Hello,
First of all, I’m a girl and the ex I’m talking about is also a girl. I’m bi, but she was my first same‑sex relationship. We were together for about eight months, and it ended earlier this year.The relationship had a lot of ups and downs — I think you could call it “toxic.” She had several childhood traumas: being regularly hit by one parent and abandoned by the other. I shared some of those traumas. But they shaped us into very different people. She was more in the realm of excessive fear of abandonment and rejection, full of insecurities, crying a lot whether she was happy, sad, stressed, anxious… and constantly needing affection. And I’m the opposite: more closed off, needing time to feel comfortable and open up to someone, physically or emotionally. Those two patterns were pretty incompatible. And I think the fact that she was my first relationship with a girl, and that she knew I was bi (she’s a lesbian), added to her fears and made the relationship feel unsafe for her.
To give a few examples of the dynamic: once we were on vacation together, she was in the shower and I went out to the terrace to grab a bite. Suddenly she came running out, panicked and on the verge of tears, because she didn’t see me in the house and immediately assumed I had left. It felt surreal at the time, especially since we were far from our hometown, so it surprised me that she’d think that. Also, when we slept next to each other, if I turned around to sleep, she said it made her feel like I hated her. She also invalidated my bisexuality, saying that if someone asked about my sexuality and I answered “bi” while being with her, she would take it badly. She was jealous of friends I talked to or saw regularly, even though there was no ambiguity and she knew I was loyal and faithful. She was quite self‑centered, and when I needed support during difficult moments, she wasn’t able to be present because the only thing she noticed was that I wasn’t available to give her attention at that moment. So the conversation would revolve around that instead of the fact that I had problems and needed her support. There are many examples like this.And on my side, I don’t pretend I was perfect. I reacted impulsively a lot because I was often at my limit, especially when an argument could last three days and go in circles with no improvement… I often wanted to break up, which of course created even more insecurity in her. The peak of everything was a final argument where I reproached her for not supporting me. We couldn’t understand each other, it went in circles for days, we called, she raised her voice, which made me angry. I went home and threw away all her things that were at my place. That didn’t immediately mark the official end of the relationship because I apologized, bought her new things, and we tried to keep some semblance of a relationship for about a month. But clearly, after that she had switched, and it wasn’t possible to continue. We had a trip planned, and I refused to go under those conditions. I gave up and told her I didn’t want to go. She insisted vaguely, I refused, and after that last message, it was radio silence from both sides. So it was a breakup, but a quiet one. After that, I went back on a dating app (we had met on one), and of course I saw her profile.
The post‑breakup period wasn’t linear. I had moments of sadness where I thought about her a lot. Because obviously, there weren’t only bad moments. We liked each other, we had good times, she was often at my place so we were used to being together, we laughed a lot. And especially since I’m introverted and anxious, as I said, I take time to open up — so I felt like I had finally found someone with whom I could build a relationship, someone I loved. I never felt “in love” in the physical sense (the famous butterflies), but I felt a strong attachment and love, and we had said it to each other. So yes, it was hard. Then sometimes I felt relieved and thought it was much better this way. I also met a few other girls and guys on apps — nothing serious, but some pleasant flirts that showed me I could have other stories with other people I liked. But nothing serious, so eventually I deleted my profile.Meanwhile, I kept intermittently stalking her on Instagram. I blocked her and my account is private, so I make things easier for her. But she switches between private and public profiles for some reason. And I found a site that lets you see stories from public accounts without appearing in the viewer list — the perfect site for stalking stories and posts. Except I feel trapped. I know I can’t move on if I keep doing this, while she has probably moved on long ago. But I feel addicted — if I don’t check, I feel anxious, and it only calms down when I look. And since I use a third‑party site, it’s not like I can just say “I’ll block her and that’s it.” As long as her account is public, it’s accessible. Only my willpower can stop me from looking. And that’s really hard.The worst part is that I recently put my dating profile back online, and I didn’t see her there anymore… Then a few days ago I saw a story that made me think she might be seeing another girl. Nothing explicit, maybe I’m interpreting, but I had that feeling. And it hurt me so much — I cried all evening, because imagining her with someone else hurts. Especially when I haven’t found anyone else yet, and I wonder if I ever will. I start thinking maybe I’ll never find better and that I should have “settled” for that toxic relationship, where I felt bad sometimes but also sometimes good, desired and wanted.
For the past few months, I’ve been in therapy with a psychologist for my anxiety, focused on schemas (basically how childhood patterns explain some of our current traits), hoping to understand and change some of my toxic behaviors. But doing this therapy makes me realize even more how bad we were for each other: I reopened her wounds and she reopened mine. And at the same time, with time passing and therapy, I feel like I’d now be more equipped and have more perspective to understand some of her reactions and situations, and that maybe things would be different this time. Maybe I’m wrong, because if I’m the only one doing the work (she couldn’t afford therapy), it probably wouldn’t work anyway.
So I don’t know what to do. I think about her, I can’t stop stalking her, but stalking her hurts me even more, especially if it’s to see her with someone else. Sometimes I want to contact her, but I’m 95% sure that if I did, either she wouldn’t reply at all, or she’d say something I don’t want to hear (like “I’ve moved on” or “I’m in a relationship”). And I’m not ready to face that. I don’t know if it’s my ego, loneliness, or real longing… Because I know I’m nostalgic and tend to idealize past situations — with time I only remember the good, even though in the moment there was mostly bad, especially toward the end. I feel like I’m going crazy, sometimes I feel oppressed, my heart races and I want to cry just thinking about it.
I'd appreciate any outside opinion on this situation — whether you think I should contact her or try to move on and stop stalking her. And especially if someone has had a similar experience.
Thank you for reading.