Heart broken after just 3 days of knowing her

I recently began visiting a chat room for a bit of fun. But I met someone there who blew me away. I never imagined it would happen. She and I identified on so much. We had similar difficulties in life and I thought wow, someone I can finally understand and be understood by. The attraction was strong too. It felt as though she was my ideal.

The second day she was late online. I panicked and thought the worst, that she'd lost interest and I would never hear from her again. By the time she came on, I was a mess and couldn't hide it. I explained my fears of loss and rejection and talked about my paranoia. This of course scared her but she seemed to understand and it seemed all was okay again.

Today we spoke and things seemed okay. But some time in the afternoon she suddenly became very scared and told me we should lose touch.

I never thought I could fall so easily and go through so much pain after only knowing someone for such a short amount of time. I feel like my life has fallen apart and I know how stupid it is to think like that. But the loss has consumed every fibre of my being.

I wish I knew how to stop this from happening again. How can I learn to handle love and it's loss without it feeling like it's destroyed me?

Thanks in advance for any advice.