During some very bad times recently I realized that none of my friends (none!) were there for me.

What I really needed was for them to proactively help me. I mean, I could call them and they'd listen. But that felt like they were just doing what they had to. What I really needed was them to reach out to me, to check in on me, to suggest doing things together to help me.

I was in crisis mode. I was falling apart. I outright told them what I needed. Not one ever did any of those things.

So I decided they weren't really friends. I loved them once, but now they're just strangers. I purged them from my emotional life. It's not that I feel like now I don't have friends. I feel like I haven't had friends in a long time and am only now just realizing it.

Have you ever done a bulk purge like that? Like, not just divorcing yourself from one person, but wholesale cleaned out the mental list of people you think of as part of your life?