Bad topic for College essays?

I was in an emotionally abusive relationship for my junior year the most important year of high school. What really freaks me out is that my grades dropped / GPA also dropped A lot since I would be up crying instead of studying and just wanted to sleep to null the pain. What sucked was I took AP Physics and AP chem that year too whmuch required A lot of work and studying . I used to be a top student and incredibly high achieving but then this junior year, because of the relationship , I lost all my confidence and self esteem and kinda gave up. I finally broke the relationship up after school ended and now I have rebounded with more confidence than I ever had and also started a blog to share my experiences in the relationship to help other teens and students that may have the same situations. However much I rebounded, I don’t know if I could write this in my college essays. It was a life changing experience that although brought me down so low but also now I am much stronger and I wanted to answer the overcoming failure prompt for this year’s essay, but I am extremely worried that the college admissions will think I was petty and weak to talk about a relationship problem as my college essay. I know it was not a valid excuse for the drop of grades but I just want to show that this was a life changing experience and now I am stronger and resilient. Should I write about this topic? It changed my look on everything since through out this relationship I learned a lot about accepting the past and moving on to focus on bigger and better things. I learned how to not fill my life with regrets but move forward. I don’t know if this topic is petty or cliche. I’m very worried and would greatly appreciate any comment!!

I read somewhere that relationship problems are not good excuses, but what happens if it was just in general a life changing experience?

Does this essay “give them a reason to say yes”??? Or would another essay do the job better? That’s the acid test for college essays.

Your guidance counselor could certainly tell a bit of your story in her letter, freeing your essay for a topic which could better “sell” your application.