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"While most (though certainly not all) men experience some degree of commitment phobia, it is still widely and aggressively frowned upon. Much of the dating and relationship advice available to women will tell them that men can, and in fact have to be, tricked out of their fear of settling down. Surely men couldn&amp;#39;t have reasons to fear commitment, right? It&amp;#39;s simply a bump in the road to be run over roughshod.\nPinterestFacebookclose-up of a couple holding hands\nPHOTO: Getty ImagesBeing a bit spooked when it comes to partnering up actually may not be completely irrational or even anti-relationship. It&amp;#39;s likely that there may be reasonable concerns behind the hesitation which should be respected and addressed. For example:\nThe Fear: &amp;quot;Half of all marriages in the US end in divorce.&amp;quot;\nEveryone&amp;#39;s heard this, right? Actually, it&amp;#39;s more like 40-50 percent of all first marriages, 60-70% of all second marriages and 75% of all third marriages. Pretty bleak. It doesn&amp;#39;t mean, of course that it can&amp;#39;t work for you, but it does mean that being more than a little cautious is, in no way, irrational.\n__How To Address It:__If you&amp;#39;re on the verge of commiting, don&amp;#39;t be afraid to hash it all out. If there are things that you suspect are going to bother you down the road, get them out in the open and see how your partner reacts. You may find that you&amp;#39;re actually mostly on the same page, but if not, it&amp;#39;s better to know now, right?\nThe Fear: &amp;quot;The 180&amp;quot;\nWe&amp;#39;ve seen it happen too many times&amp;#8212;a person is fun, loving, engaged, charming and then, as soon as you make it official, they flip on you. They become critical, sedentary, or just plain mean. How can we possibly know that it won&amp;#39;t happen to us?\n__How to address it:__Trust, but watch for red flags. They&amp;#39;re usually there. Are they quick to anger, weird around your friends, or overly enthusiastic about you? Ask them about their past relationships. You don&amp;#39;t have to pry, but you&amp;#39;re entitled to an outline of how and why those relationships ended before you get in the foxhole with them.\nThe Fear: Boring sex\nIt&amp;#39;s a fact&amp;#8212;sex often becomes less exciting and less frequent when you go from dating to bf/gf. It doesn&amp;#39;t have to, though.\n__\nHow to address it: __Make a pact. &amp;quot;I promise that if we&amp;#39;re not having some kind of sexual contact at least X times per week, we&amp;#39;ll work to change that.&amp;quot; Having an agreement that was made when things were good, will help you to navaigate if things get bad.\nThe Fear: The Bubble\nHow many time have you booed up with someone and found yourself spending zero time around your friends? While there&amp;#39;s often a lot of wonderful stuff happening inside that bubble, it&amp;#39;s not going to be enough for either of you in the long run. You&amp;#39;ll end up feeling like your partner is bring you down.\nHow to address it: Talk to your friends ahead of time&amp;#8212;&amp;quot;I really like this person and I want to go for it, but I&amp;#39;m afraid that we&amp;#39;re gonna do the bubble thing. Will you be my lifeline?&amp;quot; They&amp;#39;ll get it. Setting aside at least one night a week that you spend doing something social with someone other than your partner will help, too.\nThe Fear: Wasting precious time\nSure, you like this person, but what if, years down the road, you find out they&amp;#39;re not the one. Not only will you end up hurting them (which feels terrible) but you may have missed an opportunity with someone else along the way. What if they were the one? What do you do then?\n__How to address it:__Go on lots of dates. Even if you find that you like someone, keep dating until you&amp;#39;ve both decided to be exclusive. Through meeting more people, you&amp;#39;ll either realize that this person is not right for you or that they really are.\nThe Fear: You&amp;#39;re going to screw it up\nYeah. You might. Especially if you&amp;#39;re only pretending to be ready for a relationship. You could really make a mess. You may have a history of screwing up, which makes it hard to believe that you won&amp;#39;t again.\n__How to address it:__You&amp;#39;ve got to be upfront about it. Talk to your partner about your relationship history and about your doubts about your own abilities. It may be that they actually need a little less, or something different from you than you thought. If your partner knows what your patterns are, they may be able to help you not to fall into them again.\n*--Written by Scott Alden for HowAboutWe.com\n*Ladies, have your own reasons for not committing to a relationship? Share them below!\nMore from HowAboutWe:\n 5 Imperfections That Guys Find Totally Hot\n 11 Ways To Be Terrible At Sex\n The Dating Wire: The Shy Girl&amp;#39;s Guide To Sex!\nMore Ways to Get Glamour:\nNEW! Now You Can Read Glamour on Flipboard!\nVisit ShopGlamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! \nDownload Glamour Magazine for your iPad--print subscribers, it&amp;#39;s now part of your subscription plan!\nEnter the latest Glamour sweepstakes!\nFollow us on Twitter.\nPhoto: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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