I have been seeing my boyfriend for 16 months. It was the most loving and accepting relationship I had ever been in. He always told me how beautiful I was, how much he loved me etc etc. (we do not live together, we saw each other on weekends, and talked on the phone several times everyday)

Then last week he had a few rough days at work, and got really angry and stressed out. He wouldn't talk to me, he completely clammed up. I still don't even know the whole story about what caused him to become so angry. I became frustrated because I didn't know how to help him, this frustration caused some tears on my part which completely drove him away. He went home and has not spoken to me since. It has been 6 days without a phone call. We had a few small exchanges on msn, I just wanted him to know that I loved him and was thinking of him. He got angry and told me to stop flapping my gums and to leave him the hell alone. So I have left him alone for the past 3 days. No email, no msn, no phone calls... nothing.

What I want to know is why is he acting this way, and how long should I wait for him to come around?

He obviously doesn't know how to express himself and is afraid to ask for help. My opinion, leave him alone. If you comes back around, then good, but there must be other stuff going on in his head/life that he cannot handle right now. Sorry he is acting like this, but just give him time. Don't worry about what you cannot control.

Maybe you should step back and figure out how you feel about all this, other than feelings of concern and worry. Then when you've concentrated on yourself for a while and know exactly how you feel express that to him, as long as you do enough to satisfy yourself in respect to the relationship then you've done everything you can and should be happy with that.

Try to keep yourself busy in the meantime, just let it all come to you..

You can't help him unless he lets you to, but you can help yourself, by not putting your life on hold for someone who shows such a callous disregard for himself, and you. If this is the way he handles himself, you want no part of it.