How Long Can Your Long Distance Relationship Survive?

Being in a long distance relationship is not about getting to enjoy your independence, spending idyllic evenings with a book, and having a perfectly planned Skype routine.

It’s about waiting until 2AM until your partner gets home after their work day so you can get on a short call to wish them good night because you’re dealing with a huge time difference. It’s also about disappointment when you wake up in the middle of the night and roll to the cold side of the bed only to realize that there is no one there. It’s about feeling a lump in your throat which could explode into tears at any moment because you were not able to get on a call over the past few weeks. It’s about avoiding hanging out with your friends who keep complaining that they don’t spend enough time with their live-in partners.

How often do you say “I wish my babe was here to see this”? How often do you feel just how much you miss then, that the pain manifests physically? Do you sometimes tear up (or manage to stop yourself on the verge of crying) when your friends ask you if you believe things are going to work out? (Or, even worse: “So, is long distance relationship a real relationship?”).

How often do you ask yourself: How long can we go on like this?

The truth is … it all depends on you.

My boyfriend and I managed to close the distance after 1.5 years. However, I have friends who decided to end their relationships after few months because they found the communication online unbearable. Also, I have read about people who were in a long distance relationship, got married, and continue living apart–it’s been nine years and they are still going strong (read the whole article for inspiration here).

A recent study announced that the average shelf life of a long distance relationship is 4.5 months (not very motivating). But how can you trust raw statistics when you are desperately trying to figure out your own relationship? How many sleepless nights will you be able to handle without getting into a risk of falling out of love?

I can clearly remember 6 stages we both went through during the time we lived countries apart and when we entered the last one, I knew: it was time to move in (or move on). Here are all of them:

Eagerness and Denial

We consciously avoided talking about the issues that we were about to face as a long distance couple. It was an overly positive stage. We made a decision to make it happen, but we also had a secret fear that this challenge might not work out. On top of that, we were scared to share it and therefore demotivate each other. This led us to encouraging each other (and ourselves) by acting as we were in a perfect situation. Looking back, I feel this “fake” happy environment we created was quite funny, but we desperately wanted to believe the success of what we were doing ourselves.

Mistrust

The phase we lived apart was accompanied by occasional anxiety/jealousy/fear (my anxiety issues didn’t benefit this situation either). I used to get jealous about anything he did. I didn’t even care if it was a Sunday football match with his dudes or going to a night club. All of it made me equally upset.

To make it more difficult, I started asking myself if the decision we made was right. Our online love affair became an emotional roller-coaster. This was accompanied by few months of negotiations until we both understood what each of us needed to be capable of to maintain a happy state of mind.

This brought us to the adaptation phase.

Adaptation

We figured out a communication pattern that worked for us and created our small rituals: wild, tipsy, and horny (online) dates on Fridays or Skype pillow talk traditions on Sundays, trying to share small, casual stories (which seem to be unimportant, but can increase the level of closeness to a great extent).

For example, if you had an uplifting talk with a cleaner in your apartment building and think that it’s not worth wasting your babe’s time – stop right there.

Learn to share small details from your everyday life as you would if you lived together. This will make your relationship as casual and close as the “real” one would be. Communication and endless support  taught us how to deal with stress, bad days, missing each other, and constant feeling of needing more of him in my life.

Routine

I learnt to believe that it’s completely normal to feel the void. I enjoyed my everyday life (remembering that time, I think having my intense experiences in India made my LDR struggle easier). We learnt to ignore the fact that we were meeting six times a year and became rather automatic about sending a “good morning, have a great day” message. I even adapted to a fact that I was only sure about my partner’s “presence” in my life when the word “Typing…” used to appear on my Whatsapp screen. It sucked, but we somehow believed (or learnt to believe) that it was bearable.

Stress (first stage of long distance phase of your relationship going to an end)

I was the first one to hit this stage. When I was considering leaving India, I received a job offer from Dubai and my boyfriend had a genuine belief that this would be a great move in terms of my career. He was right… But I was at a point when I couldn’t care less about my career. I knew if I decide to take up the offer in Dubai, it would end our relationship. Even though I truly think that our story is special (I bet everyone does) and my man makes me feel like the happiest girl in the world, I would give the same answer today.

I couldn’t be patient about it. I knew that I deserve to enjoy my life (including the relationship part of it). I was not able to act happy anymore. Because I wasn’t.

Everyone’s patience runs out at some point. For me, this was the time of last straw.

I started feeling more stress than happiness about our relationship because it was stuck in the same phase for almost 2 years. That’s the reason why I believe you should at least start planning on closing the distance as soon as the situation allows you. Even if you have doubts about the plans coming true, it will lead to materializing sooner or later. Also, it will give you extra confidence about your relationship.

Maybe some couples manage to make it work and grow together over distance, but it didn’t work for us. We knew that we wanted to be together, but we never discovered a way to actually develop our relationship while living in different countries. That big love became almost unavailable for us to enjoy and we couldn’t bear it hanging in the air anymore.

Moving in/moving on

That’s where the decision time comes in, and whatever you decide will depend on your feelings. You are forced to evaluate the importance of your career and the comfort of living in a place you are familiar with against the love for your partner and the challenges you will face when one of you moves. You can read about closing the distance here.

I never had fears, questions, or doubts if I was doing a right thing by leaving India and buying a one way ticket to China. I was okay to leave my life behind for sake of being with my man.

There is another possibility: you might find too many questions and doubts when your relationship hits this stage, which results in prioritizing your current lives and neither side willing to take a step towards closing the distance. I have seen friends going through this.

The good news is you won’t spend much time doubting. You will either want to be with them, or you will get scared about it.


I’d love you to share your story: are you in a long distance relationship?

Did you go through these stages too?

How did you managed to cope with the last one?

15 thoughts on “How Long Can Your Long Distance Relationship Survive?

  1. I have been in a long distance relationship for 7 months as my OH is in the forces, having already been in a relationship a couple of years ago for a short 3 months which didn’t work because of stonewalling on my partners behalf.

    For the first 4 month of our relationship (this time)he was still in the UK and therefore I got to see him at least once a month and we could plan things and it was working great .

    In January he was posted overseas ,which is where he was the first time around. The first few weeks were fine but then after about 5 weeks I began feeling numb and finding it hard and emotional to deal with . He was coming home after 7 weeks so I tried to focus on him coming home to visit and looking forward to it and imagining it to give me something to look forward too.

    He has since been home and been back overseas for 1 week now and although it was nice to see him we both found it really hard to adapt to being around each other again and it didn’t seem to have the same feel as it had previously. Since he has gone away I had one day ( the day he left)of being really overwhelmed and emotional and began to overthink things . Since then I feel as though I am numb inside I don’t feel like I feel anything and it is worrying me I am starting to doubt myself and my feelings and wonder whether I am stonewalling or have just lost all feeling.

    I have tried to speak to my OH and explain but he just says he loves me and doesn’t know what to say. I feel like I ant even take on board that he loves me anymore .

    I am worried that I am stonewalling and wondering how I can help myself as I don’t want to it to end like previously but feel as though if I keep stonewalling it will end. I have debated actually ending things to see how it affects me so I can see if I f have feelings but I also know deep down that’s not a good idea and not what I really want .

  2. Hi Chloe,

    Thank you for reading and sharing your story. First and foremost, stonewalling won’t help your relationship in any way.

    You happened to be apart for some time, which means you have no other ways to express your feelings/emotions than communicating verbally. If, for whatever reason, you both are not doing your best to behave as you would in a “normal” relationship, it is obvious that you both will not feel the same when you meet…

    It is also totally fine to feel doubtful. I went through the same feeling so many times. But you should always share your feelings with your partner and try to find some solutions together. Do you have plans on closing the distance? How often can you meet? Are you communicating enough? Are you feeling insecure? Why did you decide to give your relationship a second chance? You should try and and answer those questions to yourself.

    If you decide to continue your LDR challenge, try your best to behave as you would if you were not apart: share casual stories, send pictures, joke with each other, don’t forget intimacy (yes, intimacy does exist in LDRs, too).

    Doubting might take a big part in your long distance relationship, especially during the adaptation phase… But deep down you should know why you are doing it.

    Hugs, Lisa

  3. I have been in a LDR for 7 months. I met him while I was travelling in Cuba. Due to the system, he is not able travel of course, the internet connection is so weak that 1 hour we may give us only have a few messages by Facebook (having dates by Skype is almost impossible) and the phone calls are so expensive ( 1 usd per minute) So communication is our main problem.

    I have been in Habana for 3 times now and planning my 4th trip. He knows my mom and he has introduced me to all his family (mom, dad, sis, grandparents, aunts, uncles) and everybody is so nice and sweet, taking care of me and making me feel at home everytime.

    Now I am having mixed feelings as I am not sure of what’s next. I cannot move to Cuba, as a communist country, I am not allowed to have a job there or an apartment or pretty much anything. He cannot leave his country, as he is not allowed. We have been thinking but we just can’t find an option, so we have decided to stay like this for this year: I will travel every two months and he will do his best to get a stronger connection at least once a week, if he can’t then we will make a phone call.

    This situation sometimes makes me feel so sad. He is a great guy and I love him so much, last week when I was there, he asked me to be patient and (again) he tried to explain me how difficult things are there and that he is really trying so hard to make things work. He says we will find a way to be together.

    Although I really appreciate all his efforts and I don’t care saving everything to travel often, I just can’t figure out what are we gonna do .. as clearly we won’t beat the system. Sometimes I think maybe this is too difficult to keep trying but on the other hand, I love him and He makes me so happy that I don’t want to lose what we have 🙁

  4. Me and my boyfriend have been dating for 7 months now, as he lives in Sweden and I live in Germany we have a LDR. We have actually made it work to see eachother twice the month until now, once it’s his turn and once it’s mine.
    I will start my apprenticeship this fall. Becoming a nurse is my dream and I know that this is the right thing for me. I considered not doing it and moving to Sweden immediately, but deep down I know I wouldn’t be happy on the long run.
    I’m so terrified that I won’t be able to make it to him as often, giving the fact I will have to do shifts on the weekends etc, and I‘m terrified that he’s gonna be sick of the situation at some point, even tho he told me he loves me enough to wait 3 more years for me to be done with education and move to his country.
    But reading this article gave me hope and inspiration.
    Thank you <3

    1. Dear Rosa,

      Thank you for your comment. There is no right or wrong thing to do in any relationship. I’m proud of you that you are not giving up your dreams. Think about it as a compromise, or an investment into a happy future together (and both of you being happy as individuals). Living apart for the next 3 years might not sound as the best deal, but think about the advantages: you are not that far away from each other and I am sure you get great flight deals so you are able to see each other quite often. Even if you can only to meet once a month, that’s still great! And, most importantly, think about the rewarding time when you finally close the distance: you will be able to wake up next to your man every morning AND you will have your dream education in hand! Keep going, girl!

      Hugs, Lisa

  5. I’m seven months into my long-distance relationship. I met my boyfriend while studying abroad in Germany, but I’m from the States. We began dating 2 months before I had to go back home, and we’ve been going strong since. He came to visit during my spring break (we’re both undergraduate students) and I plan to visit him this coming August. We communicate so well, talk essentially every day, and I truly cannot imagine myself with anyone else. But closing the distance is the only issue that worries me. I know we’re both fairly young (twenty years old) and we both have our lives ahead of us, but 6000 km is a large distance to close. We both graduate in 2 years around the same time, but I want to go to graduate school and starting next year he will be in a three year training program in his home town. We always reassures me that things will work out and we’ll find a way, but I can’t help but think that 5 years in long distance is a long time. I may apply to graduate school in Germany because there are many good opportunities in my field there, but so much is up in the air. Any advice?
    Thanks,
    Amalya

    1. Hey! I’m in a similar boat with my partner. She’s from Germany and I myself from Australia and it’s difficult.

      We communicate fantastically and things are great but planning our future is difficult too and likely far away. She’s going to be studying a long time as she wants to be a doctor. Minimum 6 years I believe and the thought of waiting that long is so hard especially when we can only see each other 1 maybe 2 times a year. The other difficult thing is there’s an age gap therefore I’ll be closer to 40 while she would be closer to 30 after all this time.

      I work but am not a professional therefore I don’t believe I could move abroad and work especially without knowing the language. So there’s not much of an option for us and worst of all I’ve had health problems that would limit me for traveling overseas for the moment anyway. We’ve already been in a LDR for a year and a half now.

      I guess just think of it like, you’re both still very very young with your lives ahead of you. The distance is fine and you have a plan. Continue to discuss things and communicate on a regular basis and you’ll be fine 🙂 you have the luxury of being in the same life cycle and not in different ones (like with my partner studying and me finishing).

      You’ve got this! All the best.
      Cheers, Leif

  6. I have been in a long distance relationship now for 4 months, we had been dating for about 5 months before I had to move back home. He is not that far away from me, but with our jobs and flights being expensive we can only see each other every month if that. On my last visit to see him, we had a very serious chat and he said that he has been feeling immense mental pressure because of our relationship. This is mainly because of the fact that the future of our relationship is unknown. I have brought up the fact that I would move for him but that idea scares him even more, because of the “what if it does not work out” issue. I am unsure of what to do because I feel like the distance is distancing us emotionally and we are now moving backward instead of forwards. I don’t want to move as a way to save our relationship, but I also believe that the alternative is much worse. I am worried that he is giving up too soon because he is scared about what the future has to hold. I know I do not want to give up on us, but every time I bring up moving he gets even more stressed. Any suggestions on how to handle this? We do generally communicate our feelings, but it’s getting harder to do so because I do not know how he is going to react.

  7. I’ve been on a long distance relationship for three years now and I can tell you you should never wait this long to be together because your dreams together start disappearing if somebody starts being selfish about their own dreams and there is just one working towards being together. You should make it happen as soon as possible.

    1. I totally agree. Our LDR lasted for 1.5 years and I think it was way too long. Ideally the closure conversations should start happening as early as possible, so all the time apart is used towards working on closing the distance. NOT having a plan increase insecurities and lead towards problems, unfortunately..

  8. I have been in a LDR for 3 years. Seeing my boyfriend only twice a year. I feel like it’s ending now. It has been mentally and emotionally draining. I was happy for the first year. The second year was rough… I always wanted to be with him and whenever I tried to bring up the topic of us getting to be together on a permanent basis …. he would shut down. His answers became short.. and there were a lot of I dks. I tried to be patient. But at that point I realized it wasn’t going to go anywhere. Two years is ample enough time for us to figure it all out. I offered to sell my house and move to him. He said he didn’t want me to have to uproot and leave behind my life. I thought he was worth it. After having every idea you’ve had shot down you start to lose hope in the relationship. We had an argument about a month ago where he broke up with me and took a couple of days to think about it I guess. He ended up texting me and telling me he regretted it. And me still living in a fantasy world where I thought it would all work out let him back but it changed my feelings towards him. I was working on it though. And then he started not texting me as much and our nightly video chats seized to exist and I practically had to pitch a fit to get him to answer his phone and when he did he asked what I was doing and then told me he was tired and going to bed. So that conversation lasted all of 45 seconds before we hung up… and then I got mad and let him have it. He wouldn’t answer my call or video calls. But he could text me? Seemed very shady. And this is a man I trusted. I have never felt like he was being dishonest until that incident. But I had begun to resent him.. I told him it was time for me walk away. I still love him. But I can’t be with somebody who isn’t there.

  9. ive been in a LDR for six months and its been going well i just need some advice to keep my composure. i am currently 16 and in two years time i will be meeting my amazing girlfriend. im also asking is it possible for an LDR to last without any visits? and if it can could you please tell me on how to keep that strong bond that i have, shes within Canada and i am in the UK we love each other very much and the factors of a healthy relationship are there. its just that im unsure if it can last without visiting, and then meeting in two years time.

    1. i’m in a ldr and we can’t meet for the next 4 years because of my mom. it sucks, to be honest, but I believe we’d be able to do this without visits.

  10. Hi, i’m not sure if i am pretty late to the conversation but wanted to share my story too. I had been in a relationship for 5 years before i moved elsewhere and have been in LDR for the past 2 years. I can totally relate to some of these phases as we did not have an open conversation and thought that after 5 years our relationship was strong enough to withstand LDR. However, i did not account for the miserable headspace one finds themselves in when moving to a new country and dealing with a host of other issues along with LDR. in the past 2 years we were able to meet only once and even though my partner has been there for me always, i feel like its not enough anymore… i am generally a happy person with him and manage to pretend but off late my feelings and frustration has been creeping in to our relationship and i am keep guilting him about the fact that he is still not here and things still have not worked out for him enough for us to be together. i should mention that after all this struggle, even if we do make it through this, he is not moving to where i am but to the same continent and most likely i will have to relocate to where he will end up. this feeling is eating me up inside as i just dont feel like i deserve this after managing to stick it out (if i do) for so long

  11. i’m in a long distance relationship (i’m in England, he’s in New York) and honestly, about a month in and it’s going really well. we trust each other a LOT and I believe the next few weeks will be the start of the gifts and giving our addresses to each other. our only issue is that whilst his mom is a really nice lady and has said multiple times that if we ever met up it’d be ”so cute, we could take lots of pictures and it would be great”, whereas MY mom is extremely strict and will not let me travel alone until i’m 21 (i’m 16 right now). four years. she actually wouldn’t support us sending gifts so I have a list of excuses to be getting random packages addressed to me. I believe in us to be honest, I know we can do this.

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