I remember the guilt I felt the first time I ever broke up with a man. I felt as though I had to still be his friend, support him, and provide his happiness because he had no one else. << Read that last sentence again and tell me how it sounds coming from someone else.
The reality is, it was cruel:
Cruel of me to allow him to harbor some sort of hope for a romantic realtionship because of my guilt over hurting him.
Cruel of me to delay and draw out the inevitable break up instead of "ripping off the band-aid" and allowing us both to heal.
Cruel of me to put myself in the position of being responsible for someone else's happiness.
I hope that he will truly find his way out of the despair and anxiety in which he finds himself--but that is his battle alone.
You deserve every joy and happiness, bluebonnet, without the weight of this man's romantic expectations over you. And it does feel like a weight, right? It always did for me.