I 25/F am currently in a 7 month relationship with M/27 and I do not feel happy, we are constantly arguing and I always feel like I am not being understood. I don't know whether it was genuiely my fault or not but it was recently my birthday, I expressed to him how I was slightly disappointed that I didn't see effort from him to start saving up money for my birthday. He hasn't been working for around 3 months now and I was hoping he would start working nearing my birthday as I even stated to him where I wanted to go for my birthday and what I was hoping as my present but even a week before I did not see any efforts hence I told him how I was feeling, he later on blamed me and somehow guilt tripped me by saying "okay fine, I have no efforts, I have never given you flowers or a ring" when I just wanted him to understand I was talking about efforts for my birthday and I did not even bring up past efforts and there were of course other hurtful things said to me and in the end I had to apologise and admit it was my fault, till this day I never got an apology or reassurance and on my birthday I paid for the so called birthday dinner we had. I am grateful he wished me for my birthday but it felt sad. This is just one incident that has made me view him differently. Whenever we are arguing I can never seem to feel understood by him and whenever I tell him this, he says I need to understand him first which makes me like my feelings are being put aside. Recently we had another argument and now he doesn't want to talk to me until Saturday. In this week of silence, I can't help but think is this really the person I want for myself? I want to get out of this relationship but I don't know how because I admit I have such low self respect that even I am disappointed in myself.
TL;DR: I’m in a 7-month relationship that makes me unhappy. We argue often, I don’t feel understood, and my feelings are usually dismissed. On my birthday, I expressed disappointment about the lack of effort, but he blamed and guilt-tripped me, and I ended up apologizing even though I was hurt. I never received an apology or reassurance and even paid for my own birthday dinner. This pattern keeps repeating and my feelings get sidelined, and now he’s giving me the silent treatment. During this time, I’m questioning whether I want this relationship, but I struggle to leave because my self-respect is very low.