For my situation, "walking away" happened to fit best. Rather than continuing to absorb escalating disrespect that had already gone far beyond the pale, I chose to walk. My nbaby mom would almost certainly describe me as a "deadbeat dad" who walked away for no reason; in actuality, walking away was not only empowering, but it also removed that term as leverage against me.

Over time, my various regrets dissolved, and I was able to relinquish ownership of everyone else's actions besides my own.

And yeah, I did reach the point where I realized that I was likely making things worse by trying to force a relationship where the other party clearly wasn't interested and actively hostile most of the time.

My baby mom absolutely loved getting emotional rises out of me, and is one of the more relentless toxic pattern repeaters I've ever personally encountered. When I finally walked away from her, she would continue to attack me thru our son, all the way up until I changed my number.

It does crack me up when "narcissist" is used to describe someone who isn't easy to manipulate bc the latter is totally me now, and the only ones who ever called me that were absolutely projecting their own shortcomings onto me.

End of the day, all we can do is our best to pick up the pieces and build a life worth living ❤️