Advice on how to handle this situation with my girlfriend?
I’m posting this again since more stuffed has happened and it might give me a new perspective.
Im sorry if any of this is scuffed, im crying as i type this out because im mentally at the edge here.
So recently my (20F) girlfriend (22F) found this new friend group online in a discord server that she gets along extremely well with, and I am happy she has a group of people that she feels comfortable being herself in, but since she has met these people she has practically spent all of her time with them, and barely talking to me.
We live together, we have for almost 2 years now, and up until recently we have had what I would think is a very good relationship. I moved to her home country to live with her around 1.5 years ago due to some personal family drama, but she made me feel welcome and helped get all documentation necessary to build a life here with her. Also we agreed to start saving for our own home since we still live in the same house as her parent.
Anyways, around a month ago she started hanging out with this new friend group and she plays video games with them every day, messages them when she's not in call with them, and whenever we go do something or drive somewhere all she does is talk about them. Particularly this one person who I'm just gonna refer to as K, who she started talking to all the time. From what I've heard from my girlfriend, K is bisexual, engaged to a man, but prefers women (?), I was worried at first that I was being cheated on but I don't know.
I was jealous because we had gone from being extremely close to the exact opposite in a couple of days. One of the nights she had been online with K and her friend group for 12 hours, basically up until 4am, we had work the next day and I told her "It's 4am, I'm tired and you need to get off now, please". When she got in bed I was crying and she said I am too dependent on her and that I'm too clingy.
The next morning she said she was going to move her stuff in to the spare bedroom so she has her own space and also because she feels suffocated by me. She started barely texting me, or talking to me, and when I asked to speak with her she just said leave it. I have been miserable these past few weeks because it's such a drastic change that I'm not used to and all I want to do is fix this.
She told me to stop being so dependent and clingy with her, to talk to my own friends more, because she started seeing me as just an extension of herself? I realise being together pretty much everyday for almost 2 years could be excessive and exhausting, it's understandable and I realise that having her own time and space with people she gets along with is good, I've even told her that.
I've also started doing stuff I used to do before we started dating (baking, playing games etc) to try and become my own person again, but I love her so much all I want to do is spend time with her and be near her, but since this started she has not slept in the same room as me, has barely been affectionate and it has been crushing me.
Like, she sleeps on call with K and her friend group, she has done so every night, instead of just coming in and being with me.
She even said she started valuing her own space a lot more since moving her stuff to the other room, because she's so independent she didn't realise how much she loved having her own space where I'm not there. To the point she wants to get her own studio apartment away from me just to have more space and to be able to play games with her friends without me being near.
The thing is, she moved her stuff in to her sisters room while she's at uni, (spare bedroom while her sisters away, but her sister comes back from uni in like 3 weeks, and so my girlfriend has started to panic.
I spoke with her a few days ago because I'm near my limit with how much I can handle emotionally and mentally. I said I understand how she's feeling and I respect it but that the way she is going about it is wrong and hurtful.
We spoke at length, I asked if she still loved me and wanted to work on this for us and she said yes to both. I explained how I've been feeling; that i feel abandoned and hurt because the way she has been acting has just made me depressed and feeling alone, and that I can't keep going on like this without a conversation. (previously she would refuse to talk about this situation because she didn't want me going "on and on" in her words), she explained how she's been feeling and said that she doesn't think she could last a month with me in the same room because she feels suffocated/claustrophobic? She said that to her, relationships are scary because she hates the idea of being controlled, but I don't think l've been controlling in any way?
We ended the conversation by agreeing that I wouldn't ask her to stay in the room with me a lot and stop asking to talk about us because she said "it just makes me want to be around you even less, please stop asking and just wait for me to come to you", and she said she would make plans to hang out together more and possibly sleep in the same room. And that the first thing we need to prioritize in her eyes is looking for our own place, and I agreed because I love her and want her to feel comfortable around me, I value her wants and if her own space is what she needs l'll happily try and help. That same day i sent her rental links to places in our area and she said "holy spam im muting you" and then didnt respond for the rest of the day.
This conversation was 4 days ago now, i have not messaged her asking for anything, not to hang out or sleep in the same room, only if she wanted food or anything from the shop. She however has come in to the room to grab clothes and to grab skincare stuff, i dont want to ask her to talk again because thats the exact thing i said i wouldnt do.
Sometimes she comes in and gives me a hug and a quick kiss and acts like everything is fine and then goes back to the other room, it feels like im being pulled back and forth between affection and isolation. Im starting to feel resentful because i hate feeling like this.
I spoke with my friend about it and they said that it's emotional abuse, and that she could be cheating, that if it was happening to someone else I would say to breakup etc.
I haven't spoke to many about this but I'm really not sure what to do here, I don't want to break up with my girlfriend at all, but I also don't think I can go the rest of my life like this emotionally or mentally?
I don't have any family in this country, granted it isn't a far flight and im close with my family again, and I'm aware I took the risk when I first moved here, but I also don't have any IRL friends to hang out with since l am either working or playing games online with online friends. So I feel alone and somewhat isolated, my girlfriend was the person I spent majority of my time with, so I've just been sat with my thoughts for near a month with no one to talk to.
I feel like im fighting a losing battle here, she came in to the room a few minutes ago as i was lying in bed staring at the ceiling to grab some clothes and a controller and she asked if i was okay and i just said "mhm" because i don't want to stress her out or anything with how im feeling, to which she replied "well you're not very responsive are you" and then left.
I feel resentful because I have been like this for almost a month and i can hear her in the other room laughing away being happy, when she KNOWS that im feeling horrible. Im seriously spiralling in to a deep depression here, i dont think i can keep doing this whole thing without wanting to just cry.
Please any advice is appreciated, or if someone wants to smack some sense in to me that would also be appreciated.
Posted May 10, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC