[eclairparty98]

I'm very sad to say one of my best friends thinks it's best that we both go our seperate ways. They've been feeling left out recently as I've been going out a lot with one of my other friends - I completely understand why he would feel left out.. But he doesn't always want to leave his house and as he hasn't been working in ages, he can't really afford to do certain things with me. So it's not as if I've deliberately left him out and haven't tried to be there for him!!

This is particularly sad because for a long time, it was just me and him and after he moved away, we could only voice note each other over WhatsApp.. We would chat about everything all day, we are very much the same and have been there for each other through lots.. He doesn't really have any other friends and now he's in a new town, he's completely isolated.. I should note my friend and me both have had challenges with our mental health and still do so there's always been some deeper common ground /understanding of each other..

In some ways I always only ever really felt comfortable confiding into this friend above any of my other friends because we're both autistic.. I always felt more understood and less judged.. And now that he seems to be upset about my new friendships, he's wanting to cut ties.. It's all very sad but I'm prepared to accept this. I have no hard feelings and I still care about my friend, I'm sad to see them go.
What are your experiences with losing friends and dealing with the loss afterwards??

[Bill3]

[BorisTheAnimal]

Sometimes it hard but like families, some people just need to go their separate ways. However, could you make time for this friend instead of going your separate ways?

[Rive.]

You seem like a good friend.

If he does not want to work it out with you, because he seems rather insecure... maybe even jealous(?), it seems to be his loss. A good friend would not be so reactive.

[MickeyCheeky]

So Sorry for what you're going through! Please Do not give up! Hugs. i agree with the other wise and wonderful posters that you do seem like a Good Friend based on what you wrote at least. It does seem like you're doing what you can to make sure he's still in your circle but it doesn't depend on you only i believe. Perhaps try to make him more involved if possible and to spend some more time with him but if he doesn't want to go then i am afraid there isn't much else you can do. Sorry if my post isn't really helpful but i Hope things will improve really soon for everyone. Please do update us if possible if you want to obviously. Please Do your best. Love. Stay Safe. Sending many Safe, warm hugs to BOTH you, @eclairparty98, your Family, your Friends and ALL of your Loved Ones! Keep fighting and keep rocking NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, OK?!

[RoxanneToto]

I’m really sorry about this, and I agree that you sound like a good friend. I’m kind of on the opposite side to you, in that I was the one who cut ties with my best friend, 8 months ago. It’s not something I did lightly, and sometimes I think about her and wish things could have been different, but I still think it was the right choice for me. I think we’d just come to a point where we couldn’t fix the issues we had within the friendship. I do regret the fact it hurt her, I’m not someone who enjoys hurting others even when it’s unavoidable.

Aw, I'm sorry EclairParty. Perhaps this is not the end. Perhaps he just needs a break. But if it is the end, it's really refreshing to hear that you wish him well, and of course you will miss him. You sound like your doing well.

[Discombobulated]

I'm wondering if creating a little space might help here?

It sounds possible to me your friend might be cutting himself off, is it possible he has low self esteem? Does he feel threatened by these other friends?

It does sound like this has been a supportive friendship and if it were me I'd want to hang on to it, but of course only you know whether that would be right for you both.

[poshgirl]

Nearly 16 years ago, I ended a longstanding friendship. We'd known each other since senior school.

She was the boss in her marriage. Her husband unable to make many decisions for himself because of her attitude. She tried to dictate how I behaved in my relationship. That's when I began to question where the friendship was going.

The final straw came when my niece was born. We hadn't had much contact so it was around six weeks when friend contacted me. Despite having children herself, she was really sarcastic. It was then that I made the decision to call a halt. I never contacted her to explain so she obviously knew the friendship was over.