My terrible mood over the last couple days started when my ex boyfriend sent me a single-lined cryptic e-mail on his birthday which said nothing but implied he was still miserable. He still sends me one of these about twice a year. The last time was on my birthday, 8 months ago. He doesn't tell me how he is, what's been going on in his life or anything. Only that he can't find the words to explain how miserable he is. I know that I should not feel guilty. People break up with people and they get over it or they don't, and if he isn't over it, it isn't my fault and I shouldn't continue to feel guilty about it and responsible for him, especially after the two years it's been. But I still feel it. I'm normally fine. I go for weeks without thinking about him at all except for maybe an occasional memory if I'm reminded of him. I'm, for the most part, completely over him. But it all comes back when he sends me one of these e-mails. Like I'd dedicated my life to him, and he trusted that I'd never leave him, but I did. So I feel like I tricked him or something and betrayed his trust, even though it wasn't intentional, and I've caused his life to become shattered and I therefore am responsible for it.
He thinks that I made the wrong decision in leaving him, that I've succumbed to evil or something and need to come back to him. He thinks I'm a bad person who is constantly making wrong decisions and am off-track. And even though I know this is wrong, I still can't help feeling it on some level, wondering if maybe he's right, and I've just been stupid and need to go back to him. These are residual feelings from being with him before, from when he had a hold over me. I just don't know if, as long as he stays miserable, the feeling of guilt and obligation to him will ever go away. Part of me is not even sure that I'm right in thinking that what he's doing is wrong. If he still loves me and wants me back, and has been heartbroken for this long, that isn't his fault. If, from his perspective, all he can imagine is that we should be together, he can't be blamed for it. That's just what seems true for him, and it's unfortunate.
I don't know how to handle it. He won't talk to me. He won't send me any e-mails other than those cryptic ones. I don't even know if he still is miserable, I can only assume that he is. He's so fragile. Last time I talked to him, which was almost a year ago, he was crying, and from what I gather any e-mail from me at all sends him into a bottomless pit. I can't explain myself because he sees everything I say as cold and uncaring. When I express caring, he views it as fakeness. I sent him an e-mail the night I got his, telling him I'd like to know how his life has been, and not to worry about explaining it perfectly because I understand it would be impossible, but I'd still like to hear something. I tried to express genuine caring because I did care, and I said that I was sorry if my e-mail only made him worse. This was the first e-mail I've sent him in like a year. I guess I assumed that if I ignored him, he'd eventually stop and move on, but he hasn't. I'm just not sure how to handle it, whether I made a huge mistake in replying to him at all, whether it would be best to continue to try to get something out of him or to keep ignoring him. He hasn't responded to me yet, and I doubt he will, as he never has in the past. I'll probably just get another similar e-mail from him in another few months to remind me that he's still alive and miserable.