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Do I just give up?

compassionateWriter9710 April 8th, 2020

Background: my boyfriend and I have been together for over 2 years and lived together for almost a year and a half of that time. We both struggle with anxiety and depression. He stopped his medication over a year ago. He gets low sometimes and often questions if he loves himself and if he cant love himself can he love me?

Things were great until about 6 months ago when I started doubting his commitment to the relationship and wondered if he was having doubts about me. He assured me that it had nothing to do with me and that he was just dealing with his emotions. I assumed it was just my own anxiety telling me that he was doubting me.

In October, he was accepted into a masters program overseas. Because of my work situation we had always know that we would be long distance for 2020. So him leaving didnt bother me. However he started distancing himself, and when asked he just said there was a lot of pressure with the move.

Right now: Just before the lockdown, he broke up with me. I feel like he justified all the anxieties I was having and that everything was a lie. He told me that he had been processing his feelings and hadnt actually decided until a week before he did it. His reason for breaking up: he doesnt love me the way I love him. He is struggling to love himself and so he doesnt feel like he can love me.

I feel devastated. I never got the chance to work things out with him or support him with what hes going through. He just ended things. During the break up, he even told me that he has been seeing a therapist to try work on himself but he never mentioned this to be before. He said hes tried everything to try and fix things. However I feel like this is untrue as he never actually communicated with me about it and had been distancing himself. I feel almost as if he was distancing himself so much that he was almost preparing in case he decided to break up with me.

I am shocked and our families are shocked, they never saw it coming at all.

Advice: Is this worth persuing? Is this just his anxiety/depression that needs to be worked through? Should I just cut my losses and move on? I miss him so much and his mom and I have been in contact which makes things harder to let go of. He doesnt want to talk to me though and its hard to sort this out with the distance. I honestly just want to buy a ticket and go sort this out in person but with this virus its just not possible and it would be a huge time/money commitment that might just anger him and make things worse. What do I do?

8
InsightfullyJanell April 9th, 2020

It's hard to give up on someone you love even when the relationship is unhealthy. I don't think you should give up. I think that you should do all you can to save the relationship and if that doesn't work then you move on. But don't give up until you've given it all you have to give. I think in the mean time you should focus on your mental health like your ex is doing. It would give you both a way to relate to each other and reconnect. You could share experiences that you both had with therapy and maybe your efforts will give him a reason to fight for it as well (when he sees you getting help too). Good luck

1 reply
compassionateWriter9710 OP April 10th, 2020

@InsightfullyJanell this is a wonderfully thought out response, thank you. You are right that I need to focus on myself and just see where that takes both of us.

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