My (22M) boyfriend (21M) doesn't understand my family crisis, and everyone in my life thinks that he is bad for me. What can I do to help him understand?

My boyfriend (21M) and I (22M) have been together for roughly 1.5 years. Things have generally gone up and down - maybe more downs than I'd like to admit - but recently things took an unexpected turn that I don't know how to deal with.

For the past few weeks, I have been dealing with a pretty severe and unexpected family emergency. My entire family's life has been turned upside down, and we're all having lots of different emotions about it. I'm in my last two weeks of the semester and, alongside my family and school, have decided to not yet return to campus, largely because I am completely emotionally drained and want to be near my family and therapist (and I go to college out of state).

Ever since, my boyfriend has been pressuring me to return to campus anyway to be with him. My physical absence has caused him to have a mental health crisis, believing that it is illogical for me to stay home. It doesn't help that he doesn't like my family or my therapist and thinks that I would have better support systems on campus.

We spend hours fighting almost every day over not just this, but other smaller stressors as well because we're both so stressed. I will admit that there are many things that I could do better in our relationship, but the amount of anxiety and stress that I'm going through makes me feel as if I can't go back yet, even just to visit, which he has agreed is sufficient even if not ideal.

I've tried to explain over and over that I don't feel ready to return, but he feels as if my return is a non-negotiable to him. I don't know what to do at this point, as I even almost broke up with him a few days ago and he convinced me to stay because it caught him so off guard and I hadn't talked about some of these issues with him, so I agreed to stay for that reason.

My entire support system dislikes him...to put it lightly. My friends that I've talked to about it also aren't the biggest fans of him, but I don't know what to do. He's expecting me to feel confident enough to return to visit him for a night this very weekend, and I truly do not feel ready for it. Do I continue to try to make him understand? Or is it potentially hopeless?

Posted Dec 10, 2025, 2:46 AM UTC

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