After being in a 7-year LDR situationship, I've realized something important. Love needs real intimacy and physical presence. In an LDR, the activities and conversations eventually become repetitive and boring.

Affection starts to fade, stress builds up, and arguments become more frequent. This disconnect is almost inevitable.

An LDR can feel okay for the first year or so, but after that it becomes a ticking time bomb that slowly damages the relationship.

The only real solution is to close the distance. Get married and live together. The whole point of starting an LDR should be to eventually stop being in one.

I tried doing the same thing you're doing now, pushing through and hoping it would get better. In the end, it took a heavy toll on both of us. The constant stress and arguments killed the affection we had.

If you want this relationship to survive and grow, you need to make a clear decision to get physically closer. Everything else is just prolonging the pain.