Been there, done that.
Spent over 5 years not getting over an arse of a boyfriend I was miserable with for most of the paltry six months we were together. After we split, my alcoholism REALLY went into full gear.
I was still stuck on him when another self loathing, alcoholic/addict swept me off my drunken feet. Spent about 8 months with him whilst he whipped and battered me emotionally...always trying to make me jealous, lying to me, cheating on me..always saying insensitive things to get me to react to prove I cared. Yup, these were the princes on white stallions in my life. And I held on to them...Admittedly, the second I got over much quicker. I sobered up and I realized that his inability to love and care for me said a helluva lot more about him that it did about me.
I dunno what it takes for us to get over those who really didn't treat us the way a person should be treated. Why do we hang on? Dunno. Seems pretty stupid huh? Is this all we feel we deserve ..some lying coward that couldn't give us what we need anyway? I think we just use it to beat ourselves with ..cuz that's what we do...beat ourselves all the time. Somewhere we learned that was okay.