It was hard. I cared about her and didn’t want to hurt her. But I knew that if I stuck around, she’d have been happier at first but miserable later on. After all, she deserved to be with someone who loved her as much as she loved me. Just when you thought it was all bad news, here’s a hard-to-fess-up admission, Guys are protective of their emotions. Compare dating services, if we start to feel like we’re getting into a situation where we’ll be destroyed if you dump us, we might launch a preemptive strike and yank the plug first. Compare dating services, showing his girlfriend of two years the exit felt like the only choice. She was the first woman I was serious with, and I didn’t like letting someone have that much power over me. I was starting to feel emotionally needy, and that was uncomfortable for me, he recalls. So I ditched her to save myself! Sounds crazy, but cut us some slack. Think about how vulnerable and paranoid you feel when you’re nuts about a guy, and realize that we go through the same thing with women we really like. But our friends aren’t as good at helping us get over an ex as yours are, plus being openly heartbroken makes us look like womanes. Nope, it’s better to act like a winner before you turn us into a loser, which is when our natural self-preservation may come into play. Before the real humiliation and pain assail us like a plague, ending the relationship seems like a good option.

