He left to go back home. Did he leave so we could end our relationship?

I was in a relationship with a guy who had been courting me for several months. Our relationship was only a month. He left a month after we started the relationship. One night he did something stupid involving his baby's mama and decided to leave to go back home (1,000 miles away). He said he was leaving because he hurts everyone he loves and doesn't mean to and I was the last thing he had and he didn't want to hurt me. He got on a plane about 4 days later. Neither one of us have much money, and I am going through some emotional problems with myself and want to get those fixed before I get into another relationship. He says he still loves me about once a week, and it feels like we still have a relationship. He gets jealous of any guy I do anything with, and I get jealous if he has a girlfriend, but I don't mind him sleeping with someone because it's hard for him to go without sex, and I can accept that. He's been gone for a year and 5 months. I want to see him soon, but I need to get myself fixed because I'm afraid he won't like me anymore. He said he didn't want to be in the same state as me because he had too many bad memories (was into the drug scene, etc.) and wanted to go to NYC so he could start a career in film. People keep asking me if I'm sure he was not escaping me. I'm very insecure, but I was always good to him, and he knew it. He tells me I'm the best thing that ever happened to him, we've brought up marriage a few times each. He says if I could be there with him we would be together. I just can't afford the coast right now until I finish my Nursing degree in the Midwest at a community college. He can't afford to eat, and I can't risk having no job and not being able to have money for either of us. I haven't told him about the emotional problems, but he seemed to accept me with my limitations while we were together. Do you think he was trying to escape me? If I ask him this, he will probably think I'm talking about him behind his back, and he hates that, but sometimes I feel like I need an outsider's insight. Did he try to escape me? Also do you think there's any hope of us getting back together?