I'm 21M and my girlfriend (20F) and I have been in a relationship since 2021. Things have been serious we’ve been through a lot together. I love her deeply and have even made some major life decisions to stay close to her. For example, I gave up my seat at one of the most prestigious universities in my state just to attend a college in the same city as her.

Now here's the issue: Back in the early days of our relationship (2021), I went out once with a group of friends that included my ex. It wasn’t a one on one meetup, and there was absolutely nothing physical. But I never told my girlfriend about it right away, which was my mistake. Eventually she found out, and since then, it’s been a never ending problem.

To this day, she still brings up my ex's name in arguments and teases me about her constantly. She even checks my ex’s social media regularly and shows me her profile almost daily. I've had zero contact with my ex since that one meetup, and I’ve made it clear I’m not interested in her at all. That relationship was barely six months and is well behind me.

But my girlfriend is still extremely insecure. She doesn't let me visit a childhood friend of mine because his house is next to my ex's. She doesn’t want me attending any festivals or events in my own hometown because she fears I’ll "bump into" my ex. She even gets uncomfortable with me hanging out with my school friends, who are genuinely the only close friends I’ve had for years. I’ve barely made new friends since then because she gets upset when I try to hang out with anyone in college as well.

Here’s the thing when we’re together, we’re good. I take her out daily, spend quality time with her, take her on dates, eat out every evening, make time for her every day. But it seems like she expects me to cut off all social interactions that don’t include her, and that’s starting to affect my mental peace and my identity.

Today, she broke up with me again. She’s done this many times before, but usually we patch things up by the end of the day. This time feels different though. I don’t know whether I should try to fix this or finally let go.

I’m stuck between loving her and feeling like I’m being emotionally controlled. I’ve already made a lot of sacrifices, but now she’s asking me to give up even more my friendships, my freedom, and even my hometown experiences.

Reddit, what should I do? Is this something that can be worked through, or should I accept that it’s time to move on?