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Coping with ending toxic friendships

sympatheticOrange8782 December 4th, 2023
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Hi, I am writing to ask for advice about how to cope with guilt after ending toxic friendship. I struggle a lot to cope with it and Everytime I see them my anxiety goes through the roof. I ended this friendship after I found out that they lie to me and manipulate things to stress me out and then they ignore me when they are done using me for food and transportation. I ended it five months ago and they are a couple and the guy said he was so angry that he is shaking at me after I said I feel used by them. I immediately blocked them but still cannot fully clear my head. I saw them in a restaurant I did not expect to see them on Saturday and it triggered all kinds of emotions. I think that I am an empathetic and probably have borderline personality disorder and have often found myself feeling guilty for not doing enough for others. When I express myself often they guilt trip me and that was when I noticed the pattern of ignoring and using when not needed. I feel guilty that I did not tell them in person as I am terrified of confronting them. The guilt also because of feeling alone now and difficulty trusting anyone else. I was wondering if there could be coping methods that are very effective. I moved away as well last week to a place further from where they live. Hopefully that will help.

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sympatheticOrange8782 OP December 5th, 2023
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Many thanks. This is very useful. The drastic change in emotion is the most difficult as for a moment I feel guilty then afterwards I feel it caused me so much pain being close to them.