Hello!
I’m worried I (16M) made my ex-boyfriend (17M) unhappy and I feel tremendous guilt over it. I now doubt my ability to form romantic relationships with others in the future because of this worry.

For some context, a guy and I essentially dated for the better part of half a year. He dumped me in March of this year, and ever since I have been troubled by guilt that I had been a burdensome lover and made him unhappy.

To be clear, I do not want to get back together with him. I love him and have immense gratitude for him because he taught me how to love again after an abusive relationship I was in a few years back. I think a part of me will always love him for that, but I do not have the same passion that I once did as we have grown apart since the breakup.

When we were together, we were extremely intimate, all of the time. We would talk every day, sometimes all day on and off. We were very close and used the L-word a lot with each other. We also were both very *into it* sexually, if you know what I mean without me having to elaborate. However, he’s more of an introverted person than me and is the type of person to listen while I’m the type of person to talk and talk and talk. I think he prefers to play video games and enjoy his own company than to be amongst people who expect him to constantly engage.

I think this difference jarred him a lot and suddenly, out of nowhere, he dumped me. He told me that he felt overwhelmed and burnt out being with someone so extroverted and felt we would be better off apart. At this point, for him, maintaining the relationship was untenable. What’s more, he said he had been having his doubts and feeling this way for a month before he decided to break up with me, but his desire to make it work and get used to the “fatigue”, coupled with the fear of hurting me, took him so long to admit his true feelings to me.

This information is what I’m wrestling with at the moment. I’ve had people tell me that his feelings are no reflection of my character but I believe this to be untrue. If I made him miserable, that is absolutely a reflection of me and must contribute to a lesson I ought to learn if the relationship meant anything at all.

He maintains that he did enjoy the relationship and that I made him feel special, and that he meant it when he said he loved me and loved spending time with me (which he and I said to each other *a lot*) as well as all the intimate and sweet things he would say to me on a daily basis.

The thing is, I have trouble believing him. I know he cares about me so he wants to say things that would heal my ego. I can’t reconcile loving someone and enjoying their company while also being inevitably overwhelmed, burnt out and fatigued by them, especially since I’ve gone back reading our old text messages and have noticed small indications of frustration I didn’t pick up on at the time because I was so blinded by love for him.

I want to move on. I just need to know what went wrong so I can learn from it. Since I can’t trust myself to analyse the situation impartially, and I can’t trust him to give me an honest answer even if it were to hurt my feelings, I’m asking all of you. What does it look like to you? Did I make him miserable? If so, what do I do next?

Thank you! I’d really appreciate the help.

(TLDR: I am scared I made my ex boyfriend miserable because of the things he said to me during our breakup. I don’t know what to do next and can’t find any obvious lessons to learn here. What do I do?) Please read the above if you want context, details and the exact words as they were said.

1 comment
  1. You’re young. It didn’t work out. You both probably learned a lot about yourselves. This learning will help in future relationships. Don’t sweat it. You’ll both be fine.

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