When boyfriend wants time to think.

Boyfriend and I were together for 5 years, and we're both in our mid twenties. In that 5 years, we've faced various stressful and upsetting situations, such as a parent passing away, and a parent suffering from a severe mental health disorder.

Also in this time, I experienced a lack of trust in him, due to his behaviour with girls online, him not telling me the whole truth about things etc. He would always be very apologetic, express his love for me, try to build my confidence back up etc. Bear in mind, that kind of stuff was long in the past. He hadn't done it recently (to my knowledge).

Granted, we are both quiet, unassuming individuals. I find communication quite easy when eventually comfortable with someone. However, he has always struggled with it, with most people.

This lack of open communication between us gradually became worse, as I often thought the worst case scenario about most things, jumped to conclusions and generally acted quite irrationally towards the end. I'm not at all proud of my behaviour, although I am quite an anxious person as it is. Think my mind paying tricks on me literally sent me over the edge.

Recently, I think he has been sent over the edge too, as he broke up with me. He felt that he couldn't make me happy, and that he thinks we should have time apart to really forget about our issues, because we were arguing am all lot about the things that had happened in the past. I couldn't seem to let go of them, and would assume the worst thereafter.

He keeps saying how it's all his fault for his silly mistakes and he's ruined it.

I asked about a few conditions for clarification. He told me that he didn't think we should speak for a while, so we can just enjoy ourselves without worrying about the other. That he thinks it's the only way to get over the same issues that keep cropping up. That it should be a clean break, so we're no longer committed to each other, and that it isn't necessarily the end of us. He has said has thought about us getting back together in the future, but for us not to think about it for now. He just needs more time to think, and not be unhappy with us arguing a lot.

For me, I need closure. I'm trying to look at this whole scenario as we're over and we're never getting back together, as to prepare myself for the worst. But the idea of not knowing really, is eating away at me. I still have this hope that we will end up together eventually, once we've both worked on our individual issues. We haven't spoken in two weeks, this is the longest we've been out of contact ever.

What would you think in this situation?

Should I take his word for it?

Or was it just his way of nicely breaking up forever? (He is usually a very straightforward person, I'll add. His types of lies are leaving things out rather than literally not telling the truth.)

Thanks in advance.