When Friendship hurts…

Friends are relatives we choose for ourselves. Yet we sometimes feel they aren't sincere to us or loyal or fair to us. Do you ever find yourself asking the questions: is there something wrong with me or is it I’m surrounded by awful human beings? Should I give up on making friends altogether?

The answer is no. No human is perfect. We aren't perfect and our friends aren't perfect. We can have high expectations attached to a friend, and when they don't meet that expectation, we get hurt and either think that the friendship is over or our friend wants to end it or that we should end it.

If we take a step back, breathe, and give ourselves a moment to reevaluate the situation, we may realize that our friend just like any flawed human did not mean to intentionally hurt us by doing something or not doing something.

In no way am I advising to keep toxic friendships around, but I am speaking about decent friends that make us feel abandoned in certain situations. Just remember to take a step back and reassess the situation before deciding whether this friend is toxic or if it's just something on their end that had nothing to do with us that made them behave in an uncaring way...

I would love to talk to you about this some more in therapy. Hit the Get Started button to fill out a prescreen form.