Backstory: Met a guy on a dating app. Fell in love, moved in really fast, hit struggle quickly, and are now on a downward spiral that if not fixed will lead to our eventual breakup.

For anonymity's sake, let's call him AO, 20 years. I'm JN, 18 years.

Now AO is not necessarily a very emotional guy. He struggles severely with social anxiety, but excels in work environments and is adaptable. He puts on a constant front, which is the downside to his adaptability. He's then, understandably, not very good at communicating his needs outwardly towards me. He will when he really needs to, but struggles when he doesn't feel like the energy is worth the effort.

Now I, JN, am a very charming kind of guy. I'm good with my words, and have been told by others that I have a silent confidence that's pretty noticeable. However, I am very emotionally unstable in all truth. My confidence in public is mainly because I'm sick of feeling left behind and want to take my life seriously now, because I wasted my teens job and school hopping. I have always had mental health issues, from early childhood until present day. I, with my close friends and family, often come across as annoying because I am so emotionally attached to them that I can't chill out, I always want to be around them, constantly have something to conversate with them about, and can't stay quiet for the life of me unless I'm high as fuuuuzzz.

He wanted a relationship with me because he felt my emotions cancelled out his inability to be as emotional as most people. We bring out the brightness and smiles in each other often. We are overall best friends and lovers, and my love for him is so much more than his for me that it often makes him uncomfortable. To note, my love language is touch. I get touch starved easily, and he doesn't like touch the same way I do.

I agreed to back off a bit and feel things out some more with him tonight. It just hurts feeling like my boyfriend cannot be supportive of my efforts to move forward in life with him and achieve our goals, nor can he be emotionally available for me very often. He gives me the silent treatment just because he doesn't want to talk, and displays very distance behaviors. The problem is, it's always been like this at some capacity. Now it's just more.

Before anyone gives me the "he's cheating" line, he is so socially awkward and anxious that he would have a significant barrier to cross in doing that, like me cheating myself, which I will never do. Ever. Period. I'm his first boyfriend, his first everything.

Aside from giving him space, what can I do to strengthen our bond a bit more and make our relationship a bit more stable? Advice needed.

TLDR- unemotional him doesn't mix with touchy me and I wanna make things better. How?