Please help.. I want this to work..

My boyfriend and I are really really close. We're almost like best friends. We can tell our problems to each other and are always supportive.. He calls me cute and beautiful and says I love you. But since the beginning of the year he's had so much stress it is unbelievable. Of course Im there for him but Im also there when he needs a verbal punching bag.. If something goes wrong in his life, it happens to be my fault and I get yelled at and all my flaws spill out of his mouth.. He is a great guy really.. And I know the old him is still in there somewhere.. But his life is just so stressing.. Im not sure if this is the right time for him to have a girlfriend because all im useful for in his eyes is being someone to lash out at. He will ignore me for days and even weeks. He'll tell me horrible things. He says our relationship isnt working because of me.. The weird thing is that he changes when he's mad.. Once he's just a bit mad, he becomes overly angry and I have to deal with it.. Once he's over himself he'll just say "Im such a douche, sorry" but its not enough.. He always hurts me and im used to him ignoring me and the fights.. But im getting sick of it.. I dont want him doing that to me! And I admit I can go over board now because now when it happens I phase out and when he tries to walk out on me because he wants to be alone and because its my fault (when its not) I tell him and do whatever I can for him to stay and explain what I had to do with any of it. But he always has it his way and leaves and ignores me for days. Even if I let him go on the first try he still does that crap.. He doesnt try putting in anything for the relationship anymore.. He threatens to leave or never see me again.. Help.. I cant take it anymore.. I love him to death but I cant stand it..

Hey there, your situation has a lot of similarity to my own, so I can totally empathise with you. Especially the verbal punching bag bit...when my boyfriend is angry or stressed, the most unbelievably horrible things can spill out of his mouth, and recently I've started retaliated with horrible words of my own (something which I never ever used to do). You can always defend him by saying that he's just stressed, but it still doesn't warrant the excuse that you have to take that sort of behaviour from him. You need to analyse the frequency of his bad behaviour, if it happens way more than the good behaviour, then you need to say to yourself...do you want to live like this for the next year, 2 years, 10 years? Sometimes actually it's our fault in a way that we allow this behaviour to continue. I know we stay because of the good memories and the good times, but if it's compromising your health then that's not the way to go. Mine has threatened to leave before and has packed his bags 3 times already. All you can do is continue supporting him as best as you can, and hopefully he'll see in time that you are really doing the best for him. Surround yourself with friends or keep yourself occupied, and come back here anytime if you need someone to talk to, stay strong x