I Want To Spend More Time With My Boyfriend – He Does Not – What Do We Do?

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Question: 

I have been dating a guy for almost a year.

When I suggest spending more time together (we rarely spend more than one day of the weekend and one evening during the work week together despite the fact we live less than 20 minutes apart), he accuses me of suffocating him.

His distant behavior scares me and I find myself saying things I later regret, which seems to push him further away.

We broke up once because of all this, but then I heard through the grapevine of how he was saying such great stuff about me (even to other women he went out with!), and I found myself missing being in the relationship so much that I reached out and we ended up together again.

But now we seem to be falling into the same pattern and it’s making it hard for me to keep up with my work and friends—what should I do?My boyfriend and I recently took our first trip together and now I find myself wondering whether we have a future, or are just too different to make it for the long-term.

Answer

I’m sorry to hear this, and can assure you

that you are not alone. The situation you describe reminds me of a book, Attached, co-written by one of our past radio show guests, Amir Levine, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist.

In his book, Dr. Levine explains three “attachment styles” which describe the three different ways in which people handle intimacy in romantic relationships. Your description of your boyfriend’s behavior is consistent with the “avoidant” attachment style; while you appear to potentially have an “anxious” style.

Clues of the avoidant style include:

1.       Valuing one’s independence greatly

2.       Maintaining emotional and physical distance

3.       Discomfort with intimacy.

Clues of the anxious style include:

1.       Desire for a lot of closeness in a relationship

2.       Unhappiness when not in a relationship

3.       Preoccupation with the relationship and acting out.

Consistent with your description of your boyfriend’s behavior during your break-up, one tendency of the avoidant style involves fixating on the best qualities of a past partner as a means of blocking his/her self from getting close to anyone else.

While anxious and avoidant people tend to attract one another; unfortunately, they tend to exacerbate each other’s insecurities. Commonly, as in your situation, anxious people cope by trying to get close to their partner; whereas, avoidant people react to those attempts by further distancing themselves, thereby creating a vicious cycle.

So what can you do about it? Actually, I thought addressing this question in two parts, and spread over two issues, would give readers who find themselves in a similar situation the opportunity to carefully assess the benefits and costs of their respective avoidant/anxious relationships to determine whether or not they wish to make unilateral (one cannot expect partners to change unless the partners themselves are self-motivated to do so) efforts to mitigate the situation despite the naturally-occurring vicious cycle. Stay tuned!

Brief Bio.

Jasbina Ahluwalia is an Indian-American attorney turned entrepreneur, Relationship Expert, Radio Show Host and Matchmaker / Dating Coach.

She is the Founder & President of Intersections Match, the only Elite Personalized Matchmaking & Dating Coaching Firm in the country serving Selective Singles of South Asian descent Nationwide in the U.S. 

Jasbina is also the host of Intersections Talk Radio, a monthly holistic lifestyle show – conversations with published authors/experts on relationships and health and wellness.

For more information, please visit www.IntersectionsMatch.com. Feel free to submit a Question to be considered for this column to Jasbina directly at Jasbina@IntersectionsMatch.com.

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