Not expressing my feelings?

[FlipsideJohn]

Hi everyone, I've been with my girlfriend for about 7 months and yesterday an issue surfaced, which was basically I don't show/express my feelings which makes her scared to do the same. We haven't said the words I love you, which I think is the reason why she brought this up.

 

She told me last night that she knows I'm scared of getting hurt so she gets nervous. She'll think about telling me stuff like how much she cares about me and she doesn't want me to feel obligated to say something back if I dont mean it, or that I dont feel relatively close to how she feels, and she then doesn't want to get hurt if I don't feel this way as well.

 

I've been thinking about this a lot last night and I think I'm like this for a few reasons:

1. Shes going to college (local university) and there has already been several guys inviting her to parties and I feel like I'm just emotionally distancing myself in case she leaves/cheats on me with these other guys.

2. She's not really expressing her feelings as well. I can't think of a time she expressed a feeling/emotion that I didn't say back.

4. I don't want to be vulnerable/put myself out there

 

I'm going to talk about this with her probably tomorrow and I just need some help in figuring all this out. I know you guys don't know me but I'm sure there are others who have had a similar issue.

So my questions are:

How can I open up to her?

How I express my feelings/emotions?

What should I be doing differently?

-Thanks in advanced, I know I wrote so much but I could really use some help.