Some people stay in a bad situation because it’s familiar. Misery with a routine still isn’t home.

Familiarity does a convincing impression of safety. When something difficult has a shape you know, your mind treats the predictability itself as a reason to stay, even when what is predictable is the hurt. Recognising a pattern is not the same as being at home in it, though the two can feel identical from inside.

Ask whether you would choose this again today if it were offered fresh, with no history attached. If the honest answer is no, you do not have to leave tomorrow, but you can stop calling the staying a preference.