I tried to break up with someone and was talked into staying when I was a younger. It was one of those stormy relationships two teenagers can end up in, where life is pain and the only thing you have is each other, etc. etc. It got to a point where the relationship wasn’t a good time any more but we were too co-dependent to do anything about it. I tried to break up with my boyfriend, but he was so upset and messed up over it and begged and persuaded me to stay. I thought, “Shit. He is really going to kill himself or something.” So I stuck around for a few more weeks, but only because I felt guilty and squeamish about causing someone else so much distress, and it was easier not to change the status quo.
Looking back, that was obviously the wrong thing to do. If someone seems too weak to make it without the relationship, the only way they can get stronger is a taking a few hard knocks. It’s not my responsibility to protect an ex from the emotions of me breaking up with them. Sticking around a little longer was a pretty gullible thing to do, and today I wouldn’t do it. I felt drained by this person’s neediness and manipulation, and resentful of the person.
Your boyfriend can only be responsible for himself- he should have the backbone to leave you if that’s what he really wants to do. However, what you did was wrong.