Am I his partner or his therapist?

You’re not imagining it. When someone can dump their stress on you every night but vanish when you’re hurting, it’s not balance — it’s use. 💔 Everything was normal before my partner left. We were together 10 years, shared everything. Then the war started, she went west, I stayed. At first the calls were full of us, our memories, little jokes. Then slowly, it became her talking — about her fears, the kids, the noise of the new city. I listened. Always. But when my brother didn’t come back from the front? She asked if I’d taken my vitamins. I just stared at the screen. It broke me quiet-like. Here’s what kept me standing: I started saying one sentence before she began her list. "Today was hard. I need five minutes where I speak." At first she didn’t get it. Then I said it three days in a row. On day four, she waited. She even asked, "Do you want tea?" like she used to. Try it. Give him a script. "Before you tell me your day — I need to say mine." Force the shift. If he can’t hold space for you, you don’t have a partner. And that’s worth facing.