Why do people hold on to dead end relationships? Is it to validate a status or a way to avoid starting over?

Plenty of us are in relationships that are on a one way ticket to nowhere...

Does this mean that you should sit down re-evaluate your spouse.. or place yourself back on the market? Yes and no! This means you need to sit down carefully and weigh out the pros and con's of your current situation. I have spend the last 12 years with someone I was madly in love with... but it is a dead end situation. I want kids and he could care less. But in 2009 I began a new chapter of my life. I applied and was accepted to graduate school and made a promise to myself that I would move on when it was near finished. Here we are today, half way through and I want to jump off the relationship roller coaster prematurely. Yes there are marriages that don't last 12 years, but complacency can be more deadly then the plague. Relationships stale and partners forget each others needs, become comfortable and forget what brought them together in the first place. Today I feel more distant then all the days that previously followed. Now to say I do not love my boy-friend of 12 years would be a lie however, the distance in my heart has grown longer and farther away from the start of conception. My sister made a comment earlier today when I mentioned dating. She said "Ddon't you do this every summer?" I answered with a yes and a no. Yes I reassess my relationship every year but more so during the summer when I feel a sense of being reborn. Maybe its the spirit in be wanting to be free, maybe I want to run so far and away that I tend to try to break free only to be disappointed with the variety and selection of men out in the world today.

Relationships do become complacent and they do stale. But the real question is do you keep trying or just wake up and realize that sometimes jumping ship may just be the right move for you.