Why is my boyfriend acting so defensive and distant?

Anonymous
My boyfriend of almost a year now has all of the sudden pulled away from me. He gets defensive whenever I ask him any type of question he will go sometimes a few days with barely a text. When I talked to him about it and asked if he wanted to break up he said no and that he still wanted to be with me but he just needed some time for himself. Because he is sick of having to answer to someone.

He also keeps in pretty regular contact with his ex girlfriend and he also lies about it and tells me its not an issue, but when we went to visit his family a while back he was texting her the whole time we were there.

So I'm giving him this time for himself but he acts like he doesn't even care anymore, and sometimes he lies about when he is home or even who he's with. He wants me to know absolutely nothing about what he is doing EVER. I can't even hold a conversation with him without him getting defensive and upset.

I don't know what I should do, if I should just back off or just remove myself from this entire situation. Because I'm miserable and don't know what to do, he gives me absolutely nothing to work with and keeps me hanging on by being his old self every once in a while.
Why is my boyfriend acting so defensive and distant?
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