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Emotional Push and Pull: The Struggle for Stability in Modern Dating
When connection comes in waves, and consistency feels out of reach
Relationships are anything but simple to navigate. Each person brings their own emotional history and inner world, making connections both beautiful and deeply complicated.
Listening to a podcast about modern dating earlier today got me reflecting on the different forms of disconnection we experience in relationships. I’ve been with partners who were consistently emotionally unavailable from the start — and others who offered moments of stunning intimacy, only to pull away just as quickly.
As I washed dishes, I found myself wondering: which one is worse?
The second type — where moments of connection are followed by emotional neglect and uncertainty — has, without a doubt, been the more confusing one for me. The issue is the inconsistency. It’s the whiplash of feeling deeply seen one moment, then left out in the cold the next. It’s the emotional rollercoaster that comes with never knowing what to expect.
The first relationship may lack the highs, but at least it’s predictable. You know where you stand. Still, each comes with its own complexities and emotional toll, and the answer isn’t as simple as “one is better than…
