Someone privately messaged me: "If you know a relationship is doomed to have no result, but you are especially reluctant to let go, can't immediately cut losses, can't let go, and feel drained every day, what should you do?"

My answer is: Relationships don't necessarily have to pursue a definite result. It's like eating candy—the sweetness is real, and the happiness at that moment is real. The sweetness doesn't become fake just because the candy is later finished. The same goes for relationships. The passion, happiness, and companionship it once brought you were all real. It's just that no feeling can remain in its initial state forever. When you start to realize that this relationship no longer makes you happy, and even feels like drinking something that has gone bad, making you instinctively want to spit it out, the disappointment and pain are equally real. The most painful part for people is often not that they are reluctant to end a relationship, but that they can neither return to the state of being in love nor admit that their current feelings have changed. Many times, what you miss is not this person, but the version of yourself that once believed this relationship would always be beautiful.