=How Others Saved My Life Again & Again: a mini-essay=

The truly unfortunate thing is that I always lacked the strength and the necessary cruelty that comes with a healthy instinct for self-survival. I could never take the decisive step in breaking it off with someone no matter how destructive the relationship was for me, even when it was clearly and quite literally killing me by degrees, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Fortunately for me, other people are not commonly so encumbered by empathy or delicacy of feeling. The point always came when the other party would decide they'd finally had enough of me and without any hesitation, consultation, or consideration ruthlessly and unilaterally do what needed to be done for their own good. If I could never depend on myself to do what was best for me, I could always depend on the unkindness of those soon to become strangers.