So me and my boyfriend reached a year of being together last week. We're in a long distance relationship that has been based entirely online so far as we live in different countries, but that doesn't stop us from skyping and texting and what not. There have been ups and downs regarding the time zones and busy schedules resulting in not much time, out of the little we have, being spent together; but apart from that, there's not much else in the relationship that I could say I'm unhappy with.
But - and this is quite a big but - he just told me that he doesn't feel the same about me anymore. And he said that he's felt this way for a couple of weeks now.
This both confused and hurt me, because neither he (apparently) nor I can pinpoint anything that I've done differently recently. I know that it would be down to him and how he feels rather than me having done anything to make him feel this way, but I can't help feeling like I'm the one who has caused his feelings to change.
He did make it clear that he still loves me. But when I asked if he's still in love with me, he said he didn't know. He said he wants to have the feelings back that he had for me before, and that this is confusing him because he doesn't know what exactly is wrong. He's also reassured me that there's not someone else in the mixture as well, and I trust him on that - so that's not a factor in this.
He told me that he doesn't want to break up with me - that's the last thing he wants. And he said that he told me about this because he wanted to be honest and not keep anything from me. But he wants to be in this 100% (I want that too). Lately, I had been feeling as if he hadn't been putting in as much effort into the relationship as he used to. So he's more or less confirmed my fears by telling me this. I, on the other hand, feel like I've been more into the relationship now than I have been before, and my love for him has increased with that (which I'm sure you can imagine is quite disheartening in this situation).
So overall, I'm not sure what to do. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do. He said he thinks he needs space, or a break, but I didn't think that was a good idea as a break wouldn't make the problems magically go away; they'd still be there when/if he came back.
Does anyone have any advice? I know the most obvious thing to do is to give him space...but in this situation I feel like it might make him become distant and the relationship will go south from there. Obviously I'll give him his space, but not so much that he completely forgets about me/the relationship/everything else.
Help please ?? (Thank you in advance)