You broke me, you took me for granted and you knocked me down every time I needed you to pick me up. I was consumed by your love and approval and in the midst of all of it — lost my sense of worth.

There's three parts to a destructive relationship:

Part one: You're everything I wanted in that moment and more, but you took a fragile heart and turned me into an accomplice in your destructive ways.

You are the first person who broke my heart, and in that moment I thought I'd never be able to pick up the shattered pieces of what was left of my self-worth and respect. Being in that naive and innocent stage of my life, of course I didn't see it this way. I saw you as my happiness, my best friend and my everything. Although having to always wonder and questioning what you were doing behind my back was no way to live. The paranoia ate me alive and turned me to my worst. The way you threw me under a bus when I questioned you and how you always asked me to come to you when you were lonely was a juxtaposition to the "perfect" relationship I always perceived you and I to have.

I was your toy. You could use me when you wanted and forget about me the next day when something newer and something different came along. Your idea of committing was committing for one day and forgetting about me the next. I crawled back to you every time you called, and I let you emotionally destroy me. That was my biggest downfall; the fact that I let you take control of what I valued and my dependency on your satisfaction for my self-worth was like air. Regardless of everyone who cared for me telling me that you were wrong, I couldn't see it through, I could never leave you. I mean how could I? I loved you. I couldn't hear the people who truly loved me because I was too focused on loving someone who didn't feel the same.

Part two: Realizing how reckless and catastrophic I had been letting someone like you treat me and define my self-worth based off of someone who couldn't even respect themselves. This was the epiphany state, waking up and realizing it would be the last time, the last straw for letting this mistreatment go on. This was the best thing that ever happened to me. No longer waiting up late at night to see if you got home OK, no longer questioning my self-worth — was I ever good enough? The answer was and always has been yes because you never deserved an ounce of what I gave to you —endless and unconditional love.

Part three: It's been a year or two, and I'm completely over you. No care in the world, you're doing good? Awesome. You're not? Not too surprising, oh but me? I'm great. Enough time has passed and allowed me to see you for what you truly are, no bias or hate left in me. Just love now. Love for myself.

You taught me that the world doesn't end from one relationship. My world doesn't end on account of you and I not being a couple. I'm not bitter and I no longer resent you for the time and the effort that I invested previously. I'm no longer forgiving for the things I never really should have forgiven you for. The day I decided to leave was the hardest thing I had to do, but it also was the best decision I ever made for myself.

To anyone out there who has been hurt by a toxic relationship that went awry, you need to understand that your self-worth is not dependent on who you're with or who you were with. You are You. That's what you should wake up and base your self worth off of. Love Yourself (like Justin Bieber says).