Illustration/Ravi Jadhav
I met my girlfriend at a mall recently, and we decided to have lunch. During the meal, she suddenly lost her temper with me and stormed off. I'm not sure what we were discussing, but she simply refused to speak to me for days after that. I called, messaged, begged her to tell me what the problem was, but she didn't respond. I even asked her friends, who said she was behaving strangely towards them too. This was six months after we began dating, and I had never seen this side of her, so I was concerned and surprised. Eventually, after almost a month, she called back, apologised and said she would meet me for dinner. When we met, she behaved as if nothing had happened, was very sweet and affectionate, and seemed like the person I had known. I am confused, because I hope she's not trying to be someone she's not. This whole episode has left a bad taste in my mouth. What should I do?
That does sound rather strange. If your girlfriend is dealing with a personal crisis, I suppose she will tell you about it in her own time, when she is ready to open up to you about it. Until then, your ability to spend time with her will have a lot to do with how important you think she is to your life. If her friends don't understand this either, it's obviously something she is not ready to discuss just yet. I suggest you give her time to open up, unless she does something like this often, in which case you ought to confront her and point out how her actions are causing damage to your relationship. Mutual respect and honesty are integral aspects of any relationship, so she owes you some information, if not an actual explanation for why she has been behaving strangely. It's important that she doesn't sweep this under the rug though, because that implies a taking of things for granted.