they're wired? Is it a gender thing?

Or do they simply not care and ignore you?

Lives like these are lived in a constant state of flux, the lows of arguing in the highs of making up, or the lows of arguing in the highs of a normal

day, which just doesn't include an argument.

Some relationships don't even have those peaks and valleys. They're flat.

...