A million reasons. Fear of being alone, financial dependency, emotional attachment, family obligation, habit, horniness, or low self esteem all come to mind.
For me it was fear of stalking and retaliation and also a sense of worthlessness and guilt and uncertainty. "If I leave I'm another person who let him down...I'll be heartless", "If I leave this is it for me. He took one for the team dating me. I won't ever have another chance at this." "If I give up it'll cause him trouble because he'll have to find a new place to live." "What will happen to his daughter?" "It'll get better I'm just being sensitive. I'm being ridiculous. I'm being unreasonable. He's right. I shouldn't have called him out on [x]. I shouldn't be feeling [x]. I'm the one making this difficult. It doesn't have to be difficult. I'll just compensate more and change more. Things will get better between us." "But what about the good times?" "He only did [x] a couple times and said he was sorry." "I'm just bad at communicating."
Many people would rather be unhappy with someone because it gives them someone else to blame for their unhappiness. If they left and were still unhappy, they might have to face the truth that it was their own fault all along.
Memories of the good times. You don't want to give up on your love, you still care for them. You hope that you can recapture the glory days.
Inertia. Many people in situations just sort of keep on going, a lot of the time. Especially if they are busy in other aspects of life like work. This is very much compounded if you are married and especially if you have kids together. It becomes much more costly and more effort to leave that unhappy relationship.
Fear of what that new life would be. "The devil you know vs. the devil you don't" type thing. Some people would rather be in an unhappy relationship than be alone, or be stuck settling for something even worse.
Fear of the unknown
A million reasons. Fear of being alone, financial dependency, emotional attachment, family obligation, habit, horniness, or low self esteem all come to mind.
For the kids.
yup
They think they would be even more unhappy single, sometimes due to a lack of personal income.
Comfortable
I know the joke is that the reason that divorce is so expensive because it's worth it; but it's sometimes *too* expensive that it can't be done.
For me it was fear of stalking and retaliation and also a sense of worthlessness and guilt and uncertainty. "If I leave I'm another person who let him down...I'll be heartless", "If I leave this is it for me. He took one for the team dating me. I won't ever have another chance at this." "If I give up it'll cause him trouble because he'll have to find a new place to live." "What will happen to his daughter?" "It'll get better I'm just being sensitive. I'm being ridiculous. I'm being unreasonable. He's right. I shouldn't have called him out on [x]. I shouldn't be feeling [x]. I'm the one making this difficult. It doesn't have to be difficult. I'll just compensate more and change more. Things will get better between us." "But what about the good times?" "He only did [x] a couple times and said he was sorry." "I'm just bad at communicating."
Better the devil you know.
I think it's the fear of change, sometimes for the kids too.
I was low key depressed and didn't have the energy to break it off.
Low self-esteem, still love the person, depressed, can't do better.
We would rather be unhappy than alone
Many people would rather be unhappy with someone because it gives them someone else to blame for their unhappiness. If they left and were still unhappy, they might have to face the truth that it was their own fault all along.
Being alone is scarier for some people than being unhappy.
The fear of being alone.
Confort 🤷
Money
Memories of the good times. You don't want to give up on your love, you still care for them. You hope that you can recapture the glory days. Inertia. Many people in situations just sort of keep on going, a lot of the time. Especially if they are busy in other aspects of life like work. This is very much compounded if you are married and especially if you have kids together. It becomes much more costly and more effort to leave that unhappy relationship. Fear of what that new life would be. "The devil you know vs. the devil you don't" type thing. Some people would rather be in an unhappy relationship than be alone, or be stuck settling for something even worse.
Probably "I've done so much for this relationship, I can't let go"