My boyfriend [27M] told me [31F] I don’t try hard enough

Throwaway for obvious reasons. My boyfriend and I have been on and off for a while, on for 5 consistent months now. He moved away for a job a few months ago, so we’ve been long distance (45 mins, but he makes it seem longer) since. Yesterday things had been off between us (he’d been kind of cold/rude for a few days) so I texted this morning saying I thought we needed some space because I felt like his emotional punching bag lately. Whenever we hung out, things felt as though he genuinely was just unhappy to be around me, always a negative comment (last night he told me I had coffee breath while I was trying to comfort/kiss him). I wasn’t trying to start a fight, I genuinely wanted a pause. Instead he came back with a long list of grievances, some of which we’ve already hashed out multiple times: that I don’t let him into my life, that I don’t accept help, that I didn’t ask him to stay over the last time he visited (he never actually asked to stay and has complained that my bed is uncomfortable), that I haven’t introduced him to more of my friends. On that last one — the reason I’ve been hesitant is because I DID introduce him to my best friend and he was super rude to her. He actually admitted for the first time during this fight that he never liked her.
It escalated from there. He told me I don’t try hard at my job search (knowing the market is at the worst it has probably ever been), that I messed up my last job (knowing all the things I went through) that I don’t follow through on things (I don’t know what to say about this one, I am finishing my masters), that it’s on me that I don’t have my license yet (I was just able to afford a car as of this january and am learning slowly), and basically implied I’m not “growing” as a person. He also mocked my finances, knowing I’m a low income person and don’t have the same support systems as him.
At one point I told him the way he was speaking to me reminded me of my abuser (and he knows I was in a really abusive relationship before) and he didn’t really engage with that until much later, when he apologized but the apology came wrapped in “I took this as an argument” and “I let it cut loose,” not really owning it.
He has OCD and I know that can involve a lot of relationship doubt/reassurance-seeking, so part of me wonders if some of this is that. But the personal insults about my job and my finances don’t feel like anxiety, they feel like he was trying to hurt me. This isn’t the first time. He’s left/broken things off multiple times over the past year, always over doubts that get resolved and then come back later. Is this OCD or does he just resent me?

Posted Aug 14, 2026, 12:47 AM UTC

11
Loading comments…