{"id":18995,"date":"2022-02-01T15:40:17","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T10:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/?p=18995"},"modified":"2025-10-15T14:57:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T09:27:21","slug":"vasavi-yd-warrior-breaking-free-from-toxic-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/vasavi-yd-warrior-breaking-free-from-toxic-relationship.html","title":{"rendered":"How Vasavi Broke Free From a Toxic Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17096\" src=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ydwarriorstory-Vasavi-Parikh-header.png\" alt=\"Vasavi\u2019s Reflections After Breaking Free From a Toxic Relationship\" width=\"1250\" height=\"654\" \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A person with multiple interests, this is the story of 21-year-old Vasavi. A painter, dancer, an avid baker, traveller and a math genius! At such a young age, Vasavi has unravelled many shades of her multi-facet personality.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A designer by passion and profession, Vasavi takes a deep interest in illustration, animation and so on. She\u2019s currently pursuing Bachelor&#8217;s in Communication Design from Anant National University. Vasavi believes she\u2019s an extremely expressive person and illustrating and dancing help her leverage that.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c2020 was a hard time for me. I got out of a toxic relationship of four years, and it began to take a toll on my mental health.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17097 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ydwarriorstory-Vasavi-Parikh-innerimage1.png\" alt=\"With each passing day, Vasavi became more and more introverted.\" width=\"1250\" height=\"654\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1250px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1250\/654;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For four long years, not everything was sunshine and rainbows for Vasavi. She felt like she lost her identity and true self somewhere down the road. Taking basic decisions became a huge task for her.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With each passing day, Vasavi became more and more introverted. She started to isolate herself to get away from the toxic nature of the relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI lost many friends during that period of my life. I began to have panic attacks every now and then. My symptoms were visible physically too.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As human\u2019s emotions reflect boldly on their physical behaviour, Vasavi did not leave them behind. She started getting extreme chest pains and shortness of breath. The toxic surroundings made her have frequent headaches too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even after the breakup, Vasavi couldn&#8217;t get away from the toxicity. She wanted to try therapy and gain some guidance from an expert but never had a chance to, until she got introduced to YourDOST through her institute resources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17099 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ydwarriorstory-Vasavi-Parikh-innerimage2.png\" alt=\"Vasavi was aware of the fact that counseling is not a one time process, but a gradual one.\" width=\"1250\" height=\"654\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1250px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1250\/654;\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI got in touch with Meenakshi, my counselor from YourDOST via video calls. She was very inviting. She always made sure to ask how am I doing, before initiating any session.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meenakshi gave hope to break free from the ghost of a toxic relationship with Vasavi. She listened to Vasavi\u2019s concerns and provided her with appropriate guidance. Vasavi was aware of the fact that counseling is not a one time process, but a gradual one. So, she took a leap of faith and gave it all in!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meenakshi helped Vasavi with various coping mechanisms to deal with anxiety. She even suggested she follow the 54321 grounding technique to release negative thoughts, feel calm, and be present in the moment. Vasavi was astonished to witness how she regained lost confidence after a toxic relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI got back together with many of my friends, they were all very supportive for therapy and I even encouraged them to give it a try.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17246 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ydwarriorstory-Vasavi-Parikh-innerimage3.png\" alt=\"Vasavi started to identify certain behavioural patterns of her and realised how she can break free from those.\" width=\"1250\" height=\"654\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1250px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1250\/654;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vasavi started to identify certain behavioural patterns of her and realised how she can break free from those. Therapy was an eye-opening experience for Vasavi, she learned new things and unlearned a few.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI feel like I had a trait of getting attracted to toxic people, now I feel like I am far away from that. I stopped being dependent emotionally on others.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vasavi learnt how to draw boundaries and prioritise her mental health above anything else. She summarises her therapy experience with the word \u2018beautiful\u2019, and indeed, we can see how far she\u2019s come! Vasavi rates her overall therapy experience a solid 4 on 5.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vasavi has been volunteering with YourDOST on her college campus, and keeps spreading mental health awareness with everyone she encounters!<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"background-color: #91908f; width: 100%; padding: 25px; border-color: #white; border-width: 1px;\"><strong>Vasavi&#8217;s Warrior Tips:<\/strong><strong><br \/>\n1. Therapy is not something that people should be ashamed of. It is not true that you\u2019re a \u2018mad\u2019 or a \u2018crazy\u2019 person if you take therapy. Sometimes, people need help and it is okay to reach out.<br \/>\n2. Please reach out and don\u2019t let yourself suffer because it is not fair to your body.<br \/>\n3. I know it\u2019s hard to leave toxic relationships. But it is better to be out of it rather than suffer in silence. Be selfish for your mental health.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Are you someone who has gone through a difficult phase and emerged stronger and better, with some professional help? Share your story with us to encourage thousands of others who might be struggling.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/BecomeAYDWarrior\"><b><i><a href=\"#\" class=\"click-here-link\">click here<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i>\u00a0to submit your story.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A person with multiple interests, this is the story of 21-year-old Vasavi. A painter, dancer, an avid baker, traveller and a math genius! At such a young age, Vasavi has unravelled many shades of her multi-facet personality. A designer by passion and profession, Vasavi takes a deep interest in illustration, animation and so on. She\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-love-relationship","category-relationship-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37210,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18995\/revisions\/37210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}