advice, breakup, dating, everyone is gay, exes, heartbreak, kristin russo, lgbt, lgbt advice, moving on, relationships
“How do you talk to your person after a break up? (it was a 1+ year relationship and we lived together over the summer). I’ve known it was over since I moved back to school but she feels it came out of the blue. She feels like I’m cold and heartless because we don’t Skype and I don’t tell her “I love you” or goodnight or we don’t talk 24/7. I feel terrible so when she says awful things to me I just try to care to make her not upset but I don’t feel like we should be connected 24/7. What to do?”
- Question submitted by Anonymous
Kristin Says:
You have to put your foot down. And keep it there.
She is making you feel terrible because she feels terrible and because she wants it to be the way that it was before. It cannot be and will not be, because it is over.
As much as it hurts, and as much as we often don’t want to face the reality of a break-up, a break-up means that that you are broken up, and that the relationship full of Skypes and “I love yous” is over. Does it have the potential to become something else down the line? Absolutely! Perhaps you will have a beautiful friendship and you will laugh together and build forts and eat cheese sticks… but that isn’t where you are now. The way you “talk to your person after a break-up” is to firmly explain that you need to stop talking. At least for now.
Imagine you had a two year old. Your two year old is going to be like, “Yo, check it out mom, I can totally go down these stairs by myself, no hands!” You love your two year old, though, and you know that as much as they want to do this thing… they can’t do this thing and they need your help. And, when you don’t let them throw themselves down that flight of stairs they will be SO MAD AT YOU. They will kick and scream and cry and glare at you because OMG WHY DID YOU NOT LET ME DO THAT THING?! They will never understand that they would have fallen and hurt themselves, but you know that, and you know how much you love them.
Right now, your ex is that two year old. The biggest act of love is to firmly say, “we need to heal and the only way to do that is to stop talking. I care about you and I hope you understand that, but because I care about you and myself I need to take a step away.” That’s it. She will kick and scream and cry and glare at you because OMG WHY ARE YOU NOT TALKING TO ME AND WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME?! And, hopefully, after several weeks or months she will begin to understand that you do love her, and that is why you stepped away.
Also, this might help.
<3
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Wow. This is my life right now but I’m on the other side. It’s nice to know what she’s felling because I continuously convince myself she hates me even though I know she doesn’t.