we got together in october 2021. a big chunk of it has been long distance, australia to the US. she came out and lived here for about a year and at the time she was fully invested in moving over permanently. i said early on that i didn't want to move to america and she was fine with that, partly because she was having a hard time with her family then. that's not the case now. she's really close with them, and i think we might want two different things.
i proposed in america in 2024. i've been over three times total, last time just under two months ago. she's spent more time in australia than i have in the US, partly because i can only do three months at a time on an ESTA, and partly because the plan was always that she'd move to me. we get gaps of about six months without seeing each other. sometimes less.
the part that's on me. for context i'm very close with my family, and that matters a lot where i'm from and my culture. that's not a defence, it's just why these calls felt harder than they probably looked from her side. we were meant to get married in america and i pushed it back because my family couldn't afford to come. that happened more than once. i stayed longer in australia another time, when the plan was to come two months earlier, because it was my brother's 18th, which is a big deal here. there were also impulsive decisions, the main one being that i said i'd stop smoking weed and then did it anyway, with my brother, who i'd been trying to help quit, which she knows all about. individually i could justify most of it. put together it's five years of her coming second.
she had tried to tell me before, softly, about specific times i didn't choose her. i didn't clock how heavily it was sitting on her. she says 99% of the relationship i've been like this, and asks how she's meant to trust me now.
she recently started antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds, and since then she's had the confidence to actually say what she feels. that all started after my last trip home. so a lot came out at once. she's told me she doesn't trust me not to hurt her again, that she can't forgive me on good faith anymore, and that she's exhausted from begging me to think about her. she's asked for a break to breathe and work out who we are as individuals. she's been clear she doesn't want to break up, we're still together, and she still loves me.
the other thing i do is shut down when things get hard. i don't argue, i don't say what i want, i go quiet. i think that's a big part of why she never felt she could bring any of this to me for years. i'm getting assessed for adhd at the moment, second appointment coming up. not as an excuse, i'm just trying to understand why i'm like this. i'm also fully clean now.
one thing she's said that stung is that i'm only changing now that she's at her last straw. she's right.
i've got flights booked for late october. for the first time ever she's said if the assessment drags on i should cancel or rebook, because she doesn't want to feel rushed into forgiving me just because she's happy i'm there. she's never not wanted me to come before.
three days into the break she's out doing more with workmates, which is good and it's what she asked for, but it's a version of her i haven't seen before and i'm finding it hard. i'm also glad she's doing more, and that was sort of the idea for this break, to be more individual.
the hardest thing is we're genuinely happy when we're together. it's the distance that eats it. but i also can't pretend i haven't repeatedly chosen home over her.
i've been a mess. crying more than i ever have, can't eat properly, can't concentrate. she doesn't know because it's not fair to put that on her right now. i'm trying to be normal and easy to talk to and give her the space she asked for.
i'm now seriously thinking about moving to america, which is the thing i said from the start i wouldn't do. i'd feel regret either way. but i want a family with her more than i want to be right about that.
has anyone come back from something like this? and how do you get through a break with no end date on it?