3 days after Dday, still wondering how to procede.

Hi, I’m new to Reddit and this page, so I’m not sure if I picked the right flair.

About a week ago, my ex and I broke up on really good terms. His main reason was that we were in different stages of life (I’m still in college, and he has already graduated and is working) . He also said he wanted to focus on himself.

A few days later, I found out through a friend that he had been having an emotional affair while we were still together. I confronted him, and we had a long conversation. He admitted to it and told me that this has been a recurring destructive pattern in his life to seek that kind of attention when he feels anxious or depressed (his own words).

We also talked about the possibility of getting back together. He said that if I could forgive him and give him another chance in the future, he’d be happy to try again.

The thing is, I really want to try again. My biggest fear is that this will happen again and I’ll end up getting hurt. I trusted him so much before, and I still do to some extent, but I feel like this is something we’d have to actively work on if we were to be together again. Our relationship was great, and the only reason we broke up was that we were in different stages of life.

What advice would you give us? How do we navigate this if we decide to try again? I also want to help him work through this pattern, but I don’t know if that’s my place or even how I should go about it.

We agreed to take some space and talk again in a month, so I want to be prepared for that conversation. Any thoughts or guidance would be really appreciated.