Not in a DB myself, but interested in the topics of apathy in general. Fear leads to freezing and inaction, protracted inaction leads to weakness. Weakness corrupts the human character as time progresses, until the person becomes but a shell of their former self. Empty shells bend to minimum pressure and any sign of adversity crushes them. This is how a perfectly good human being is sacrificed for no other reason than the lack of courage to act.

Starts with the LL, then, given enough time, the HL is infected with apathy as well and before you know it, they've been living in misery together for 20 years. Everything is perfect (except for the minor detail of one partner's spirit being crushed completely by the loss of their partner as they knew them).

This corruption, this sickness - it gains its own momentum. It requires a radical intervention - time to amputate something before everything dies. Someone has to hold the scalpel. Someone has to have the courage and decency to cut.

Rarely, the LL will muster up the courage to take the scalpel and do the cutting. Cut out the dead part in themselves. I've done this myself for personal issues, several times. It takes the form of looking myself in the mirror and pronouncing "This is not who I am. This person that I've become - that's not me, that's just some dead person who is leaving." And by taking this brief look in the mirror and making this decision, a LL too can use the scalpel of their courage and cut out the corruption.

This happens rarely. Maybe the LL doesn't have the courage necessary to do the job. More often than not, their weakness has overtaken them so completely that they won't even invest the nominal energy of realizing the extent of the inner death. If the HL musters the courage, they can try to save at least themself. Sometimes the LL is just beyond help and needs to be removed from the HL's life before they too die completely inside. It's really an act of supreme mercy, cutting a person from your life in a situation like that.

Sadly, I get the impression that no one has the courage to get the scalpel and do the cutting. So both the HL and the LL succumb to the corruption completely, the spark is extinguished and they continue a mechanical existence of automatons. When they meet a childhood friend, they hear "What's happened to you? Where is the person I used to know?" You think they would be sad but they can't because giving a shit about anything is something they no longer do.

So... Do you have the courage and the power to cut? I do. I have removed people, places, time periods, personal traits from my own self and life, and I'll do it again. As a proper human being, I decide what leaves and what stays. There are people, experiences, personal attitudes or traits that are unwelcome. I tell them to leave. If they won't, I make them.

Keep the scalpel sharp and hone your cutting skills. With a little practice, cutting away the unwelcome can become your second nature. Deep decisive slashes so the dead weight can't pull you down. Start cutting. Chop-chop!