When Reddit user Remote-Breath-70 flew overseas to join his long-distance girlfriend on a group vacation, he expected excitement, connection and time together. In a post on Reddit, he explained that after months of anticipation and travel planning, she barely acknowledged him. I'm still nice and treat her with respect, but besides that, I don’t engage unless I need to. The silence the OP experienced fits patterns identified by relationship researchers, and according to one Newsweek article, romantic dissatisfaction doesn’t usually happen suddenly. “Once this terminal phase is reached, the relationship is doomed to come to an end,” Bühler said.