My boyfriend broke up with me because his depression and anxiety has gotten worse.

So my boyfriend (18) and I (22) had been dating for a little over a year. We’re both in college and everything has been great. No major fights, arguments or anything to cause real relationship issues. We’ve been through a lot together with him coming out to his religious family and me telling and introducing him to mine. It’s been a year of challenges but together we overcame them. Now I’ve known that my boyfriend had anxiety and depression because he’s talked about it with me before, not in great detail because he was raised that it was weak to talk about his mental health. I’ve even helped him through a few of his panic attacks. So pretty much everything’s been going great.

Then all of a sudden at the end of March he asked for a break because he needed some space. I gave it to him and he came back a day later saying he’s never needed me more than ever because he’s so depressed and he wasn’t in the right headspace and that he loves me and everything’s easier when we’re together. So we tried working through this together and I thought things were going great, aside from school and work stress. Fast forward to May. He texts me out of blue saying he needs to talk, so we meet up and he says he needs to break up with me because his depression and anxiety has gotten really bad and he feels like he can’t talk to me about it and that he needs space and time to figure himself out. So hearing all of this I’m a wreck, I’m trying to talk to him and tell him that we can come up with plans to work through this and that it’s always been better and easier together; we’ve always been stronger together, which we’ve said to each other multiple times whenever it gets rough. I can’t convince him of anything. So I tell him that no mater what I’m still here for him and that I’m not giving up on him and that I know he can get through this because he’s tough and I’ll always be here if he needs me.

So after the break up we've said that we still love and care about each other. It’s been about three weeks now that we’ve been broken up and it feels like he’s just cutting me out of his life and wants nothing to do with me. He’s responded to my few texts but ignores my attempts to meet up and talk. I feel like I’ve lost half of myself and it’s so hard not being able to be there for him and not talking is the hardest thing in the world. I love him so much, we’ve been through so much together and I don’t want to give up, not only on us but him. He’s going on this two month long trip to Ireland this summer and then we’ll be back at school in the fall. I really want to be there and help him and of course I want to rekindle the relationship.

I guess me question is how can I still be there for him when it feels like he doesn’t want me in his life right now and is there a chance we can get our relationship back? 

2 likes, 3 replies