I posted in here a couple weeks back about a summer fling that ended. I'm home now, and while we still talk a bit daily I was pretty upset about things ending. 

I went out last week with a friend from high school. Being self-destructive because of my last relationship ending, I made out with a random guy there, not expecting/wanting to see him again. Long story short, he found me on a dating app the next day by random luck, we started talking, have been texting/etc, went out last night and had a really fun time. Turns out we have similar personalities, work in closely related fields, and have great sexual chemistry. 

It was pretty self-destructive of me to even talk to/go out with this guy while still recovering from my last thing, and this is a well-established pattern of behavior for me. I am still unable to separate romantic feelings from sexual attraction, and have developed feelings for him. 

It is hurting me a lot to have my mood be dependent on whether or not someone I'm interested in is texting me back/etc again. I desperately just want to be a normal adult who dates casually. I genuinely like this guy as a person and would like to stay in some form of contact (and wouldn't mind seeing him again), but I just can't deal with the emotional dependance that comes with it. I'm about to enter a very high-stress period of my life (finishing undergrad, applying to grad school), and I can't afford to have any distractions. 

What do I do? Do I tell him we can't talk anymore, and then cut off things completely? He would likely be confused - after all, to a non-borderline person, what we're doing is completely casual and I don't know if he would understand. A big part of me wants to continue talking to him and let the feelings eat away at me, but I know that's not healthy or what I need right now. Is there any way I can be blunt about how I feel without (a) totally freaking this poor guy out or (b) burning bridges with someone I like as a person? 
