[Fay1]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum. A good of friend of mine has been missing for 4 months abroad. He has no history of mental health problems but basically quit his job, left his appartment with nothing but his passport, closed down all his e-mail accounts etc and has been basically uncontactable since.

There are indications that something might have been wrong to those who was living with him and his girlfriend.

Has this happened to anyone else? He has been gone now for 4 months and I am worried sick - it's really out of character and there is nothing that anyone can do (he has no diagnosis and commited no crime).

Would welcome hearing about any similar stories - I am of course hoping for a happy ending to this story at some point soon.

First off, welcome to PC! It's likely that your friend went through some kind of trauma and simply wanted to get away. It sucks to go through what your going through, but at the same time, I find it easy to sympathize with both you and your friend and here is why:

I'm considering doing something similar soon when I save up some more money. Most of my family are heartless people who don't care and I'm desperate to start a new life and be free from trauma incurred from an abusive past finally, so I'm strongly considering kicking all but my closest friends out my my life, changing my name, phone number, email addresses, and leaving the state.

Dear Fay1, I'm so sorry to hear that you and the friends and family of the friend you mentioned are going through so much worry.

From the information you provided, it does seem that your friend left with no goodbye purposely. If his family or his girlfriend has enough info. to access his banking information, you might be able to get some info. this way. (But you have probably already thought of that.)

I had a close friend disappear once similarly, but he did have a history of mental health problems. He turned up after a few weeks, but his children and friends were worried sick in the meantime.

I hope that he will get in contact soon.

[Fay1]

The thing is he has a huge number of great friends and is a really loving person. We suspect that he had some delusions as he was starting to think people were doing to him behind his back (fantasy, not reality) and his housemate said that before he disappeared he was spending days in his room, come out looking white as a ghost and say he was imagining the unimaginable (? Possible voices or hallucinations?). The day he disappeared he was apparently supposed to go for a mental health assessment. He has been a long term cannabis user as well as some other drugs but generally an overwhelmingly happy, loving person who loved his friends and family and loved socializing. The pain of him being away is awful, I can't really describe it but at the moment, not coping very well and just hoping everyday that something in his condition changes.

Darknessismyfriend: I'm sorry to hear what you have been through - the only advice I can give is that you are always free to go and live where you want and include those you want in your life and exclude others - for example, I live abroad, I believe people are free to do what they want but I also think it's good to tell people you are going to live elsewhere - the last thing you want is people searching for you if you want to avoid them

[IceCreamKid]

Are you sure he actually went abroad? Has anyone reported him missing to the local police? That would be my first step.

[Fay1]

Yes he has been reported missing and is for sure abroad