Many people simply accept that relationships lose their spark with time. The initial intensity diminishes, the butterflies calm down, and eventually you settle into something stable, comfortable, and routine. That apparently unromantic transition to feeling more like roommates than lovers isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, “if you enter any relationship expecting the honeymoon stage to last forever, you’ll be greatly disappointed,” says Erika Ettin, a New York City–based dating coach and founder of A Little Nudge, an online dating consultancy. However, in some instances, a creeping sense of boredom stems from more than mere stability. Enter parallel life syndrome. As the name suggests, it’s a typical pattern in which couples are no longer truly sharing a life—they’re merely coexisting alongside one another. You know, running alongside one another without crossing. Their schedules away from home hardly overlap—one partner heads to the gym, the other hangs out at a café. Friend groups are kept separate.
