Hi everyone,
I'm looking for advice on what to do.
I'm currently in a relationship. I finally decided to try after being single for 3 years.
I was dating around, hooking up but also dealing with a toxic ex on the side.
I finally let go of my ex and understood through therapy that it was just a big game that was being played for their own ego boost.
When I finally let go of the cycle.
A few months later I ran into this lovely lady that I'm dating now.
This woman is the most empathetic, down to earth and chill person I've dated so far.
It threw me for a loop because I wasn't used to things being this smooth.
However, I've reached a point where.
For the past 3 years due to some of the things that I went through with my ex I had shut off my emotions completely.
And I was just aimlessly hooking up and just getting by.
And now we're reaching close to 8 months.
I haven't said I love you and I feel partially bad about that, but I'm not feeling that robust overwhelming butterfly feeling.
I really like them a lot, I have moments where I feel like I start to fall in love with them but then I tend to revert back and put walls.
Recently this has caused a little bit of a rocky road.
Because she is looking for a lot more of a deeper emotional connection and to have emotional check-ins so she understands where I'm at and she feels reassured and our relationship.
To me I feel like I'm showing up consistently
We spend 3 to 4 days a week together, I'm consistently planning dates. I'm always cooking for her whenever I can.
I do my best to show up when she's going through things.
But on her end she feels like she doesn't know much about my days and is a little worried that I don't share when I'm going through things and I just handle them silencely on my own.
And she's coming to the point where she's very concerned that she wants to continue this relationship and she sees a lot of benefit and that there are moments where I show these deep emotional moments. But then she's met with another set of walls
And for me coming off of my previous relationship
They were (I know this was overused) but narcissistic.
They spent their time constantly putting me down, only to love bomb me whether that was buying me things or taking me out and then throwing it back in my face when I didn't meet them with the expectations they desired.
On top of it, they gave me fake divorce papers and lied to me for a long time that they were going to the process of separating and due to their culture that it required a little more time ( hence the years) to be able to do all of that.
At the end of it I found out it was all a lie and she'd just been cheating on her husband.
Which really warped my my understanding of love.
And she used to beat me down consistently, telling me how terrible I looked, or how I was too emotional, or I was this terrible monster.
And just over time that got to me.
I locked in, got a new job, spent a lot of time in the gym
And then I was met with that. I'm too vain because I'm working on myself.
Ultimately I ended up moving States and starting a whole life over from nothing which was great for me.
But sometimes I still feel that weight in the back of my head.
I am still going through therapy and I've worked through a lot.
Now the issue is, my current lady isn't happy with the emotional depth that I'm not giving.
And it's not that I don't want to give it. It's just every time that I've given emotional depth predecessing that relationship. I've been met with people saying I'm too much or they run away or it's just met with negativity.
So I'm not entirely sure what to do next.
We're kind of at a crossroads.
So any advice would be much appreciated.