(How) should I break up with my boyfriend?

Anonymous

i’ve been in a relationship with my boyfriend for almost a year. i found out about him under complicated circumstances and we started dating after a few months of talking. the same year i moved to that school and he did the same only a few years earlier. i was having trouble making friends since i moved from a pretty far away place. i was having so much trouble adjusting and was practically friendless until we started talking. he was in the same exact situation. i was super attracted to him and the fact that he was going through the same thing made me feel like we were destined to get to know each-other. it’s been almost a year and im at my breaking point. he cheated on me in our first month and kept it from me for more than five (he refuses to acknowledge that he cheated). unlike me he has friends outside of school that he hangs out with so his social situation is a little better than mine. i’ve expressed to him countless times that i need him to be there for me a little more often than he is and he never really does that- it’s just a constant cycle of me begging him to act like my boyfriend. we have nothing in common and can barely talk to each other. we’re pretty much just together for the physical aspects of the relationship (him mostly), the fact that i help him w school, and to help our loneliness (me mostly). Being with him makes me feel lonelier but i just can’t find it in me to leave. i can't imagine him not being in my life atp. i know if we break up, no matter how i go about it we’ll be on bad terms which is the last thing i want. i’ve tried to break up with him countless times and he keeps promising the same things to make me stay. ik it’s my fault atp for staying but i genuinely don’t have anyone apart from him outside of my family:

Updates
1 y
there are times where i feel so happy w him and i get sad thinking of life without him but ik the way things are isn’t normal and that it isn’t a healthy relationship. it’s j my first one and I don't know how to go about splitting up
(How) should I break up with my boyfriend?
6 Opinion