Tough situation with my exboyfriend

Hi all,

Been lurking on this website for a few months before actually creating an account. Tried some tips that were suggested to other users but finally decided to create an account and get advice directly towards the situation I am in.

I've known my exboyfriend since birth. My mother and his mother are childhood friends and we were always together since I could remember. We started dating my freshman year of high school and were together for 5 years. He ended things when he went to college (he's a year older than me), but due to the fact our families are so close and that we're in a small town where basically everyone knows everybody and we have the same circle of friends it was hard to cut off that connection with him for me to fully heal from the breakup. He on the other hand had a new gf within 5 months of us breaking up and I actually had to endure listening to him boast about how wonderful she was and had to watch the guy I love be in love with someone else. Most painful year of my entire life.

It took me a really good while to get over him but I am finally able to look at him and not feel like my heart is aching. I do still love him but I'm not in love with him any longer. I've come to terms with the fact that we are over 100% and have even been dating again. That's where I need the advice. See my ex is making it really difficult to maintain a relationship. He's always been really protective of me and it's been sabotaging alot of my potential relationships. I've asked him repeatedly to tone it down some and he says he will but then the second a guy approaches me, or he sees that things are going really well, he's grilling the guy like he's my dad or something. Asking them what they're intentions are, how special I am and if they hurt me they're going to wish they hadn't blahblahblah. He'll even bring up the fact that we were together for 5 years, talk about details of our relationship with these guys, makes it sound like it was the best relationship I've ever had so they have "big shoes" to fill and will eventually annoy them to the point they don't want anything to do with me or scare them off with his protectiveness.

I don't necessarily want to cut all ties from him, due to the fact that I have known him my whole life and we are really close and I just feel like it would cause a lot of our family gatherings to be awkward but his attitude is just causing alot of stress in my life and in any sort of love life I try to have. I really don't know what to do. Can anyone give me some advice on how to deal? I would greatly appreciate it.


Thank you.