Rushing things seems to make me anxious

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chris1989
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25 Feb 2025, 2:04 pm

I remember the last person I met, she was eager for a relationship with me but I didn't and were both in our mid 20s but even now my mindset feels like it hasn't changed much about it despite not having met someone yet. I'm worried if my potential partner is over 25 or nearly 30 or just over 30 they might start feeling like rushing into things but I clearly don't know until I've met them so maybe I'm assuming too much and shouldn't be. I don't know whether I'm afraid of committing to a long term relationship like I was the last time because it involves a lot routine changes.

The thing is I say would like to meet someone but at the same time I'm worried about it as though the relationship is going to keep me "trapped" from doing other things when it doesn't and the other thing is sometimes I like being single and seeing some people attracted to me and appear available to a lot of people when I know I can't have multitudes of partners because that would just be wrong.



babybird
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25 Feb 2025, 2:49 pm

You don't wanna get trapped in a relationship with a person you have nothing in common with

I think that's why we have to shop around until we get a decent fit


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ToughDiamond
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28 Mar 2025, 10:30 pm

It can be tricky. I always preferred to take my time and get to know whatever woman it was quite thoroughly, but sometimes they had other ideas. I guess the dilemma is, do you commit to them and risk living to regret it, or do you leave things open and risk losing them before you've made your mind up? I guess if there's much doubt about longterm compatibility then it's better to choose the latter. Either way it's a gamble.

It sounds like you're not ready to offer an exclusive deal yet. And it also sounds like you're expecting the next one you find is going to repeat what the last one did and try to rush you. That might not happen at all. If it does, I suppose the only thing for it is to be firm and explain that you don't want to rush anything. You'll risk losing them for courting too slow, which hurts, but isn't the end of the world.

Me, I always preferred to take things slow, but I was also usually very quick to shut out other women. I guess ideally it would be good to negotiate a temporary exclusive situation, and agree to review things after a certain time has passed.

I've felt for a long time that early sex is likely to cause trouble - staying platonic is boring and often impossible, but if it can be done then it mitigates the pain of going separate ways later on if that proves necessary. I'm afraid I was always rather weak in that respect, so it's hypocritical of me to recommend being platonic, but I think it's the best thing. Otherwise you can end up biologically bonded to the other person before you know them very well.

Just my 2 cents, and there are probably all kinds of different ways that people approach these things. Food for thought if nothing else.



Pink Zeppelin
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Today, 4:15 pm

babybird wrote:
You don't wanna get trapped in a relationship with a person you have nothing in common with



Trapped?? That is why we have breakups!



Mikurotoro92
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Today, 5:44 pm

Pink Zeppelin wrote:
babybird wrote:
You don't wanna get trapped in a relationship with a person you have nothing in common with



Trapped?? That is why we have breakups!


I like to refer to it as "voluntary imprisonment"...



ToughDiamond
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Today, 6:42 pm

Mikurotoro92 wrote:
Pink Zeppelin wrote:
babybird wrote:
You don't wanna get trapped in a relationship with a person you have nothing in common with



Trapped?? That is why we have breakups!


I like to refer to it as "voluntary imprisonment"...

Ultimately it's voluntary, but there are various psychological and practical reasons why it's often very hard to break up.