I am a 35F and the man I am dating is 37M. We’ve been on and off the last few years because of miscommunication and this time around things have been a lot better for us.
Recently he has found out one of his siblings has cancer and a few other hardships have hit him. From my experience, he is not forth coming with his emotions when he feels overwhelmed. I assured him that I’m here if he needs me and when life gets hard he can lean on me not away from me. He apologized for being distant and assured me that everything is okay between the two of us. He just has a lot on his mind.
I want to be there for him, but how do I do that if he doesn’t always want to or doesn’t know how to express his emotions? His way of dealing with things is to bury himself with work or keep to himself.
I personally like to talk my feelings out but I want to respect the fact that just because that works for me it might not work for him. Any suggestions?