We’ve been trying to make things work, and some days it feels easier than others. But lately, it feels almost impossible. The constant misunderstandings, the short tempers, the emotional exhaustion, it all starts to take a toll. We’re both trying, yet somehow we keep finding ourselves in the same place, feeling drained and disconnected. How do you make things work when even trying starts to feel exhausting?
Forgive each other, be kind to each other. Talk about the fact that everything has been difficult lately and why, affirm that you both want to be here and are sad that it’s been so difficult lately. Try to be blameless. Don’t make that anyone’s fault, I cannot tell you how important this is.
Accept that human communication itself is very badly flawed and you are doing the best you can with tools (including speech itself, literally speech) that are difficult to work with. Being stressed or even just feeling like the relationship has been difficult lately will make the flaws in those tools even worse, and that still isn’t necessarily anyone’s fault.
Figure out what you do together that makes you both better and indulge in it as much as you can - for us that’s road trips together and some specific gaming activities.
This is all shorthand for some very complex ideas and difficult things to do; I can try to unpack some of these if that seems like it’ll help.