Because of acceptance and hope. We acknowledge it is harming us, but we refuse to accept it. We hope it won’t harm us at some point. Sometimes, even if it’s right in front of us and obvious, we refuse to see how the situation or person truly is.
How many times have we been in strange situations and said, “I cannot believe he/she is like this!” or “I cannot believe this is happening!” This means we refuse to accept how things really are. The reason for this is acceptance. We don’t accept the situation and expect a “wonder.” Why don’t we accept it? Because of hope. We hope, sometimes until the very end, that a person is different than they seem, that a situation isn’t how it appears, or that everything will change. There’s a saying related to marriage that sometimes applies: “A man will marry a woman because he likes her and hopes she won’t change, but she will. A woman will marry a man because she likes him and hopes she can change him, but he will not change.”
At some point, when we stop caring, it’s because we gave up hope. That’s also the moment we choose to let it stop harming us.